I have a large Siver Maple in the back yard. It has 4 trunks. Two of the trunks are filling in with beautiful large leaves. The other two have tiny shriveled up leaves that are falling off. The tree has been through alot in the last 6 months: -Complete landscaping -Arborist "Structural Trim" -Arborist sprayed to help prevent the spead of Verticillum Wilt -Massive aphid infestation The "Professional" Lanscaper had to trench for sprinklers, drains etc. He told me (after the fact) that he used a chainsaw to get through some of the roots. As for the aphids I sprayed an Malathion I got from ACE Hardware through a garden hose. I was told it was mild. I read you could put it on fruits and vegetables so I went for it. Aphids as far as I can see are mostly gone. I had a ton of black droppings (I believe to be "Sooty Mold") now there is only 1 or 2. Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated I DONT WANT TO LOSE THIS TREE!!!!! Here are a few Pictures...
Hello, First, get another arborist. There's no spray that will do anything for Verticillium, so he or she is either misleading or is misinformed. I don't know what a structural "trim" is, if the tree had structural problems, (and silver maples can), it would involve taking out some major branches. Second, your landscaper has severely damaged your tree. He appears to have cut through some major feeder roots. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it is likely that at the very least the tree will die back considerably. The good news is that it's tough as old boots and will likely survive, if not in the form you currently know it. This maple is very prone to aphids, I don't think your spray did any damage. Spraying young foliage always comports some risks, but I have observed that silver maples in particular don't seem to resent it much. I suppose you could try to settle with the landscaper for the damage if you're really PO'd. A good arborist will almost certainly verify the cause. HTH, E
Thank you for your reply. I am planning on calling some arborists out but I am posting on some forums to try to get an idea on what to expect, questions to ask etc. In your opinion does this damage look like V. Wilt? From the research I have done if it is its pretty much doomed as there is no cure?
I don't claim to be an expert, but I certainly see no indication what so ever of verticillium. But it is true that wilt attacks in particular weakened maples, and there is no question that your tree was weakened by having its feet chopped off.
this maple is sensible to caterpiller that made galleries in the branch;you have see a little hole on branch? for root use a liquid root stimolator.. if possible post another pics (is possible without photo bucket too)
Well let me just come to defense of at least the landscaper, and to some extent even the arborist. It seems to me the landscaper was given an assignment that inherently conflicted with the tree's roots. If the landscaper "had" to put in sprinklers and drains, and "had" to put them in that particular spot, then the implication had to be that the tree could be risked. If you really didn't want to lose the tree, then you would have had to compromise on where the sprinklers and drains went. If you did not know that the sprinklers and drains would interfere with the tree's roots, perhaps the landscaper should have told you that in advance, but it is not clear to me that it is his/her mandate to do so. Seems to me the responsibility for planning around the tree would be 50/50 between landscaper and owner. Otherwise you're asking him/her to risk the contract in order to protect the tree. Might be a wise move, but not a lucrative one. It bears repeating over and over again that living with large trees involves making some sacrifices - trees do not share territory; they take it over, and indeed they need it to survive. When you have trees of this size you cannot put patios, flowerbeds, sprinkler systems, driveways, and such just where you want them; you have to go where the tree allows. If you want to put them just THERE, then you have to damage or kill the tree. You cannot share your yard with a tree - you donate it to the tree. If you don't cede the territory, the tree often cannot survive. Even the arborist, however wrong it was to spray, cannot necessarily be blamed here. If the significant pruning was booked at the same time as the landscaping, that is the fault of neither the arborist nor the landscaper. Basically - and sorry to sound harsh here - if you really didn't want to lose that tree, you would have had to arrange your yardwork accordingly. Now that it has all been done, it is a matter of waiting to see whether the tree can survive. By way of comfort I will reiterate something to which Emery alluded, which is that silver maples are not always desirable trees at that size, besides which they are not rare and they grow quickly. I would certainly give this one a season or two to see if it can recover (depending on an assessment of its stability perhaps and whether it is an overhead threat to anything) but in the longer run I would consider removing it entirely and replacing it.
