Question
QUESTION: I have a 15 year old mulberry tree that died in 3 months.  It was healthy, well fertilized with cow manure, well watered through irrigation.  Now its just DEAD!!!  There were no hard freezes this year (I live in Phx, AZ)  What could have happened?  I have about 50 other various trees on my 2 acres so I am concerned.

ANSWER: Hello Tiffany

You may want to check the PH of your soil where the tree is.  The meters are very inexpensive.  Just because you put fertilizer and water on your tree does not allways mean its going to thrive.

There may be several things that caused this.
1. Shock from transplanting or tansporting.  Maybe the nursery dropped it on the way to your house and didnt tell you.
2. Viral infections that you cant allways see.  
3. Nematodes feeding on your root system.
4. Too much water will kill anything by enabling fungus to develop and disrupt nutrient flow.

If you havent all ready I would recommend taking a gardening course and reading everything you can about your trees.  Also I would learn how to check the brix levels of your trees and this will tell you alot about what is going on inside.  
You will then be the guru of your neighborhood with magnificent trees.
I hope this helps a little.

James

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for following up.  1.  Well, it's 15 years old mulberry and has been in the ground in the same spot that long, so it was not transport or transplant shock.  2. How would I diagnose this?  3.  How would I diagnose this?  Dig it up and look at the roots?  4. I feel confident that it was not over watered.  All the trees around it are vibrant and healthy (Cottonwood, Ash, Elm, Apricot, Apple, Plum and Blood Orange.  This tree looks like it was dipped into a vat of liquid nitrogen.  I cut off a major and minor limb to look for bore tunnels, but could find none.  Even the major limb was bone dead dry.  Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.  I'm concerned because it happened so fast and I have a lot of other trees.  It lost its leaves for winter around Jan (Phx, AZ) and then just died.

Answer

Bacterial,Viral infection

Nematodes

Ground,soil contamination.

I would get a Brix meter and begin checking the other trees.  If there is a low sucrose count you will need to raise the Brix levels.

You need to go to Crowleys Nursery Website in Sarasota FL and purchase Atomic Grow foliar wash.  It is a foliar spray and will detox your other trees and raise the Brix levels at the same time.

Crowleysnursery.net or com

James