Whitebeam woes....

[ChrisF]

We have this whitebeam at the side of the house that seems to get upset every July. It does fine up until then, but around every July it starts dropping its leaves, and not just a few.....about half its leaves are now dropped....it looks like autumn out there! They turn yellow/brown then dry, shrivel and drop. It gets plenty of rain water and how no immediate competition. I can;t see any sign of infection/disease. Another whitebeam in front of the house is doing very well and keeps its leaves till the autumn.

 

Any ideas?

[Taupotreeman]

Oh, and red spider mite throughout was obvious.

[fagus]

I am with Rushes, it is not in a good location- grass and paving intercepting water ingress. It is always going to be a poor doer. Changing the surface near it to a largish mulch circle would help but if it starts to thrive you might not want a bigger tree close to the house,

[Gary Prentice]

But there are plenty of mature trees of this species growing in urban verges and 1m square pits surrounded by asphalt and paving. They're pretty tolerant and that tree isn't growing in really hostile environment.

[onetruth]

I don't think shading is likely to be an issue. The photo suggests that most of the crown is getting direct light for at least some of the day. 6m of growth in about as many years is pretty good and it doesn't look overly spindley to me.

 

You say it happens "every year" - do you mean from when you moved in or did you notice it first last year?

 

And you've never noticed any similar symptoms on the other one at all?

Edited August 9, 2016 by onetruth

[Coximus]

I see a fair few like that round leeds - All the ones on heavy clay soils seem to drop leaves, the ones on sandy and lighter soils dont seem to.

[Beardie]

Get rid of it. It's in the wrong place for anything that size, healthy or not. When it's gone you won't believe how much extra light you get in the house.

[ChrisF]

Just noticed all the additional replies, apologies for not replying earlier.

 

It's happened every year since we moved in 7 years ago. It's in good soil, free draining. Another identical tree not far from it is thriving - but it's in a much sunnier position.

 

We've reached the conclusion that it needs to go. It's a very good point that if we managed to improve its lot and it thrived it would be too big for its position so no point in trying really.

 

Thanks all, much appreciated.