Help. My white cedar appears to be dying

MadCatz

Hello all,

I'm new here and am hoping that someone can help me. My white cedar appears to be dying.

About 5 days ago we had some strong winds overnight. The next day I saw that the white cedar had lost many of its leaves - not all over the whole tree, but in large affected sections.

Since then, in the affected sections, the remaining leaves have died on the branches.

On first glance, it looked as though the affected section was only the whole of the lower large branch (protuding towards the camera in the nearly-whole-of-tree photos). However, on closer inspection, other sections of the tree are affected as well.

Could you please let me know what you think is killing my tree and what I can do about it.

I'm not if it is related, but earlier in spring, when the tree was growing its purple-coloured new leaves, the whole of the lower branch was significantly slower than the rest of the tree in budding and generating the new leaves.

I have attached some images of my tree and its leaves.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Attached Thumbnails

           

   

Victor Lindsay

Maybe,

Shoot blight - Cedars are susceptible to a shoot blight caused by the fungus Pestalotiopsis funerea. This fungus has been associated with tip blight, twig dieback, and stem cankers, on a variety of hosts. Infections on cedars usually start at the tips of the foliage and progress toward the trunk. P. funerea is common on foliage damaged by freezing, sunscald, and other environmental factors. As it is usually a secondary invader, maintaining cedars in a healthy condition will prevent or minimize shoot blight development.

Or,

Leaf blight causes brown spots on the leaves in late spring. The affected foliage appears scorched, then drops

Eric Frei

One side seems worse, is that the side the wind was from?

Often if the damage is one side then also something might have happened that side with soil/roots.

Could be a drain was "eeled" out then poison chucked down etc.

Give it lots of water and some Seasol, it might grow new leaves.

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MadCatz

Thanks for your suggestion, vl2007. If indeed it is shoot blight caused by this fungus, how do I treat that?

MadCatz

Eric, the side with the most damage faces almost due north, whereas the wind would have been from the south-west.

Re the poisoning suggestion, I had wondered about that, but the most affected side faces our house and so should be less susceptible to something outside the property. We haven't had any plumbing work done and the only poisoning was some spraying of weeds behind the wire fence that you can see in the second photo. The lawn-mowing guys spray from time to time to keep the weeds down, but even the weeds don't keel over and die after spraying sometimes, so I'm guessing it's not that strong.

If the tree has been affected by poisoning, is that a death sentence or something it can recover from?

I'll have to get some Seasol and try that. Thanks.

Eric Frei

Lots of water to flush it out.

I suspect something like that happened. any pools overflowed nearby etc?

There'll be a reason. I have seen a huge fig half dead on one side, that side had sewer work done.

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TreeWorker

At the end of the day, you're not going to win a battle against mother nature. Fungal pathogens will win every time. You can prolong the life of a tree, but YOU can't save it once it's been infected in my opinion. Let the tree do it's compartmentalization business.

Victor Lindsay

I successfully treated bud rot, (Phytophthora sp./spp.) on mixed species of palms in 2008. The palms are healthy today, althougth i do treat every year during our rainy season.

Although i have only treated Monocots and not Dicots for fungi pathogens, I don't see why Dicots could not be successfully treated.

Here is the diagnosis from the lab,
DIAGNOSTIC REPORT
Page 1 of 1
Sample # 0800070
Host Palms
Received 1/28/2008
County Monroe
TREC Plant Diagnostic Clinic at Homestead
18905 S.W. 280th Street
Homestead FL 33031
Tel: 305-246-7001
Fax: 305-246-7003
Diagnosis and Recommendations:
Host/Habitat Palms (Mixed species)
Diagnosis/ID Confirmed for Phytophthora Bud Rot (Phytophthora sp./spp.)
Final Report:
This pathogen is spread primarily by water and it's recommended to use drip irrigation or sprinkler heads
positioned below the palm canopy to reduce the chance of foliar infection (bud/crown). To control
Phytophthora apply one of the following labeled pesticides according to the manufacturer. It's
recommended to treat surrounding palms in the same landscape as a preventative. If it's possible apply
the fungicide as a bud drench. Promote optimal plant health through proper fertilization and irrigation.
Please contact your local county agent, Kim Gabel for further questions at 305-292-4501.
ALIETTE (Fosetyl-Al)
BANOL (Propamocarb hydrochloride)
BANROT (Etridiozole; Thiophanate-methyl)
FOSPHITE FUNGICIDE (Potassium phosphite)
SOILGAURD (Gliocladium virens G1-21)
SUBDUE MAXX (Mefenoxam)
Aaron Palmateer (ajp@ufl.edu)
For TREC Plant Diagnostic Clinic at Homestead Sample Completed Date: 2/10/2008
Modified Date: 2/10/2008

TreeWorker

Good Work! Dicots are much more complex though hey.

Victor Lindsay

I think Dicots would be easer to treat, they have a cambium. I have treated over 30 Gumbo Limbo trees using a basal trunk treatment to kill white fly. The chemical i use has a residual up to two years...the same chemical and treatment techqniue use for EAB.