Question
I live in central pennsylvania. Last year the leaves on my maple tree started to wilt. I took them to Penn state university and had them tested. No disease turned up, and where tested 2 or 3 times. I pruned the limbs that the leaves where wilting on. Now, this year I noticed a thick white looking fungi on the branches of ones I cut off.The bark is cracking and some of the leaves are wilting again on those branches. The branch looks dead, but there are leaves on it towards the trunk. I will try to get them tested also. Do you know what it is and can it be treated?

Answer
Teresa,

The white fungal growths that you see are probably the fruiting bodies of a wood rot fungus. There is no treatment for this fungus.

I think that you are looking in the wrong spot for the cause of the die back. It sounds like the tree has a girdling root, this is a root that has grown around the base of the tree instead of straight out. This root will eventually strangle the tree and cause sections to die off.

I would recommend calling a Certified Arborist to examine the tree and to recommend treatment options.

Good luck,
Ed Gulliksen