Q: This is a picture of a leaf from an oak tree that is shedding leaves now. This tree is among the last to shed in the fall. Any ideas?

A: It’s bacterial leaf scorch. Sadly, there is nothing you can spray. Bacterial leaf scorch is a serious disease that affects mainly oak trees but can cause great harm to sycamore, sweetgum and ginkgo.

UGA pathologist Elizabeth Little says: “Bacterial scorch produces a distinctive marginal and interveinal browning which shows up during the heat of the summer. If one tree is fine and the one next to it is dying back, bacterial scorch is what I would suspect.”

The disease has run rampant in Kentucky. Click the link to get more information.

Bacterial Leaf Scorch

sycamore leaf scorch