Sycamore die back

[Stere]

Noticed alot of random "sycamore dieback" this year in different locations

 

Dead crowns  or early leave drop whislt other trees close by are still 100% healthy  green leaves

 

Wonder if it was something to do with the drought last yr as many sycamores are up on raised cloddiau

 

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by Stere

[Stephen Blair]

I’ve had 2 sycamores of late and both have been close to boundaries and neighbours have had resent building work that’s taken away roots.

  

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

In smaller Sycamores, often roadside regen, I've noticed many with leaf browning at branch ends and wondered whether grey squirrels may be a factor, i.e. ring barking to access sap flow particularly if thirsty devils cozza drought conditions...dunno  

 

Just summat t'throw'in'ta mix appen..

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

6 hours ago, Stere said:

Noticed alot of random "sycamore dieback" this year in different locations

 

Dead crowns  or early leave drop whislt other trees close by are still 100% healthy  green leaves

 

Wonder if it was something to do with the drought last yr as many sycamores are up on raised cloddiau

 

 

I had to look up cloddiau!  Never happened across that term before ?

 

Luckily, found an English language version ??

 

http://dswales.org.uk/files/PrintClawdd Spec English.pdf

 

notable similarities with the Cornish hedge:

 

CORNISH HEDGES

WWW.CORNISHHEDGES.CO.UK

---

Cornish, Hedges, Menneer, Cornwall, cornish, hedges, walls, stone, granite, bronze, age

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by kevinjohnsonmbe

[Paul in the woods]

4 hours ago, AA Teccie (Paul) said:

In smaller Sycamores, often roadside regen, I've noticed many with leaf browning at branch ends and wondered whether grey squirrels may be a factor, i.e. ring barking to access sap flow particularly if thirsty devils cozza drought conditions...dunno 

I've noticed this for the first time this year, i.e. squirrels stripping very thin shoots. I've seen sycamores in hedges and on my woodland my field maple has been attacked on narrow leaders, less than 1" in places. The bark stripping is fairly obvious though and you get trees with fairly perfect leaves and then brown withered tips.

 

On a side note, I thought no one knows why grey squirrels strip bark, certainly where I've seen the sycamores stripped there's plenty of water as the trees are next to a stream that flows all year so I doubt it's thirst.

[Stere]

This booklet has more details on cloddiau if  anyones interested:

 

https://www.drystonewalling.wales/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ClawddConstruction.pdf

 

 

[openspaceman]

19 hours ago, Paul in the woods said:

I thought no one knows why grey squirrels strip bark

The late Judith Rowe at the FC said it was displaced males and they targeted trees with a wide phloem, which tends to happen after thinning as the trees put on a growth spurt as the canopy reacts to more sunlight.

 

The attacks happen in late spring but it's when the branches die that the dead bits in the crown become more noticeable.

 

This is why warfarin should have been a  good control method before it was banned but it was largely poorly  deployed which meant it became useless over time.

 

 

Nearly always the stripping seems to start from the ground or a branch union, which is why I advocated early pruning of selected trees

[jamallio96]

I'm not sure about previous years, but this year the very cold wind we had in spring just as the the buds were opening (was it storm Hannah maybe?) hit the sycamores (and beech) really bad, lots of them haven't really recovered and have a thinner canopy with smaller, brown edged leaves.