Silver Maple

[JohnHill]

I'm deeply concerned that my established silver maple is dead. I have two silver maples, a younger tree in front and the elder in back of my house. The elder maple lost it's leaves around late August of last year, much earlier than normal. Being from DFW and concerned for heat stress, I watered it until the season began to change. This year I have no growth on the elder tree but the younger tree in front is already sprouting leaves. The company that manages my fertilization of the tree had a look at it and stated that it wasn't dead. I saw where he made a cut in the wood to see if it was still alive. Considering I don't know what to look for inside the bark of an established tree, I can't really tell what he saw. I'm not seeing anything positive. We've had quite a bit of rainfall this month and I do supplement during the dry times. Any suggestions?

[symplastless]

If I was in your area I would bring out a SHIGOMETER and measure the Cambium Electrical Resistance (CER). That way we could see the vitality of the symplast. Your trees problem could be an accumulation of things starting with injuries when the tree was in the nursery to improper pruning, to improper planting, to improper fertilization and the list goes on and on. A good article on rhizosphere is here:

here: here: on chemistry and fert. here: more information then you want?

Sincerely, John A. Keslick, Jr. Arborist

Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology. Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us that we are not the boss.