What part of the world are you in and how large of trees? My neighbor's Burr oak is 100+ feet accross and I ain't helping him spray for example.

With the late leaf drop here I am expecting all sorts of grass and maybe tree problems. Usually they get mowed up but not this year.

How is your yard doing leaf wise?

Austin, Texas, USA. Probably 4 hackberries 30-40 feet. The burr oak is probably 60 ft across. Just removed 20 bags of oak leaves from the yard.

Tom - I know that anthracnose can kill dogwoods (Cornus florida), particularly when they are in less than optimal growing conditions, but didn't know that it has a lesser effect on other trees. Are there other trees you know of where this is of concern, or are dogwoods the only tree where it goes beyond cosmetic? TIA

I know I asked a lot of questions. I'm not worried about the health of my mature tree. Here is my main question: will anthracnose kill my saplings if multiple trees within 40 ft have it?

Probably not?

In dork terms I think of a tree as having Hit Points. Each good year it fills up to 100. Anthracnose takes 20 leaving 80. So it isn't dead but if the summer has a drought worth 80 Hit Points then only the trees in prime health will survive.

Cornus florida is killed by all sorts of things. Is such a beautiful tree mother nature is jealous.

Excellent treatment, Tor. So, these organisms (trees) exist along a continuum, just like you and me. We don't have one set point where we can live but rather, a wide range of inputs and other factors in which we can live. Trees operate this same way-they are impacted by all sorts of things but it is a normal part of their existence. For some reason-maybe it's just the internet-there seems to be a rise in folks worried about relatively minor leaf blemishes and stuff like that, kind of as if maybe lots of folks never really looked at plants and noticed that they harbor all kinds of life. But things like anthracnose on oaks happens every year. I hesitate to even call it a disease, although it surely is. But there's bigger things in life to worry about! And why are we getting so many people writing in lately that don't seem to know that deciduous trees lo0se their leaves in the fall? I've seen more posts here relative to minor leaf blemishes this fall/winter than during the entire growing season, when presumably, it might have mattered more. By this time of year, if you're in an area where there are even still leaves on the tree-we've got snow on the ground here-tree leaves, which BTW are temporary structures, are all beat to hell, and that is as it should be. They've done their job. The only plants you see come through the summer with no leaf lesions or anything else are icky invasive junk species like pears and crap like that-buckthorn, etc. Those leaves look perfect at the end of summer, and there's a tragedy buried in that factoid. No other life forms get anything from plants like that. It's almost as if they exist by themselves in a strange world cut off from nature.

Thanks, this is really helpful knowing that leaves are usually beat up by the time fall comes. I am a tree novice. And I really enjoy the concept of trees having hit points. I probably won't be able to shake that idea.

Brandt, thanks for reading my excess in good spirit!