Plants and Trees Dying Overnight?

[Maureen]

Strange things happening in my neck of the woods! Something I've never seen here in over 50 years! Trees and shrubs, all deciduous, are dying in a matter of days. It's not drought, we've lived with that for over 30 years.

I've had 6 trees and shrubs in the last two weeks just all of a sudden die. All were between a year old and 7 years old. All started to bud out and then just died. I was watering by hand, since I am changing my drip and irrigation system right now. Water was not an issue.

My evergreens have spider mites more than normal, but I seem to have them under control. Everything gets treated for those every month.

Another thing that I've noticed is that some of our privacy shrubs are sort of stunted. The rest have leafed out and are great looking, others look like they are on the verge of death.

I took time this evening to look around at our neighbors trees and shrubs, they seem to be suffering the same thing. They have trees and shrubs much more mature than ours! One of our neighbors has a very old, and large Elm that looks like it's on it's last leg right now.

It's not an insect that I can see with the naked eye. I'm a pretty avid gardener and know about all the normal suspects to keep an eye on. No fungus or anything else visible.

One more plant dies, and I'm going yank it, place it and soil in a plastic bag and take it down the University for testing.

Anyone else out West here having problems with plants or trees this year?

I've planted annuals that are having the same problem. Some die in a day, others are just fine.

I'm really scratching my head here!

Maureen

[troyster]

Do you think its something in the water Maureen? maybe too much chlorine or something.

[Sylvia]

Call the county extension office. They will have a master gardener to ask.

[Yanita]

Wow Maureen,

With all that you have put into landscaping your yard I would be upset as well.

My first thought was some sort of bug either infestation in the plants or ground, possible ground contamination of something...but you have not had a flood so I honestly have no clue.

Please when you find the reason share it with the rest of us.

Yanita

[Jim from Canada]

Could be some new type of invasive species has caught up to your area. Had an arbourist out here a few years ago and he states that our trees had been in a drought situation for over 10 years, even though we live right next to a river, and that it could take several years for damage to show from it. We have not ruled out Emerald Ash Borer. We have not seen one but they tend to hide inside the tree. Then there is Dutch Elm disease, Pine Bark beatle, etc, etc.

Jim

[Harry]

Hi Maureen

Here's a link that may help. http://agri.state.nv.us/PLANT_PlantPath ... lantDr.htm

Harry

[Maureen]

Planted all the annuals between 3 to to 5 days ago. More than half are dead already. Looked great for two days!

More trees and shrubs are looking real bad!

Yes, Sylvia, our University, is in charge of the county extension service. Our university is the oldest in our state, with numerous knowledge of our vegetation , and yeah, they know me by name LOL!

I'm losing more landscape everyday... AHHHHHH! We've spent a bunch of money there.

On a 'positive' note, the day lilies, hostas and butterfly vine are all okay!

The California poppies are all dead, the iris never was able to bloom and all my ornamental grass is dead. These are basically weed type plants out here! Xeroscape or whatever. Many trees, mature trees are dying around the neighborhood. It's so sad! At the same time, so weird!

I'll do my best to keep everyone posted! If anyone else out here in the West has similar problems, it would help to let us know!

Maureen

[Maureen]

Woke up this morning and after a cup of coffee, went out to check the trees and plants. I found that the honeysuckle vines were looking very bad! They are pretty hearty plants.

I called the university/county extension office at 8:00 am. They had me take a large cutting from the honeysuckle and a big scoop of the soil in an air tight baggie. They are just a few miles from us, so everything was still 'fresh' when I brought it in.

The testing may take a week. At this point I could have no landscape by then LOL! They said that it could also be a very small band of wayward morman crickets (locust).

Whatever it is, it's sucking the life outta some my green stuff outside! Will keep ya posted!

Maureen

[kashton]

I know this won't help you, but I had a problem with the ants(of course) and I pulled out a couple of my plants that were starting to look very bad, and found the roots infested with baby slugs. The only other problem I ever had was aphids.

[Guest]

Hi Maureen,
I'm on the other side of the country from you, but your post caught my eye. I've only been in this MH for a year or so, but this spring has been much different from the last. I've noticed that most of my shrubs and small trees aren't developing like they did last spring. I had hardly any of my lilacs bloom this year although last year the blooms were everywhere. The hostas and irises are doing better than last year, but the small trees and shrubs seem to be having a problem. The bottom 1/3 of all my small leafy trees seem to have drooping leaves. At first sight it looks like they're not getting enough water, but we've had more than enough rain. The phenomenon seems to be throughout the park here as I've noticed my neighbor's leaves are drooping and undeveloped also. They don't look any better this morning after a recent rain, so I doubt that's the problem. I'll be looking forward to seeing what your tests reveal.

[Greg]

Maureen, my first thought is drought stress. we have had trees here drop their leaves in the summer as a result of drought. By all means have them checked, you may also want to talk to a certified arborist in your area, many quality tree companies have a certified person on staff. Greg

[masswood]

Maureen, I'm sorry to hear you are having a problem like this. I know it is frustrating, seems we have to replace three to four shrubs each spring. Good luck in your effort to fiqure this out!

Joe

[Maureen]

Hi Folks,

I don't have a solid answer yet from the county, but we are taking as many preventative measures as possible! We have just over a third acre of land, all vegetation is under attack right now.

Kashton, the ants were out a few months ago, they are now even gone! That's very weird!

Greg, we've been dealing with drought stress for 30 years, that's why I have the drip system in place. It's monitored weekly. I make sure each and every one plant, shrub and tree are getting the the right amount of water.

Wayne, if you live in an area where drought is new to you, that could be the problem! You have to change your watering habits. Do a search for droughts out West here!

Hey Troy, great info about the chlorine! I walked into the house last week while the boys were doing their wash. I asked who did the overkill with the bleach!!! Okay, they're 19 and 20 year old guys, they had no clue what I was talking about! I asked if any used bleach in the wash.... they were totally puzzled! They were looking at me like, can you use that in the washer? They're still in training.......

But, later that night I went to do dishes after dinner, and the chlorine smell was soooo bad! We have our own little water company here.

I had them come out and take water samples Friday. I'm still waiting for results!

In the mean time, I'm trying to be patient and waiting for results!

Maureen

[Maureen]

Well, the jury is in LOL!

Our water company overloaded the chlorine for starters. I knew I smelled bleach in the house last week! It was that strong coming from the washing machine. They've sent that report to our water company.

Next, we have a horrid infestation of spider mites. We always battle those, but one really dry year has got them going crazy.

On a positive note, the aphids are at an all time low! The roses are just going nuts after a 90+ degree week!

We also have damage from the mormon crickets. I've dreaded that ever since I started planting and landscaping. Each year they've gotten closer to us. The county and university did find damage on several trees. For those that aren't familiar, mormon crickets are locust.... they eat everything in sight.

I think I will just forget about planting anything new this year. If all the annuals fail, we'll just go for artificial LOL! I'm going to have my hands full trying to keep what is here alive!

It's gonna be a looonnnggg Summer LOL!

Maureen

[Yanita]

Hi Maureen,

Well at least you have an answer. That's alot of chlorine!

It would break my heart to watch my plants die because of the water!

For what it is worth, a few days ago when I shocked my pool I decided to take one of those test strips and check the house water....there is more chlorine in our tap water than there is in our 18,000 gallon pool. It makes me wonder what our bodies go thru with such chlorinated water, toothpaste and bleach in the laundry!

Just a thought and maybe more trouble than you are willing to go thru...but for your house plants put water in a container and let set 24 hours, the chlorine will dissipate and then you can safely water the plants inside.

~Yanita~