I suppose the good news is that you plant in pots, so theoretically, you could move your hostas to a spot not within the drip line of the Pecan?

Either way, it SUCKS!

What were you spraying with?

I have a few that have come up with it as well and have not done anything other than pinch leaves.

You might want to talk to an Arborist. My understanding is that Anthracnose is opportunistic in that it appears on trees that are stressed. An Arborist might be able to open the canopy to provide more air circulation, remove any diseased branches or twigs and/or cankers that may be full of fruiting bodies.

Make sure you are removing all the Pecan leaves in the Fall and trashing or burning these. Do the same with your Hosta leaves. Water at the base of the Hostas to keep the leaf surfaces dry as much as possible.

Any ideas on what might be stressing the Pecan (besides living in Dallas)? Anything damaging the roots? Construction? No tree ring I hope.

Steve

I may own the most abused/ugliest pecan tree in Dallas. It's a Desirable, I think. This was a rental house for many years before I bought it. According to the neighbor, a tenant used the tree as a hoist to replace a motor. That caused the big gash in the west side. There are other odd places where huge limbs once were. It has been through the mill. I suspect it has a rot problem.

It gets water, fertilizer and such that a surbuban tree gets. We've had lots of environmental stress the last few years with the extremely high temps and drought. Watering is just not the same as rain. My neighbor's pecan tree is increasingly shading it on one side. Her's is a native pecan, so it's taller.

The tree is the main shade for my back yard. I've considered taking it out, but don't. It's hard to justify taking out a tree, no matter how ugly, in the south. Shade just provides so much relief from the relentless sun in the summer that people rarely remove trees unless they extremely diseased or dead.

I'm going to call the extension service again today to see if they have any ideas.

Melissa, it's my only backyard shade. So I really don't have anywhere to move my hosta to. It's canopy and the neighbor's overhanging pecan tree shade at lease 1/2 my backyard. The other areas are full sun.

bkay

its cosmetic.. ignore it..

move them..

thats just about all your options ...

i suppose you could also put up some shade cloth.. to reduce direct impact ...

what about a couple lexan panels as a roof to stop fall out?? .. see link

i cant recall what my pole barn window stuff is.. 2 inch wavy stuff ... lets see if google is magic today .. nope.. and when i see the name.. it will be a duh moment.. lol ..

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

My advice is to start some long-term planning. Pick an ideal spot in your back yard and plant the ideal tree (probably a faster-growing but solid one) for your environment. In the meantime, maintain the present set-up for as long as possible. Then in about 5 years, take out the sickly pecan tree and move all your hostas over to the new tree which should be casting an acceptable amount of shade by that time.

As a homeowner, you can make tree plans for the next 20-30 years--one of the benefits of owning rather than renting.

Good luck.

Kate

I think the term is POLYCARBONATE, Ken. We have it enclosing our old side porch, on three sides, all 3/8 inch thick, clear stuff with no UV filter. I wanted it for the parrots to get the full effects of natural light, no filtering.

Also, I have the double walled stuff in the eastern half of my Teahouse (restored derelict garage)roof. It was to be the home of my wintered-over tropical plants, but until our remodel is done, the tropicals had better hope for a mild winter.

And, oh dear me, BKay, ignorance is bliss here....now that I know about anthracnose, I'll get it for sure with three pecan trees the only big things in my property. I'd sure hate to lose them, but our neighbors to the south provide the rest of our shade from old sweet gum and water oaks, with some dang-blasted camphor trash trees too. Us southerners do love our trees, but we took out 5 pines, a sweetgum and a water oak--our insurance policy liked the way it looked afterward.

I haven't identified anthracnose YET, but I bet if I look I just might. I found my first southern blight today, my lovely The Razor's Edge is almost gone, and it was so pretty a week or so ago. Too much rain, too much humidity, and too much heat. What a mess. Damage control here.

