Red Gum Problem

[Glen C]

I'm in a bit of trouble....... I have about 5 very large red gums in my backyard. I recently just tried to get council approval to take down one of the trees simply because its on the fence line and I want to replaced the fence. I got knocked back by the council... they gave me pictures of how to build a new fence around the tree.... Fair enough I accepted it.....

This was about 3 weeks ago..... Last week I noticed that one of my other red gums was looking like it was dying.... all the leave have gone brown and its looking kinda dead...

Then this weekend I looked up again and another red gum is looking the same......

A few months ago there was a small red gum... maybe about 1.5 metres tall...I though must have just sprouted from one of the seeds that the tree drops... I don't want any more gum trees I'm happy with what I have... so anyway I chopped it down... about 20cm from the ground.... then left it.... about a month afte rthat it had some sprouts coming up from it so I got a bit of poison and sprayed it.....

Now what I don't know is.... could this have caused my big gum trees to die??? This small one is about half way between the sick looking trees.... I never would have thought it could do any harm...

Now I'm worried that the council is going to think that I killed these trees!!!! :( I don't know what to do.... could it be possible? Even on those sprouts that had been poisoned... they were still light green... I just don't see how this could have happened.....

Is it possible I could have some kind of bugs in the trees?? At the bottom of one of them I tok a little bit of bark off and there appeared to be some small white ants... so I want to get the pest guys out to get rid of that.... But I'm just really worried right now.... not sure what to do..... if these trees die, the council is going to be pointing fingers! About the only good thing is that I didn't try to get approval to chop these sick trees down.... I've tried to do the right thing! Coudl I still get fined even if it was an accident?? Can they prove how the tree died??

Thanks

[Loosecanon]

Hi Glen,

I am just wondering about where you sprayed the tree that had the shoots coming up. Did you just spray the stump or the area around it as well?

Has it been extremely dry in your area? Because Red Gums need lots of water that is underground. These trees are giant pumps so don't be surprise if they use more than 500 litres each a day.

Does your trees have any patches of yellow leaves on them? Some will be green and then sections will be yellow. If the tree has all yellow leaves have any new leaves come out of the old branches? Also can any dead branches be seen without leaves? If any of these have happened then the trees maybe suffering dieback It was a general belief that this is caused by phytophera in the soil. But I saw last year sometime that it can be caused by ground water becoming alkaline with mineral salts. The solution was to put small blocks of iron chelates into the trunk so if was drawn up through the sap layer. Trees recovered well from this treatment.

My Last thought is could your neighbours have poisoned them?

Anyway some things to thinks about.

Richard

[Glen C]

I only sprayed the stump.. which was only about 1 inch diameter.... it was only small! If anything there has been a lot more rain over the past month or so.... perhaps this washed the poison deeper? but I didn't put that much.. just a spray... Pretty much all the leave on each tree sorta curled a bit and drooped... a week later all totally brown....

[Loosecanon]

Spraying should not cause the problem on a stump that size. You would need a large amount to set back the trees.

A lot of rain could cause the problem with the salts.

Also leaves will go brown if they have lerps. The leaves will have a paper skin over them. The bug will be underneath. They tend to harvest sugars from the leaves and nearly defoliate treats.

More to look at I guess. You could ring up the aborist at your council and see what he says. Should be more interested in saving trees than prosecuting.

Cheers

Richard