Poorly Rowan

[Rock Monkey]

Hi All

 

Hoping someone may be able to offer some advice/wisdom on a sick Rowan tree. A friend of mine has a mature rowan, got to be 30yrs old at least, which is showing signs of dieback in the crown. The stem also has large cracks in it, but he hasn't seen any oozing from these. I've got a picture of the bark but unfortunately he had pruned out the dead branches before I arrived. No fruiting bodies are present. The tree is sprouting from the base.

One other thing I noticed was that there is a large portion of root, approx 3-4" dia and 4m long, that is visible in his lawn. It has obviously been hit by the mower a few times and when I asked him about this he said that the root has only come to the surface in the last couple of years.

The tree is situated in the middle of a lawn.

 

Some kind of canker?

 

Any ideas great appreciated!

 

Sorry, picture needs rotating!

[Jesse]

Stereum canker rot. Stereum rugosum. in fact more inclined o go with Nectria canker .

Edited August 1, 2015 by Jesse
re think

[Eddy_t]

Looks normal to me, rowan is a fairly short lived tree that grows large quickly. There's a half dead limb in the picture, but no canker.

 

Regrowth from the base is normal, simply, you have 3 choices: do nothing as the main part will die and be replaced by the epicormic, reduce to start the retrenchment process (which will extend the life of the crown, but eventually it'll die back to the epicormic), or finally, fell it as its dying back, leave the epicormic as it'll regrow as coppice.