We planted our Hawthorn tree about 4-5 years ago and it has always done well - lush, green, and full. Over the winter I noticed that there were 2-3 upper branches which still had dead leaves remaining on them. In the spring, we looked at the branches and they were dead (they snapped off without any effort). We trimmed the tree in those spots to ensure that all of the dead parts were not remaining. During the spring the buds of the tree came out as per usual and the tree originally looked fine. Once the leaves were completely out, we noticed that the leaves on the right side of the tree began to look brown and shrivelled. We thought it could have been a lack of water (because they were the outermost leaves) and so we watered it regularly to help the situation. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the tree is still losing leaves - but only on the right side. We thought the branches were dying and we trimmed back some of the sections where the leaves were dead only to find that the wooded part of the branches are not dead, only the leaves. When the flowers came out, they came out around the whole tree and then, in the same fashion, began to brown on the right side. Meanwhile the left side is completely fine - green, lush, full of leaves, and branches have new growth on them. Does anyone know what this is or how to remedy the situation? I absolutely love this tree and would hate to lose it! Thank you!
I don't know what this is but it looks like what happened to a lovely Acer p. Trompenburg in my yard. One side lost all of its leave this spring, and some regrew but are now shrivelling. A good chunk of it is dead. Other parts of the tree look fine. In my case, I'm suspecting verticillium wilt. I don't know if Crataegus are susceptible or not.
Thanks for your reply! I have been looking at a few pictures on the internet and it looks kind of like something called leaf blight. I'm thinking we are going to have to hack a lot of the tree off so that it doesn't spread. Has anyone had any experience with this?
You might have a case of fire blight as this is a Rose Family tree and the pathogen tends to infect these in suitable climate areas for it (those with a minimum number of warm spring days).