But, meanwhile, I have moved most of my hosta into more sunshine. I'm not sure what is going on, but we're in the throes of overcast days and not as hot a temp...but I cannot say the humidity is down any! I'm able to work in the garden now whereas I could not a month ago.

May I suggest that you take your least favorites and move those first? My whole garden these days is a "moveable feast" and nothing stays in one spot for very long. If you have big pots, get a good dolly with a long spade on it to help balance big pots. Big diameter tires on it perhaps if you roll across soft soil.

I'm glad you brought up the subject, BKay, although I'm so very sorry that you have to deal with this after a hard dry summer. At least you knew what it was before it took out your whole garden.

thx moc

image 5 at the link ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Moccasin, I don't have any idea about how common this disease is. My tree is probably 40 years old. It's a Desirable, and not the most adapted variety for this area. It's been abused. I would not be concerned about your trees if you planted adapted varieties. I will check out the neighbor's tree and see if it has any symptoms and let you know. And really, the Blue Angel is the only one that really suffers with it. I had plannned to repot it in all new soil this winter, thinking that I would be rid of the problem. I was going to do a soil drench on all the others just to make sure, but, in my mind, I had the problem solved. "The best laid schemes of mice and men" and all that stuff.

I'm going to get an arborist out to see if I can do anything to help the health of the tree. I was looking at a couple of their websites and one was mentioning something about "deep fertilization" for stressed trees. Does that make any sense?

bkay

"deep fertilization" for stressed trees

===>>>> all snake oil IMHO ... though you might get other opinions in the tree forum ....

and what is this deep part .. most roots are within the first foot or two.. so whats the point of putting snake oil 'deep'????

and they say.. a tree can be twice as big below ground.. as above.. how the heck do you know where to inject it.. the feeder roots could be two or three houses down the road ... and dont even get me going on tree spikes.. lol ...

do you have a lawn.. is it fertilized.. guess who takes about 50% of what you put on it.. yep .... mature trees ...

and guess who gets most of the lawn clippings.. presuming you dont bag them .... the trees ...

IMHO... there is nothing you CAN do for the tree .... within a reasonable budget ... obviously money talks ... and nothing you NEED do for the tree.. other than decide whether you want to get rid of it..

think long and hard about investing any significant money on trying to help a mature tree ... again.. if you are going to invest money.. invest in removal ...

ken

ps: i dont understand when you keep repeating: "It's a Desirable" .. perhaps i missed what that means .... in my world.. a diseased tree is NOT desirable ...

"Desirable" is the variety of pecan tree, like Caddo, Comanche, etc. I'm not sure, of course, as the tree was here when I bought the house. It was available and popular in this area about 40 years ago. It matches the description of the tree and the pecans. Why it was popular is that it produces most years, instead of every other year which is typical for pecan trees. It is better adapted to the southeastern states than our area, though.

bkay

Per Steve_Mass idea to remove all the leaves, there are some coming down now with the pecans. The squirrels are not too careful when they harvest the nuts.

I was out today raking and preparing a pile of leaves etc to bag for trash pickup. Better safe than sorry, sez moi.

Well, I don't know what it looks like, but after you discussed southern blight, guess what I just found.....my sweet The Razor's Edge, just devastated, eat up with it. I'm tossing pot and all into the garbage, not waiting for trash pickup. Our everyday rain plus heat/humidity did him in. I'll post a picture of it to that thread. Just wanted to say here that ignorance is bliss. If I had not known about it, WOULD IT HAVE KILLED MY HOSTA? Sometimes knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Moccasin, I don't think naming it made it happen. I've had southern blight, too. It was one plant, one time, though. I didn't toss mine. I pulled it out of the pot and hosed off all the rotted spots and potted it back up in two pots. It now looks fine, except that it has never totally recovered the white edges (u. albomarginata). It was way too crowded in the pot, I think.

bkay

Oh. Way too crowded in the pot. Hmmmm, might be. It was also in a part of the garden where air circulation is not the best, down between two of the Mississippi Giant pecan trees. (Mine are that variety, sort of huge pecans with a thin shell)

Well, The Razor's Edge was one of the first I potted up in the spring. I was so proud of it, because it had a big green afro look to it, just filled that pot right up. I intended to put it into a very special pot I ordered from Arizona Pottery, a "head" pot of an African queen but I had other things on my mind keeping up with the needs of all the hosta.

