Tips For Treating The Common Maple Tree Diseases

30 September 2015
 Categories: , Blog

Share

Maple trees are renowned for beauty, strength, and a wide range of commercial uses. The strength of the trees is offset by the possibility to contract tree diseases. There are a few types of tree diseases that occur with maple trees that can mostly be remedied through regular maintenance.

Here are a few of the common maple tree diseases, potential remedies, and how a tree service can help.

Canker Disease

Canker disease can come from several types of fungi that infect an opening in the tree's bark. The opening can be caused by damage or previous bouts of illness. When the area is infected, the outer bark will turn reddish brown while the inner bark turns black. The sore can have a pungent smell or ooze from the opening.

It is easier to prevent canker disease than to treat the cankers. Ensure that the tree receives regular trimming, watering, and mulching. Leave the trimming up to a professional tree trimming service, especially if you start to see signs of cankers developing. The tree can try to fight off the canker by creating a scab around the sore and cutting into that scab unknowingly can simply spread the canker further through the tree.

Heart Rot

Heart rot is another potential maple tree disease that takes hold in an already damaged section of bark. The main symptom of heart rot is the appearance of mushroom-shaped bulges near the damaged areas of the tree.

Proper tree care and carefully trimming are again the best courses of treatment. Make sure a reputable tree trimming service tends to your maple tree regularly to make sure there aren't any damaged areas where the heart rot can take hold. Doing the task yourself can risk accidentally creating further damaged areas due to a slight bump of the gardening tools into a healthy branch while cutting.

Sooty Mold

Sooty mold disease causes a thick, sticky black substance to form on the tree's leaves, in the soil around the base of the leaves, and even on any sidewalks that might abut the tree. Sooty mold happens on trees that contain certain honeydew insects. The disease is largely a cosmetic issue, but if the mold completely blankets leaves, those leaves can stop growing properly.

You can ward off sooty mold by treating the tree for the insect problem. Cut off any affected leaves early in the process to avoid the black stuff from spreading to neighboring leaves. You can call in a tree trimming service such as Desert Gardens Outdoor Services, Inc. for regular prunings to further keep the mold at bay.