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K-State Turf and Landscape Blog

Tag: tree

Natural needle drop, or plant disease?

Posted on by kennelly

(Megan Kennelly, KSU Plant Pathology)

Which of these is a disease, and which is natural needle drop?

If you guessed natural needle drop for the first and disease (Dothistroma needle blight) for the second, you are right!

If you were not sure, here are some resources to figure it out.

In a recent article in Horticulture News, Ward Upham mentioned some recent reports about natural needle drop on evergreens. You can read more about it here:

http://www.ksuhortnewsletter.org/newsletters/natural-needle-drop-on-spruce-arborvitae-and-pines

In addition, this publication talks about pine diseases and at the end there is a section about natural needle drop:

https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/l722.pdf

If you see yellowing, browning, or dropping of needles and you still are not sure you can reach out to your local K-State Research and Extension office or contact the KSU Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab:

Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab

1712 Claflin Road
4032 Throckmorton PSC
Manhattan, Kansas 66506
(785) 532-5810
Fax: (785) 532 5692
clinic@ksu.edu

 

The plight of urban trees (and you thought YOU were having a bad day!)

Posted on by kennelly

(Megan Kennelly, KSU Plant Pathology)

Ideally, trees should be protected during construction. For some tips, you can check out this website:

Protecting Trees During Construction – 7.420

However, sometimes, the project just has to go where it needs to go and the budget does not allow time, personnel, or resources to consider tree preservation.

This corner went through some major construction in 2010. At that time, a big section of the tree’s root section was basically destroyed, with a sidewalk set in close to the trunk.

Fig 30a Fig 30bIMG_6583

Despite having half its root system lobbed off, with broken roots as potential infection sites by wood decay fungi, the tree hung in there.

Over the past year, that area has had even more construction at that site, and the tree finally said, “Enough – I can’t take this anymore!”

IMG_3142 IMG_3145 IMG_3148

IMG_3141 IMG_3147

The tree is scheduled to be taken down next week. RIP, big old friend!