Maple trees thinning out

6 years ago

Hi all. Hoping someone can share some expertise on what's going on with my maple trees. I have 3 that are all exhibiting the same symptoms, thinned out canopy and a lot of dead branches. I first noticed it last year, and this year it's definitely gotten worse. Location is southern Ontario. Here are a few pics.

thanks

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Comments (3)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
6 years ago
has that water beyond the fence always been there ...

any recent yard grading.. i dont see a root flare ... https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=root+flare&iax=images&ia=images

the bluish teal stuff are lichens.. totally harmless ...

probably irrelevant.. but what is used on the weedfree lawn ...

ken
Embothrium
6 years ago
The severe interveinal chlorosis also indicates something has gone haywire.
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M Beaton
Original Author
6 years ago
@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 Thanks for the input. There is no water beyond the fence, are you referring to the first pic? There is a shed that's visible through the trees, but, that's it.

There has been no grading change in that area, but, there have been a few changes over the past 4-5 years. This used to be maintained space. The previous owners had essentially a 10-12' boundary around the full property, with misc plants such as hostas and stuff. In total, it was probably 300' x 12'. For the first 5 yrs after we bought, we maintained as such ... but, then we started a family. Long story short, and a few kids later, those nicely maintained areas turned in to waist height weeds. So, what you're looking @ now (i.e. that nice grass), is actually new sod that was installed approximately 1 month ago. All the weeds got cleaned out, fresh layer of topsoil and new sod. The tree condition has been declining for a few years, so, I was actually thinking it was the weeds! :). The only other change is there used to be a small spruce tree, approx 10 ' away from it, that was crowded out, and on a huge lean toward the fence - so I remove that 3 yrs ago. Note, that area has always been really soggy - the whole property grades that way.

Here is a wider angle picture of the area for your reference.

I have 2 other trees that are exhibiting the exact same symptoms. Here is the first one. Not much has changed in this area, other than more weeds than it's probably used to.

And finally, this one. There has literally been zero changes in this area since we bought the house. It also has thinning/dead branches everywhere. I'm less concerned about this one as I'm taking it down in the fall as it's way to close to the house - but, it's just for reference. It's not nearly as far along as the others, but, a few years ago, you couldn't see daylight through this thing if you tried.