sycamore dieback

[chainsaw1]

Does any one know what could be causing Sycamores in local wood to be turning brown and dying in their tops.

[openspaceman]

Does any one know what could be causing Sycamores in local wood to be turning brown and dying in their tops.

 

Ring barking by squirrel? Difficult to tell without a picture but that's what explains most of the mosaic of brown in sycamore hedgerow trees in SE England.

[slack ma girdle]

This might help:

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/tree-health-care/46605-mass-defoliation-sycamore.html

 

I am not convinced that it is sooty die back, but think it is a combination of the terrible weather we have had in the last six months, have provided the worst growing conditions.

[Peter]

If its patches or tufts of dead in an otherwise healthy crown then its most likely squirrels, a quick climb and look for bark gnawing damage will tell you for sure.

[oakashalder]

I am currently having a problem with all the trees in the maple family --sycamore, norway maple and field maple-- due to something that's eating the bark. A fungus, surely. I will post pictures tomorrow, but the outer bark is peeling off in narrow strips and the inner layers are then retreating from that infection to expose the wood below. Although the bark loss mostly spreads vertically, it does also widen and will effectively ring-bark branches or even the entire trunk.