Stressed walnut tree?

gman

Hi, I live in the inner Nth East suburbs of Adelaide, and have a large walnut tree in my back yard. Since buying the house approx 5 years ago, the tree had always been very healthy, and had lots of walnuts. Last spring, it seemed to be very late getting it's leaves, and when they came, one major section of the tree just never grew them. I watered around the dripline of the tree as much as I could and also used some seasol, also around the entire dripline, but it didn't seem to make any difference. It's spring again, and this year the winter that just finished was a lot wetter, but a month into spring and not a sign of any leaves yet. I have attached a pic taken around late autumn this year (roughly late april, early june) showing the section of tree that never grew leaves. Is this tree likely to bounce back? - or do I need to take some drastic action to save it? Would cutting off the offending branches be a good idea? I'd prefer not to do this if possible, as it accounts for probably around 25% of the tree's foliage.
Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,

Grant.

gman

Sorry, I only realised after I posted my thread, that the pic of the walnut tree had not been attached due to being too big. I have resized it, and hopefully now it will work!

Attached Thumbnails

 

Eric Frei

Scrath the bark on the dead looking branch and see what's beneath, if it's dead you'll know.

If dead, then remove the branch and prune to target (AS4373).

It also looks burined, like it has had fill put around it.

The lawn is a competitor, maybe some-one returfed and damaged roots, or perhaps a pipe was laid etc?

Mulch is a tree's friend, lawn can be bit of an enemy. Some detective work to be done for that tree yet.

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gman

Hi, and thanks for your help.

In the last (approx.) 5 years I have lived here, there has been no underground activity near the tree at all - no pipes laid, no re-turfing. I have not put any kind of "fill" around it - although I'm not 100% sure what you mean by this, but I have put nothing around it.
Basically, all I have ever done is mow the lawn around it, and up until recently it was always very healthy, with loads of walnuts every year.
I pruned it back a bit a couple of years ago, when some of the branches started knocking on the adjacent gazebo, and garden shed, but that's it.
When you say it looks "Burined" - I don't know what this means..... perhaps you meant to type "Burned"...?
Do I need an arborist to come and look at it? - do you know anyone here in Adelaide?
Again, thanks heaps for your help.
Cheers,

Grant.

derwoodii

Er have you suspected possums chewin it. Its not an typical possie chewin looker but consider this or rats a maybe cause. You be able to tell by the smell or little toothy chews in the twigs. I seen this before with other fruit trees. This year my own apples been late bloomin lookin close I find all the buds have been eaten away. Other than that see if shes green under the bark of that leafless limb. Use you nail to tear a wee bit o bark back, if brown a prob if green its got a chance.