Instead of having an arborist come in to beautify this tree, which he or she did do so you have no complaint there, have an arborist come in to help save the rest of the tree. To do the latter will entail some major cutting, not just pruning with at least a couple of follow ups to see how well the tree is responding. You would not like what I'd do to this tree as I'd take off all of the infected and deadened branches and with each cut use some tree sealer spray to prevent an opening for Deep Bark Canker to come in. Ask your County Cooperative Extension about the correlation of open pruning wounds and the incidence of Deep Bark Canker disease in Silver Maple sometime. Was rather common for them to know as far back as the 60's when several home owners severely whacked these trees and years later found they had Deep Bark Canker nestled in the center of their trees and were told that the entryway for the pathogen to get into the tree was through the open wound left from pruning off large and defoliated side branches. At any rate the arborist did come in and try to help this tree but the prognosis of what to do for this ailing tree was missed. That is not their fault as they were not trained to know. Wilt in Silver Maples exists as two forms, one form is the quick decline form of which if your tree had it in its system it would already be dead. No cure for it other than buy a tree that does not have it in its system. The most common form of wilt is the branch wilt form that is already in the tree via propagation. This is the alboatrum form and it is this form along with a Pseudomonas already in the plants system, also passed on by propagation, that you see the evidence of by virtue of the bare limbs and branches with the silvery light brown to silvery black colored wood. The effect of these two pathogens at work in an already weakened tree is what causes much of the dieback we see in these trees in the San Joaquin Valley year after year of which you are located in the Northern fringe of. The advanced stage of this form is the most destructive to a tree reaching or has already reached mature size. Your tree is in this stage of branch wilt that causes a wilting of the leaves at the tips of the branches and we see an allover collapse of the growth all the way from the limb back to the trunk. I only looked at one photo, the first one and can tell the arborist took off branches that were in this destructive stage, just as they should. The problem you have is what to do about the newest series of collapse seen in some of the major scaffolds for this tree. You do not have a lot of options and the least desirable to me is to take this tree out of the ground but if money is an issue then you may want to as no matter if you choose the let's clean this tree up by taking off all infected branches and reshaping this tree for a few years to compensate for the new growth you may get minus any more deadened branches and try to outrun the trouble, caused by two pathogens working in combination to severely weaken this tree and in time kill it, with ground applied fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate, of which a variety of state Cooperative Extensions still recommend for Anthracnose for Dogwoods, along with periodic deep watering (even frequent sprinkler watering may not be enough applied water for your area to be of much help) during the Summer. Don't look at the tree any more as being a Silver Maple, have the Cooperative Extension tell the arborist to treat the tree as if it was a Modesto Ash that is severely affected by Anthracnose year after year and then they will know what to do for it. A severe pruning of this tree back to uninfected wood may be what needs to happen for it. Thus you will have to wait several years for this tree to take shape once again depending on how well the tree responds to the better care and maintenance. As for the Aphids, you will have less and less incidence of them when you better micromanage this tree as Aphids are much more prone to infest an already weakened tree than they are a healthy or a vigorous growing tree in recovery. Jim
Now that I am back home on my machine this time, I can look at all three photos. While all three photos load in I'll get started here. I prefer not to have to prune once were nice looking trees back quite a bit but sometimes we have to in order to ensure they will live another 20, 30 or 40 years or more. About 15-18 years ago I had a dilemma on my hands in which our old cut leaf Silver Maple was losing scaffold branches. It was when the branches fell off from the trunk that I saw what my major problem was and it was some Deep Bark Canker. Either I cut the 40 year old tree down and I did not want to do that as it provides much needed Western exposure shade for the house, my bedroom window and for the central air conditioner or I go in and give this tree a major flat top and try to cut out all of the areas that had the canker. Well, I did that and it was the best decision I could have made for that tree then based on how it looks now. By the way, since then I give this tree about 3-5 pounds of Ammonium sulfate spread in a circle roughly 3-5 feet away from the trunk around the base of the tree every Spring Since this tree always has been deep watered during the Summer with a hose and gets hit by two in ground Rain Bird sprinklers there are no visible above ground surface roots that can be seen. Second photo loaded in. New shoots or sucker growth coming out from near or right at the graft union or at the base of the tree is an indication that the tree is suffering from some kind of debilitating disease or the top growth has stopped growing. Third photo gives me a lot more hope for this tree. Preliminary assessment is this tree is not so bad off after all but later on in the year when the weather turns warm is when this could all change. Here is how to play it now. Have the arborist come back in and trim out all of the dead growth. You do not have to drastically deadhead this tree this year. You can wait for a while but you will want to start to give this tree some granular fertilizer in the Spring and late Spring but you will have to water in the first application of fertilizer well and continue to water that fertilizer in for about three times. Use a hose if need be, sprinkler water alone will not readily dissolve the fertilizer fast enough. For this tree I would use an all purpose fertilizer instead of using just nitrogen and sulfur but make sure the fertilizer from a Home Depot or a Lowe's has about 10% sulfur in the formulation. The ground applied sulfur can act as your fungal disease suppressor, thus, if you use it, you will not need to use a fungicide spray on this tree again unless you prune it. Years ago arborists would use a fungicide spray on the tree right after some pruning. It does not suppress the debilitating fungus already in the tree but it serves as a protectant for the freshly cut pruning wounds. It was due to incidence of Deep Bark Canker is why arborists did spray after a series of pruning. I wish this procedure was not ever stopped for several types of trees. Your arborist did just fine for you. Hire him or her again and do some weaning out of the diseased branches and give this tree a clean up, a fungicide spray right after the pruning, fertilize this tree twice a year for the next three years or so, deep water this tree with a hose about once every three weeks from June to September for the next three years and you may be okay with this tree for another 15 years or so. If the dieback persists and you do not get adequate replacement new growth then you may and probably will have to take drastic measures later with a severe pruning but as of now I see enough tree to work with from all of the photos this time around to tell you, don't knock this tree down for any reason. A little work, better care and a few out of pocket dollars is all this tree needs for now. Jim
With respect, Jim, do you know of a spray that will prevent the "spread of verticillium wilt?" Don't you think it most likely that this tree is suffering mostly from having its source of nourishment (that is, roots) removed? FWIW I wouldn't remove the tree either, although it is true that a replacement would grow quickly and perhaps provide a more satisfying long term solution. My reasons are sentimental, I have a hard time giving up on any tree... Just out of interest, you mention your "cut leaf silver maple," do you mean a specific cultivar like Beebe's Cutleaf Weeping? -E
After 15 years of being seriously crowded by trees and carrying the workload they make relative to structures, passageways, and gardens, I'm a lot less sentimental than I used to be.
My policy for my own homes, is not to save basket-case trees. I had a Norway maple with V. wilt, and quickly removed it. My thoughts were, why wait to remove a bigger more dying tree and loose years of establishing a nicer replacement? You might think about getting a replacement sooner than later, if indeed it does have that disease. If in doubt, maybe get another opinion and evaluation. The sprinkler thing with your tree may or may not have been an issue. If it caused problems within a year, then the trenching was done wrong - possibly crossing the roots, rather than being inserted from out to inward. Spraying for Verticillium makes no sense to me.
