Tree Diseases: Common Types & Identification Tips
Discover common tree diseases and learn how to identify them. Protect your trees with expert tips and practical solutions for maintaining a healthy landscape.
Trees, essential to our ecosystems, can be susceptible to various illnesses, ranging from minor ornamental defects to significant dangers that can limit productivity or even kill the tree.
Diseases can spread when a tree’s natural defenses are compromised, devastating populations of trees within the forest as well as individual trees. There’s no need to freak out, even though peculiar bark characteristics or leaf stains could look frightening.
This blog will teach you about tree disease identification and how you can efficiently treat common tree diseases and pests.
Common Tree Diseases and Their Symptoms
If you know about specific tree diseases and their symptoms, you may effectively manage and even protect your trees against these ailments. The following provides a thorough overview of some common tree diseases, their signs, and potential treatment options:
1. Anthracnose
Anthracnose is a fungal tree disease that affects sycamores, blooming dogwoods, and other trees. It primarily targets leaves, twigs, flowers, and fruits, which are essential components of plants and plant products. The indications and their strength may vary depending on the host species and the type of fungus involved.
Symptoms:
Sycamore Anthracnose causes early leaf abscission and twig die-back, as well as the formation of bunch-like malformations known as bush witch’s brooms.
Dogwood Anthracnose attacks all aerial sections of the tree, causing defoliation, branch dieback, and, in the worst-case scenario, the tree’s death.
Management:
Sycamore: Inject trunks with systemic fungicides such as thiabendazole, or apply fungicides beginning two weeks before bud break.
Dogwood: Apply fungicides as soon as the buds split and keep up the spraying throughout the growing season. One good choice is propiconazole. To reduce the spread of disease, practice good cleanliness.
2. Apple Scab
Crabapple trees are liable to the early-season disease known as apple scab, however, some cultivars are more resilient than others. It results in sores on leaves that resemble scabs and early leaf drops.
Symptoms:
Lesions on leaves that are rough and black and cause early defoliation.
Management:
To control the disease successfully and for aesthetic reasons, start using fungicides like fenarimol at bud break.
3. Cedar Rusts
A family of fungi known as cedar rusts infect plants, including hawthorns and crabapples, which belong to the Rosaceae family. For this fungus to complete its life cycle, junipers serve as a backup host.
Symptoms:
Hawthorns and Crabapples: Possible dieback of twigs and leaf patches that are orange or rust in color.
Junipers: Formation of structures that produce spores.
Management:
Whenever bud break occurs or juniper rust galls form, treat dry hosts with fungicides containing active chemicals, such as triadimefon. Reduce the pressure of illness by pruning out rust galls on junipers.
4. Diplodia Tip Blight
Austrian pine and other pine species are the main victims of diplodia tip blight. It begins at the base of the tree and moves uphill, causing witches’ brooms to form and needle death.
Symptoms:
Excessive resin, partially extended needles on dead shoots, and black fruiting structures on needles and cones.
Management:
To control the disease, remove affected branches and start applying fungicides containing thiophanate-methyl at bud swell.
5. Dothistroma Needle Blight
Pine trees that suffer from Dothistroma needle blight are prone to early leaf loss, yellowing of the needles, and premature death of the tips. In North America, it affects more than 35 different pine species and hybrids.
Symptoms:
Tip dieback and overall needle loss are the next steps after yellow or tan bands on needles.
Management:
Apply fungicides at bud break, using preparations that contain mancozeb and copper hydroxide. To control the illness, remove branches that are seriously diseased.
6. Lethal Yellowing of Palm
A deadly illness known as lethal yellowing affects palms, especially coconuts and date palms from the Canary Islands. It causes a rapid decline in tree health and is caused by a phytoplasma that is spread by planthoppers.
Symptoms:
Yellowing of the foliage, early fruit drop, and blossom death. Within three to five months, infected hands usually fade away.
Management:
Oxytetracycline hydrochloride is effective for preventive as well as curative purposes. Some ways of prevention include: Removing moderately infected palms and replanting with palms that are resistant to the disease.
7. Oak Wilt
More than 20 species of oak are subject to the deadly fungus that causes oak wilt. It causes systemic infection through root grafts and insects.
Symptoms:
White and Red Oaks: early defoliation, fast discoloration, and wilting of the leaves.
Live oaks: darkening of the veins, then loss of leaves. The vascular discoloration is one of the diagnostic features.
Management:
During the growing season, apply systemic fungicides such as propiconazole to trees of the white oak family. Once infested, red oaks cannot be properly treated. Steer clear of pruning during the growing season as part of prevention.
8. Powdery Mildew
A white, powdery layer covers leaves, stems, and flowers in powdery mildew, a fungal disease. Numerous types of trees and shrubs are impacted by it.
Symptoms:
White fungal development on immature tissue results in stunting, early defoliation, and deformation of leaves and shoots. Flower production on roses could be decreased.
Management:
Select hardy cultivars, steer clear of shady or congested locations, and uphold proper hygiene. When symptoms initially occur, apply fungicides such as triadimefon.
9. Photinia Leaf Spot
For red tip photinia and allied species, photinia leaf spot is a serious problem, particularly in the South. On leaves, stems, and fruit, it starts as tiny, dark crimson dots.
Symptoms:
Defoliation results from dark red dots on vegetation that grow into larger patches with gray centers.
Management:
Invest in disease-free plants and maintain proper hygiene. Fungicides such as propiconazole should be used at bud break and continued until leaf maturity. Planting resistant cultivars can also be beneficial.
10. Thousand Canker Disease
In the Western United States, walnut trees are the main target of thousand canker disease. Cannibal twig beetles disseminate the disease, which causes cankers to appear.
Symptoms:
To girdle branches and stems, little cankers assemble. Trees may exhibit signs of wilting and yellowing of the upper foliage for years prior to a decline.
Management:
Currently, there are no pharmacological therapies available for this illness. In the case of trees, indications of the illness show, and the trees are likely to die within three years. Controlling this insect vector is critical, but the most effective methods are currently being investigated.
Hire Professionals to Diagnose and Manage Tree Diseases
When trees are infected with diseases, it is important for a person handling these trees to call for help from a professional to get the best diagnosis and cure for the tree diseases. Only professional staff such as certified arborists and tree care experts have the proper skills and equipment to determine which disease has affected your trees.
More specifically, professionals can accurately treat trees with the right fungicides or others and minimize the risk of damage to the tree and the surrounding environment.
At Eye Candy Lawn Care Company, we know the need to involve a professional in the treatment of trees. As a team of certified arborists, our focus is on timely and accurate recognition of tree diseases along with their efficient handling.
Our skilled team and competent use of modern methods give Tree Pruning a healthy and longer life to your trees and also beautify the site of your landscape.
