RE: [gardeners] Sugar maple tree needs help
Seyfried,Alice (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 13:00:02 -0400
I want to thank everyone for their ideas on what could be wrong with my
mothers maple tree. She had a very respectable arborist come out (a
different one than who pruned the tree) and the conclusion is that is
has a root disease of some sort, which wouldn't have been caused by the
pruner. He couldn't say exactly what it was, but there were cankers all
over the roots on the side of the tree that's failing. It is also
incredibly stressed due to the non-winter we had (it never went
completely dormant). Anyway, they aren't sure how long it will last...
it could slowly decline for years before she has to take it out, but it
will eventually die. They are going to do a deep root fertilization
next spring, where they go deep in the ground with needle-sorts of
things and inject fertilizer. But the arborist doesn't hold out a lot
of hope. There is no cure.
I am totally devastated. This was the proverbial tree of my childhood.
My best friend and I used to spend hours up in that tree playing, doing
flips over a low branch that stuck straight out like a trapeeze bar,
pretending we were acrobats. It's canopy was a sanctuary for me when I
needed to get away from the teasing of my 3 older brothers. I've cried
in that tree. I've laughed in that tree. It was the first tree my 4
year old climbed (when he was 3) last summer. It will be the first tree
my 2 year old climbs this fall when we go back to visit.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Alice
seyfried@oclc.org
> -----Original Message-----
> From: inanda@pacificcoast.net [SMTP:inanda@pacificcoast.net]
> Sent: Saturday, July 11, 1998 7:15 PM
> To: gardeners@globalgarden.com
> Subject: Re: [gardeners] Sugar maple tree needs help
>
> 1.Could it possibly be acid rain? Lots of probs. with that in So.
> Ontario.
> 2.Stress from too much rain - or - too little rain.
>
> We lost a chestnut, weeping birch and magnolia from stress. A very dry
> summer followed by a very wet summer.
>
> Ginny - now in Victoria BC not OZ
>