Why is all the thorn trees dying off ? Pictures

[hazzygawa]

[daveindales]

Is it next to a main road? could be salt damage or herbicide.

[Giles Hill]

They look like they've been cut back hard, the browning could be the thinner 'shade' foliage getting scorched.

[hazzygawa]

Sorry for no description.

 

They are up a private driveway and I cut the tops as the foliage had died off completely. They come back every year but this year it seems to have hit the 50m long hedge quite badly.

The leaves die off and turn brown, quite a mature thorn tree near by has died off as well. no salting and no herbicides as fields near by are for stock

 

Hope this explains a bit

Cheers guys

[Minotaur]

From your description it could be Fireblight - have a good look, then consult this DEFRA page - it is a reportable disease!

 

http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/publications/documents/factsheets/fireblight.pdf

[Andy Collins]

If it's fireblight then there's an epidemic of it, I've seen a lot of thorns, cherries and other stone fruiting trees looking like this this year. But saying that, potato and tomato blight is rife, weather conditions are suiting the blights this year.

[Matthew Arnold]

A large cherry on a hilltop town about 15 mins drive from us was felled by the county tree team as the "specialist arb surveryor" said it had died from bleeding canker and needed to be removed immediately. The tree was healthy it just lost all its leaves and fruit through blight. Needless to say two of my colleagues were more than happy to have the wood as it had the early onset of Laetiporus rot in the centre.

[oakashalder]

I have the same problem with hawthorn on my acre-and-a-half plantation in Wales, which is nowhere near a road or any other possible source of air pollution. I think it may be related to a problem I described in a reply to "lime problem" a little way up the thread. I don't believe it is fireblight as there are no other symptoms of that, such as bleeding and cankers. One of my hawthorns healed itself, putting out new growth from low down on the trunk. Another, that I cut back to better-looking growth myself, took umbrage and died. As I said in that other post, I think it is bacterial and weather (humidity) exacerbated. I don't have any useful advice, but you might look into the acidity of the soil.

[hazzygawa]

Cheers oakashalder.

I think you may be right with the bacterial avenue. Soil is ok.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

They look like they've been cut back hard, the browning could be the thinner 'shade' foliage getting scorched.

 

thats my guess too, the rest of the foliage is fine.

 

wouldnt worry

 

A few dead leaves is not reason to spread panic with a txt like "all the thorn trees are dying"!