I've seen a lot of posts about identifying verticillium, but I have a question about it that I don't think I've ever seen on the threads. I have had maples that have suffered dieback (black branches in summer) that I assumed were verticillium and this dieback continued until eventually the entire tree died. I have a Tamukeyama and an Ever Red which did the same, but seemed to have stopped suffering anymore dieback. The Ever Red lost the top 2/3 of growth and now looks like a prostrate growing dissectum, rather than upright, but looks healthy. The Tamukeyama died back little by little for about two years, but lost no branches this year. My question is: Is it possible for maples to "recover" from verticillium? Can they become resistant to the virus? Or will these two eventually die anyway even if they go a year or two without losing any branches? I also had this happen to an established Beni Otake this year, it lost all but about the lower 1/4th. Unlike the other two, it looks bad and I'll probably take it out next year. I was just curious about this and wondered if maples can recover and live on if they have suffered damage from this. Kay Dye
I am no expert on diseases but my own experience has shown that these trees can survive an attack of verticillium for a number of years if the affected parts are cut back to healthy wood at the appropriate time Unfortunately my experience has also shown that any renewal of attack on the already weakened tree and they will die eventually .......
Verticillium is a vascular disease, basically it blocks the thoroughfares the plant uses to move water and minerals. The most common treatment is to remove deadwood, water and fertilize in a manner to provide necessary resources to the plant then keep your fingers crossed.
