Morning all,

I have an Acer palmatum (Sango-kaku) that i've had for about 18 months now and all has been well until yesterday when i noticed that one of the branches has gone black and appears to have some sort of fungus on it. All the leaves on all the black branches have died as well.

Please see picture for more details.

http://zarch.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_3043.JPG

I suppose there are 2 options. One would be to treat the problem, but with what? and Two would be to removed the problem branch, but where do i make the cut? I'd have thought under the split where the first blackness appears and lose the whole upper sections, but can anyone advise please?? Obviously i dont want whatever it is to spread any further so i'm looking to sort this out asap.

Many thanks for your time.

Cheers