|
Japanese maple trees are lovely specimens for your yard or landscape. They are easy to grow and maintain, and come in many different species offering a wide range of size, colors, and growth patterns. There is a Japanese maple variety to fit every landscaping need. Although the trees are generally hardy, there are some diseases that can attack your Japanese maple.
The first category of Japanese maple disease are those which, though unsightly, do not cause serious damage to the health of the tree. Diseases in this category include tar spot and sooty mold. Tar spot is caused by a fungus that causes black spots to appear on the leaves. The fungus will live on fallen leaves over the winter and reappear the following spring. Prevent the recurrence of Tar Spot by raking up all fallen leaves and burning them or removing them from the property. Sooty mold feeds on honey dew left by aphids. If you have aphids, sooty mold may follow. Treat your tree with an organic aphid killer. Once the aphids are gone, the sooty mold will dissipate.
The next category of Japanese maple disease is a disease that can be more problematic for your Japanese maple if untreated. Examples of these diseases include anthracnose and tree cankers. Anthracnose is another fungal disease that causes discolored, curling leaves and leaf loss. It commonly occurs after unusually cold, and unusually wet winters. One occurrence is generally harmless, but repeated outbreaks will weaken the tree’s resistance to more harmful diseases. Treat anthracnose by removing affected branches and leaves and burning them. Left untreated, anthracnose can lead to tree cankers. A canker is a dead area on the branch or trunk of the affected tree. The fungi enter the tree through a wounded area and start spreading. A canker can encircle a branch or trunk and kill it. If the canker is on the main trunk, it will kill the tree. Remove tree limbs with cankers before it affects the rest of the tree. There is no effective way to treat a canker which encircles the main trunk.
The final category of Japanese maple disease is the most serious; the ones that will kill your tree if infected. The biggest offender here is Maple Wilt. Again, it is caused by a fungus. Maple Wilt is caused by verticillium, a soil fungus. The disease spreads from the roots up through the tree and begins killing the main limbs. It is identified by brown leaves and diseased or bare branches. It is best to have a tree doctor confirm a maple wilt diagnosis. Although a healthy, established Japanese maple may be able to beat the disease by aggressive pruning of the affected branches, most will die within a year of showing the first signs of the disease. It is usually best to destroy the tree before the disease spreads.
The bottom line for the best way to prevent disease from affecting your tree is to give them the proper environment and care. Make them so healthy that they can withstand any assault from disease or pests. Give them moist well-drained soil, plenty of sun, and annual fertilizer applications. Finally, take action at the first sign of trouble. Don’t wait and hope the disease will go away on its own. If you take these steps, you will have a happy, healthy disease resistant tree.
|
Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
Get all the facts about pest and disease and organic gardening at GreenThumbArticles.com!
Didn't really find what you were looking for?
|
|
|
| |
|
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/rss.gif "Subscribe to our XML Feed for RSS")
(Read 500+ times)
