Hi, I am new to this and I hope I am doing this right. I have a maple tree in my front yard, as does most of my neighbourhood, and there is a white powdery substance on a lot of the leaves, my tree is green leaved, but a neighbours tree is dark dark red and his tree is turning green, he has lots of powdery stuff on his leaves as well, it looks like some sort of fungus, but I am not sure. The affected leaves tend to shrivel up, fall off, and they are quite crunchy when they hit the ground. There seems to be an abundance of ants around the trees as well, could they be part of the problem? Thanks for your help.
Hi, It's powdery mildew. Some trees and plants are more susceptible to it than others. For the most part although unsightly it ususally isn't fatal. Warm days followed by cool nights is the prime conditions for it. Sun and air circulation help control it. Usually young leaves on new first year branches are more prone to getting powdery mildew. Throw away or burn fallen leaves. Don't use for compost as the spores overwinter. You could use a systemic fungicide. Though I haven't tried it Bayer makes a systemic fungicide. Dyna Grow also makes a copper based fungicide called Phyton-27 that I hear works well. Layne
