Trees bring a sense of grace and elegance to your landscape that’s hard to match. But just like your lawn or garden, you want to make sure that you’re properly caring for the trees on your property. They are not immune to diseases, so it’s important to be aware of what you can do to protect your trees from them. In Idaho, four common diseases that can harm your trees are anthracnose, chlorosis, fire blight, and sunscald. Each disease has different symptoms to look out for, and they all develop under certain conditions. Read on to find out how to identify these diseases and what treatments to seek out.
Anthracnose is a fungal disease that primarily affects the leaves on your trees. You’ll be able to tell if your tree is suffering from anthracnose by the browning of its leaves. Leaves that are severely affected will curl and fall off, and in some cases, this disease will also break and split your tree’s branches. As a fungal disease, it typically develops in cool and moist conditions. You’ll want to handle anthracnose by calling a professional to apply a fungicide treatment.
Chlorosis is a disease that transforms the leaves on your tree into a yellowish-white or yellow color. The cause of this disease is rooted in an iron deficiency. What happens is that leaves will not be able to form chlorophyll due to the lack of iron, which results in discolored leaves. Chlorosis problems tend to occur in cool, wet soil conditions, making spring the time when you would most likely see this disease. To treat chlorosis, it’s recommended to schedule a soil treatment to address the iron deficiency.
A trunk injection of iron can also help your tree combat chlorosis. Contact a landscaping professional to inquire about these different treatments.
Fire blight is a bacterial disease that causes the leaves on your tree to become withered and brown—almost like they’ve been burned. The bacteria causing fire blight favors wet and humid conditions to develop. Treatment for fire blight mostly boils down to pruning infected limbs and scraping off infected bark to keep the disease from spreading. Chemical control can be applied to help prevent the spread, but it’s recommended you contact a professional to apply the treatment.
Sunscald is a disease that typically occurs in trees during the winter when it’s exposed to higher heat conditions. When afflicted with this disease, you’ll notice dried, cracked bark peeling off your tree, exposing a layer of dead wood. You’ll mostly see this affecting young trees with thin bark on sunny, dry days in the winter. When the sun hits your tree for a prolonged period, it will warm up and activate previously dormant cells. Once the temperature drops again, those cells are injured from the cold because they lose their cold-hardiness, thereby causing sunscald. The best treatment for sunscald is to provide proper watering and to apply fertilizer to give it extra nutrients so that it can recover.
It’s important to be aware of these four common diseases in Idaho to keep your trees safe and to recognize when you need to seek treatment for them. At Zing Services, we have developed a professional tree and shrub disease control program that can tackle many of the common tree diseases in Idaho. We service commercial, HOA, and residential properties in the Treasure Valley area such as the Treasure Valley, ID, and surrounding cities like Middleton and Star. Call us today at 208-585-9400 to sign up for our tree and shrub disease control program!
