Diseased Spruce

[nsmike]

What's killing this Spruce? I had to call the city to get them to deal with the widowmaker caught in the branches. The limb has been removed, and the city has started the process, to force the homeowner to take the tree down. I know of at least three trees all blue spruce in the same condition. 

  

 

[fuzzybear]

you got alot of ravens around?? I see that here where the ravens and other birds hang out.
FB

[Ianab]

Locally the Norfolk pines do that if they take a small lighting hit. Not enough to kill the tree all the way to the ground, but it kills the top 20ft or so where it's the smaller diameter.  Removing the dead part allows the rest of the tree to survive, in a shortened state. Or is it progressively getting worse and dying from the top down?

Ian

[nsmike]

It's getting worse with time it's dying from the inside out and top down. What I mean by that is on the interior it's lost it's old growth with the new growth dying on top and working down with time. I know of two more in similar shape so lighting strikes aren't likely. One branch that broke off had sap splotches at the forks. The homeowner picked it up so I can't get a picture. It looks a lot like Cytospora Canker but that's not supposed to kill the tree. We have had some  drought stress.

[RynSmith]

That is how western redcedar responds to drought...

[SwampDonkey]

Could be drought. The tips and leader are the first the die, just as they do with an unsuccessful planting. Spruce are shallow rooted and if it's real sandy loam or sandy it could be bad in drought years. Also, not so much in towns, but porcupine will girdle out the top by chewing a ring around the trunk.

[ArborJake]

 Cytospora usually begins by killing branches at the bottom and predominantly on one side of the tree. Most of the time you can see a sunken in section on the branches and even the trunk. It does look like a lightening strike,but if other tree's in the area have the same damage probably not. Usally when a tree's roots are damaged you first see decline in the top of the tree. Like drought ar a fungus in the root system such as shoe string root rot. What area of the country is it.

[nsmike]

Minnesota

[nsmike]

I went by it today and a large piece of bark had fallen off I picked it up and it was loaded with orange spore sacs like the picture for Cytospora Canker in this spruce disease handout from the MN DNR http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/assistance/backyard/treecare/forest_health/whitesprucediagnosis.pdf

[ArborJake]

 Maybe it is cytospora.

[nsmike]

I'm beginning to think a combination of susceptible individual specimen, moderate drought stress, Cytospora, and a less than ideal soil, combined are killing it. Where the blue spruce aren't dying, one of the factors is missing, so it ends up being a tree here and there.

[ArborJake]

 I think you're probably right. I was taught that most of the time a tree becomes stressed do to environmental problems like drought or change in grade around the tree and so on. Thats when the tree becomes suseptable to different types of desease and insect problems. That tree has a limited root system becuase of the road and sidewalk as it is, plus road salt and it potential problems.

[Clam77]

We have alot of Spruce trees looking like that around here too - I'll have to check and see if those mold spores are on any of them.  Is there a way to combat it or is it a total loss that needs to be removed before it spreads too much?

[nsmike]

I'm not a expert but if you look up Cytospora Canker there are ways of pruning that can save younger trees. Usually it doesn't kill, but it ruins the appearance of the tree, treating gets more and more costly the bigger the tree.