Hello, everybody! This is my first post, so I'm hoping that someone out there can help me out with a problem that's plagued me for months, now. Shortly after moving into my new home, I planted 12 small Ficus nitida trees along the boundary of my back yard. After three years, they had grown large and healthy and were beginning to provide the privacy that we had hoped for. Suddenly, something (I'm assuming some type of fungal root rot) began to destroy them. One day they were perfectly healthy, the next day, every leaf became withered and brown and began to drop off. Within a week, they were completely bare and dead. I realize that there's probably nothing I can do to kill the fungus, so what I need is a suggestion about which type of fungal root rot-resistant trees to plant. I've heard that palms are resistant, but I'd like a tree that will have a canopy capable of providing some privacy from our nearby neighbors, if possible. Can anyone help me?
It could have been something like verticillium wilt that got them so fast, and it's a one-time event with plants, not likely to affect new ones necessarily, but you do need to nail it down.
Sounds typical of Cotton Root Rot.(AKA Texas Root Rot) If it is CRR you don't replant with susceptable species because there is no cure or treatment. Clumping Bamboo like B. multiplex will be immune if you have the room. There are dwarf selections such as B. MULTIPLEX FERNLEAF. hth Chris
