Cercospora Sequoiae gets just about every single Sequoiadendron in the East, except possibly at the extreme northern limits from a winter hardiness perspective.

It's a shame as it's probably one of my most sought-after trees...but unless I move to CA, I probably will never have one long-term.

Where are you located?
I'm in Connecticut, and also have this problem with my Giant Sequoia. Mine is only about 4 feet tall, but every year the bottom branches die, inner branches first working to the outer.. I keep having to limb it up.. I just bought some fungicide and may give that a try. I have seen 10 giants sequoias throughout Connecticut, and most of them have Cercospora. However, I did see one recently that appeared to be resistant.
For natural methods, Edwin had suggested coffee mud around the base. I have also heard sprinkling cornmeal, and spraying foliage with milk! I am going to experiment with these methods and see if anything improves the tree.
Would love to see a picture of yours..

Jeff

Here is mine..

Here's a pic of mine from two years ago. It's about 10' tall now though. From what I've read, it needs to be totally sprayed with copper fungicide every 7-10 days throughout the summer and it seemed like it had to be sprayed like that every year to prevent this. I suppose that as long as the tree is growing faster than the blight is taking away that the tree would be okay. I have other susceptible trees in the yard to worry about though and I think it's best just to remove my tree. I'm not very pleased about it but it is what it is. I think I'll plant a black tupelo in it's place.

Also, does anyone know how easy Cercospora Sequoiae spreads from tree to tree? Or does it mainly just stay on the host tree?
J

Here is a link to one growing near my home--Burlington NJ.(6b) Tree must be tougher than the blight. Been there a while 40+ i would guess

Here is a link that might be useful: Giant Sequoia

Thanks for the picture! That specimen in NJ doesn't look the best but at least it's growing.....and it hasn't been treated.

Sequoiadendron giganteum planted in hot/humid areas is susceptible to the following:
Botrytis cinerea
Pestalotia funereal and Cercospora sequoia are leave/needle blighting fungi
Phomopsis juniperovora is a twig blighting fungi

I've successfully used a spray combination of chlorothalonil, mancozeb, and propiconazole on younger trees to prevent dieback. You have to spray weekly.Trees that I've not diligently sprayed have dead twigs and needles so I'm assuming spraying works. As the trees get older, I plan on using a systemic propiconazole injection. It's not known if that will be effective. A lot of maintenance to keep these trees alive outside there natural area...especially in the south. I guess it's worth it when nobody else around has one.

Thanks abciximab. I am growing several different redwood trees in SE NY so it is good to know how to keep these guys thriving.

abciximab, I believe I am experiencing the early stages of Cercospora Sequoiae. With your fungicide cocktail, do you mix 1:1:1, or is it best to spray each fungicide separately? Just getting into this, so any advice would be great.

I am in northern Indiana and I spray my trees with propiconazole . I have found this to be effective and I don't do it "weekly", perhaps five to six times throughout the growing season has proven to be more than sufficient for me.

Several of you have expressed concern that once the trees get bigger, spraying will become impossible. But actually, the higher the trees get, the more air circulation there is up there so it's not quite as much of a problem (neither does it completely go away).

What killed my trees, however, was the cold. I am on the border line between zones 5a and 5b and that is just plain too cold for Sequoias. I had one tree thrive for about 10 years until the hard winter of 2014. It was toast.

But now I have found out that there are two cultivars of cold resistant Sequoias good for zone five. Sequoiadendron "Hazel Smith" and "Idaho Endurance". Good luck with trying to find them, however. It took me a long, long time to find some specimens but I finally did. They seem to be doing well.

Regards,

Fred M. Cain,

Topeka, IN