Like humans, trees get sick, too. While trees can live for many years, they can also become victims of diseases. Sometimes it is easy to tell when a tree is sick, but there are cases when only an expert can tell. What can you do when one of your trees gets sick?
The good news is that it is possible to nurse back a dying tree into good health. For best results, you can choose to hire an arborist in Salt Lake City.
Common Tree Diseases
There are many diseases that can affect trees, including the following. Being familiar with these tree diseases and their symptoms can help you in taking the right steps in countering their effects.
- Apple Scab – This normally affects crabapples and causes lesions on the leaves, which can result in the defoliation of the tree.
- Cedar Rust – This causes rust-colored spots to appear on the leaves of affected plants.
- Anthracnose – This is caused by fungi, which attacks different parts of the tree. It can affect many species of trees found in North America.
- Lethal Yellow of Palm – This affects palm trees in states such as Texas and Florida. Caused by a phytoplasma, it causes leaves to yellow and fruits to drop prematurely.
Saving Sick Trees
What can you do when the tree in your property becomes sick? Here are some tree-saving tips and ideas you can follow.
- Solve the Moisture Issue – Water-related issues are common causes for a tree to get sick and start dying. It is not just the lack of water that is the problem. Excess moisture is also unhealthy. If the area where the tree is planted becomes waterlogged quite easily, try to provide it with good drainage. The best solution to a tree that is getting too little moisture, on the other hand, is to set up an automated watering system.
- Do Not Use Too Much Mulch – Mulch can be helpful in trees getting the nutrition that they need, but you need to make sure that you are not using too much of it. The mulch layer around the tree should not be too thick because it can attract fungi, bacteria, and other things that can cause tree sickness.
- Prune – Pruning can be a useful technique for saving a dying tree. Just be sure that you are following the proper techniques when taking this step. If you see sections of a tree that are clearly diseased, you can try removing them carefully so that the disease might not spread to the rest of the tree. You must be familiar with the proper steps for pruning for this to work.
These are just some of the steps that you can try when saving a sick tree. Just like us, trees can suffer from diseases, too. And just like with humans, prevention is always better than cure when it comes to tree sickness. Make sure that your trees are properly cared for and that they get the most optimal conditions for their growth.
