Magnolia tree problem

[Josh]

This is my neighbors tree, right next to my yard. He's been trying to save it for a few years now, but it just gets worse and worse. He's had supposed arborists come out and look at it. He's followed their advise. They said cut the grass in a 3' perimeter around the tree and mulch it. He did. They said to fertilize with a special magnolia tree fertilizer, he has. They said water deep with a soaker hose, he does. But its only gets worse. The tree is about 25 years old. Here is a pic.



Notice how thin it is and how many dead looking branches there are up top? Also it drops a lot of leaves constantly, as seen in the pic.

So does anybody know what might be the problem? Is the tree done and need to be taken down or can we save it?

[MorpheusPA]

I'm presuming the arborists would have picked up on any disease. Anthracnose is on my mind right now, as southern magnolias suffer from it, and I just lost a beautiful dogwood to it. Are the leaves spotted and dying, or do they just turn brown pretty evenly and drop?

Magnolias are evergreen down where you are, although they do replace any given leaf every 3 years or so. Still, that would tend to be fairly even loss, not looking like that. They don't like sodden soil, although if it's survived this long I'm thinking that's not a problem.

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare ... 634web.pdf

That's a link to shade tree diseases and I'm thinking OK diseases should be close enough to you in TX to apply.

While magnolias have good lifespans (100+ years), let's face it. In home landscapes, they rarely live anywhere near that long. We tramp around the yard and compact the soil (strangling the tree). We feed them (they really don't need it). Even if you don't feed it, it's taking food when you feed the lawn.

If the soil is compacted (you can determine that by pushing a screwdriver into the soil...if it doesn't go in fairly deeply and easily, it's compact) it may be time for an aeration. Mechanical will work, but will break the feeder roots of the tree and I wouldn't go closer than halfway between the canopy edge and the trunk with it...nor much bother going more than 2 1/2 times the canopy distance. Chemical aeration (Nitron or a half a billion others) might be better, but I'm not sure with trees.

[andy10917]

I'm betting the farm on Verticillium Wilt, a known killer of Magnolia trees. The symptoms are just too close.



If it's Verticillium Wilt, with a ton of work you could get a "remission" for a while. But nine times in ten, it comes back because it is a vascular disease.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

As I understand it, magnolias love a deep, rich, acidic soil. You live in, well, not that soil.

[bpgreen]

As I understand it, magnolias love a deep, rich, acidic soil. You live in, well, not that soil.

+1

I couldn't see enough detail in the leaves, but I'm going to guess they were bright yellow with dark green veins. If things are bad enough, the veins might not even be all that green. If I'm right, you're seeing iron chlorosis.

You can mix some water soluble iron in some water, along with some baby shampoo as a surfactant and spray the leaves for some immediate help. That will last a week or so.

Then drill some holes around the drip line and bury some soil sulfur. If you don't have enough iron in the soil, add some iron sulfate along with the sulfur. cover with soil and water well. That will start helping next year and help for a few years after that.

Get some eddha iron chelate and dig some smaller holes around the drip line. Pour a tablespoon or so in each hole. You'll probably need about 8 tablespoons for a tree that size. That will kick in about when the foliar spray stops helping and help for the summer. In the fall, you may need to repeat this step and again next spring (or late winter).

Make sure you don't overwater it because too much water can aggravate iron chlorosis.

You could also do the sensible thing and dig it up and replace it with a tree that will do better where you are (but what's the fun in that?).