Hello! I am a new member here on UBC Botanical. I found this forum while searching for information about a couple of sick trees in our front yard. We're not sure what species of tree they are, though we think they might be apricots. This is our second year in this house, which is a real fixer-upper. Last year we had to focus on home repairs and weren't able to pay any attention to the yard situation. Last year we noticed that one of the trees produced two pieces of fruit, both of which were a light orange color, but they were too high up for us to get a very good look at them. This spring and summer we've been able to turn our attention to the yard, and have discovered a variety of fruit and nut trees that the previous owners did not mention or incorrectly identified. We have a beautiful (and HUGE) hazelnut back behind the garage (previous owners said it was "some kind of walnut"), a plum tree (previous owners apparently didn't know this was a fruiting tree, or if they did, they didn't mention it), etc. In addition, we've discovered that these two trees at the front of our yard have some kind of parasite or infection. The larger tree (which this year has only three very small, under-developed fruit on it) seems to be much farther along. The smaller tree has quite a few fruit, which is surprising, because it was badly damaged in a snow storm this past winter. It also does not seem to be as far along in whatever infection/problem this is. We've checked underneath some of the gummosis on the smaller tree for borer holes, and found no signs of them. The sap appears to be coming from splits in the bark. Additionally, there are thousands of tiny brown things that look like eggs underneath the loose bark on some areas of the trees. We can't determine what they are. They might be a fungal body of some kind, but they're very loose and fall apart when touched. Peeling back the bark under some of these areas on a dead section of tree (from the storm damage - we're waiting until winter to remove it) revealed some signs of beetle activity, but it was minor, and not girdling. Both tree seem to have horizontal orange lines on them (shown in the photos) that are primarily prevalent in areas where the bark splitting and sap leakage are occurring. I suspect this might be some form of fungus (reproductive structure?) or canker, but I'm really just guessing. These lines are definitely not part of the normal bark pattern on these trees. We've noticed strange behavior from daddy long-legs spiders on both of these trees. They seem to be "staking out" the splits in the bark, and also the areas where the sap is leaking. I don't know if this is related. There are an unusually high number of them. Finally, the larger tree has some kind of what we suspect is root rot at the base. One entire half of the trunk appears to be gone (determined by probing) beneath a coating of sap. Both Trees http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree01.JPG Close-Ups of Larger Tree http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree02.JPG http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree03.JPG http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree04.JPG http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree05.JPG http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree06.JPG http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree07.JPG Close-Ups of Smaller Tree http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree08.JPG http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree09.JPG http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree10.JPG Fruit on Smaller Tree http://kiyakotari.com/image/DOA/Tree11.JPG Any assistance or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated! We're new to the challenges of home ownership and caring for anything larger than a houseplant, and definitely weren't prepared to inherit two severely ill trees from the previous owners.
Both trees appear to be plums, possibly the same variety because their bark appears to be identical. The fruit should color when it ripens; that will give you a better idea of the variety. It looks pretty similar to my yellow egg plum. The horizontal orange lines are part of the normal bark structure and are nothing to worry about. The vertical cracks might be a sign of some problem, but my tree has recently developed similar cracks and so far seems healthy. Gummosis can result from many different causes and is difficult to diagnose. My peach tree has survived many years with gummosis problems.
Thanks for the potential ID on them as plum trees. That's the other thing we've been thinking they might be, some kind of yellow plum. They're definitely the same variety, whatever they are - the leaves and bark of both trees are the same. Are you sure the orange lines are part of the normal bark pattern on these? They're not all over the trees, and are only present in the areas where the bark is splitting, which is what has us worried by them. The biggest concern is the base of the larger tree. I know that fruit trees can "bleed" sap for no apparent reason, and that sometimes it's not necessarily an indication of a larger problem, but the loss of half of the trunk is quite alarming, especially since we don't know how long it may have taken/how old the damage is. We're new to these trees, so we don't have any history on them.
The orange lines are definitely normal; they are just more abundant in older bark, which is where the splitting is occurring. I see the same thing in my plum tree, and cherry trees have similar structures. There does seem to be a problem at the base of the larger tree; but it could be the result of rodent damage during the winter, if it's not due to borers. Anyway, the tops of the trees seem healthy enough; so I wouldn't be too concerned at this point.
Thanks for the confirmation on the bark patterning! It really eases my mind. We do have a mole problem in our yard. We hadn't considered rodent damage as a cause for the problem at the base of the larger tree. Could moles do that to a tree? (If so, we're definitely going to get more aggressive with our approach to the mole problem. So far, we've been trying to handle them relatively gently.) The tops of the trees are fairly healthy, aside from the storm damage on the smaller tree. EDIT: Nevermind about the mole question. We did a bit of reading, and it sounds like voles are a more likely culprit. We're going to try setting out some vole bait and seeing if we get any activity, to check to see if we have any in our area.
Mouse and vole damage usually happens in the wintertime when food is scarce. Trapping now is not likely to be very informative, but it certainly won't hurt.