Dying Silver Birch
 

Hello, I am new to this forum & a novice gardener, but would appreciate some advice for my dying tree!
I have a young silver birch that appears to be dying.
It is in a UK city garden, approx 8feet high and is in between a very young maple and a young hornbeam, both of which are fine.
We planted it when it was about 5 feet high and for the last few years it has grown very well, but this year the leaves are very small and sickly and over the last few weeks, 80% of them have gone crispy brown. The rest are small but still green. The bark has an orange/brown tinge.
I am watering it regularly and have given some plant feed.
I was looking on the web and one suggestion might be 'bronze borer'? Or is that not found in the UK?
Another said that a late frost in Spring might have damaged the leaf buds, but I can't recall any heavy frost.

I would appreciate any help! Thankyou

Dying Silver Birch
 

On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 suziliz wrote:


Hello, I am new to this forum & a novice gardener, but would appreciate
some advice for my dying tree!
I have a young silver birch that appears to be dying.
It is in a UK city garden, approx 8feet high and is in between a very
young maple and a young hornbeam, both of which are fine.
We planted it when it was about 5 feet high and for the last few years
it has grown very well, but this year the leaves are very small and
sickly and over the last few weeks, 80% of them have gone crispy brown.
The rest are small but still green. The bark has an orange/brown tinge.
I am watering it regularly and have given some plant feed.

Welcome to uk.rec.gardening!

My first thought was that it isn't getting enough water but then you say
about the bark's orange/brown tinge. This might help:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcin072.pdf/$FILE/fcin072.pdf

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk

Dying Silver Birch
 

In article ,
David Rance wrote:
On Fri, 9 Jul 2010 suziliz wrote:

Hello, I am new to this forum & a novice gardener, but would appreciate
some advice for my dying tree!
I have a young silver birch that appears to be dying.
It is in a UK city garden, approx 8feet high and is in between a very
young maple and a young hornbeam, both of which are fine.
We planted it when it was about 5 feet high and for the last few years
it has grown very well, but this year the leaves are very small and
sickly and over the last few weeks, 80% of them have gone crispy brown.
The rest are small but still green. The bark has an orange/brown tinge.
I am watering it regularly and have given some plant feed.

Welcome to uk.rec.gardening!

My first thought was that it isn't getting enough water but then you say
about the bark's orange/brown tinge. This might help:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcin072.pdf/$FILE/fcin072.pdf

Birches don't do very well in fertile soils, and a lot of them die
for all sorts of reasons. They are adapted to infertile ones.
The simple answer is that it is beyond hope, so remove it and
replace it with something else.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.