Leaf testing for poisoning

[Nell]

A tree specialist has looked at 3 trees in my garden and come to the conclusion that the near death of them ( their leaves suddenly discolured and dropped May/June last year ) is due to malicious damage.

There is one hawthorn and two large sycamores. The sycamores were in the garden when we bought the house about 30 years ago and so were large ,well established trees. Last year they came into leaf in the spring and looked normal until the sudden loss of leaves.

I was told last year ( by a different person )  that it was probably due to environmental issues and it was suggested that I needed to water the trees - 2 other sycamores in the same line were unaffected however.

I hoped that this year the trees may have recovered but apart from small clumps of foliage emerging from the trunks the branches are bare and looking brittle 

The neighbours whose gardens adjoin the line of trees have tried to get me to remove the trees since they moved in but I pointed out to them that the trees were very obvious when they bought the property and if the trees were causing issues their survey would have highlighted this

Anyway, I have been told I could have the foliage tested for signs of poison but this is costly and as the damage was inflicted last year I wondered if the poison would still be evident.

I have a tree surgeon coming next week to take off the dead wood and I need to decide if I want him to harvest some of the foliage to send for testing.

Does anyone know of other places other than Bartletts lab that offer this service so I could get a price comparison?

[Conor Wright]

Nrm labs do testing like this, they were taken over a while back, not sure if the name changed but a quick Google of natural resource management labs will bring them up. 

Used them a few times pre brexit (not so simple to send soil across the irish sea anymore, thanks guys.) for various soil tests for nutrition and toxicity. They were very detailed in their reports and quick turn around at a fraction of the price I've seen posted here, although it was a number of years ago.