Question
Picture of fungus
I have had a tri-color beech tree in my yard for several years now and I love it. I just noticed that the leaves are curling up and drying out and dying. I do not know what to do or what may be causing this. I live in New York and it has not been extremely hot and has not been too wet either just a normal season so far. I do not see any insects on it, but I did notice that some of the leaves look like something has chewed on them but nothing major. I looked further and see that there looks like a fungus or something growing on tree. I hope you can offer a suggestion as I don't want to lose the tree.
AnswerDear Donna, This is a tough question, so I hope I can give you some information that helps. There is no clear ONE thing wrong with your tree. It does appear to be growing out in the open, and most of my sources suggest that it may do better with nearby trees to provide partial shade, (leaves may shrivel and scorch with bright sun), although black walnuts are toxic to it. It could be suffering from the drought most of us are having and just need additional water. It could have spider mites: to test, take a few leaves and hold them, bottom of leaf down, over a white sheet of paper. If you see anything moving then you have spider mites. You could also have aphids, borers, (which you might not see, but there may be excess sap on tree), or an unobvious fungus. By the way, the fungus looking thing on the trunk is not fungus, but lichen and won't really harm the tree, but I would pull it off. As a basic catch-all, you can spray the tree with NEEM, an organic product that kills mites, insects, and fungus; that way you could tackle any of the three that is wrong with it. In addition, I would probably add more watering. Make sure you water the tree thoroughly at least twice a week for twenty to thirty minutes, if it isn't getting this much from rainfall. If you have sap running on the tree then you have borers in which case you can spray with a borer spray (one suggestion would be Ferti-Lome Borer, Bagworm, Leafminer Spray). I apologize for the lameness of this answer, but I believe if you check the watering, and spray the tree with NEEM every 7 to 10 days about three times, the tree should start improving. Please let me know if this isn't the case, or if the tree shows more symptoms. Good luck, Melissa