It honestly looks so gross that I did not want to touch it.
Bleach soak? The wonders of bleach!! If there is anything there, I might have a look to see, but it sure doesn't look promising. I won't repeat the photo here, I have the new thread going shows before southern blight and after it. Disgusting the mess it made of that lovely plant.

And Ken, you say that anthracnose is only cosmetic? I will look for pictures besides this one of BKay to see if I can learn to ID it early in its onset.

Moccasin, just do a search on one of the search engines for anthracnose and then choose "images". It doesn't take long to be able to recognize it. They're brown round lesions on the leaves, mostly.

bkay

I came in on this one late moc, just after viewing your Take a Chance posting and looking at Millies Memoirs,a beautiful hosta and that one healthy looking leaf with the devestated tip.

The I came here and looked and read bkays post and viewed the pics with the leaves that have similar looking devestated tips. My mind immediately went to "moc has pecans" and "get her to look at this thread. Then I read your replies.

I hope you don't have the same problem with your pecans. My heart goes out to you bkay. For so many years I have preached the invincibility of hostas to people and encouraged them to grow these easy to care for beauties in their gardens.

I can't help but wonder if all the hybridizing and tissue culturing to develop new varieties isn't weakening hostas ability to cope with their enemies. Are we screwing up their immune systems?

I really don't know anything about what I am talking about and admit it, but I am certain all these enemies of hostas have been around a really long time. But maybe not in Japan, Korea or China. The two hostas seen here in Wilmington in every yard and along every walk and driveway, U. Albo and Lancifolia seem to have been here for so long they have totally acclimated to the Wilmington weather. I have seen them unfurl out of snow and bear up to full sun. They are abused by never fert. or watering, never covered when a late freeze hits, etc. and are never damaged. The ones in direct sun and not watered are really crispy this year but I'll bet in spring you would never guess it.

I realize this has strayed off subject bkay. It's just my compassion and concern for your dilemma pulling at me.

I, like all of us here on GW/HF can't refuse new beautiful hostas even when they are all green like Niagara Falls. I don't add as many new ones as many of you do, but what I do stresses my budget. I might have to eat more souper-rice meals to save it. But that is a small price to pay.
My late purchases when my SS check comes in next mo. will be M. Aureomarginata and Mystic Star and a box of minute-rice and cream of mushroom soups.

To find my Theresa's Angel Garden is being devestated from the black walnut canapy that allows them to exist there would hurt beyond measure.

I will shut up now and silently follow this thread and hope some form of salvation will come out of it for you bkay.

Les

Les, I don't think it's that bad. I just have to spray occasionally, as far as I know. I just hate to spray.

Good fall cleanup will probably help contain the disease, too. I've been composting the leaves, but will rake them and send them to the landfill this year.

It's not the worst thing that ever happened. At the first of the week, I was pretty upset, but it's waning. Ken is mostly right, it won't kill the plant, just weaken it and make it look ugly. You know us hosta growers - there's always next spring.

bkay

BKay, I can imagine I hear you sighing with that last.
So discouraging when you want things to be perfect. However, I've reached a compromise about perfect things, it just is not a word in my vocabulary. What looks good one week, has "issues" the next. And life is too short to keep everything humming along like a fine garden with unlimited gardeners. It is just ME here to do it all, and perfect is not out there in my garden. Never be a tour garden here! And I can live with that. Life is too short.

bkay - you would make an excellent Chicago Cubs fan - "there's always next spring.n:"

If I knew where to send it I would send you my "Cubs Win" flag. It's hardly been used.

LOL

Les