how do you....?

Question

"bring back" a dieing white birch tree?

Answer 1

You may not be able to. Death in a tree is a slow decline as the food storage system fails. This can be due to borers who have eaten out the pholem...the food conducting tissue; death due to root rot or disease...no water or nutrients entering the tree; death due to disease caused by major wound or many smaller wounds, etc.

Think what might be causing the problem..........change in grade over the roots, drought, being cut by weed whacker over and over, lawnmoweritis........banging the tree. Look for signs of borers inside the tree....hole, sawdust, cracks. If the problem is cultural, say drought, then correct that. If the problem is internal insects, sorry. Ditto with disease. If the problem is leaf insects that can be eliminated, then do so.

Prune off all dead limbs at least. The tree will look better. Prune properly, bad pruning can be cause of death in a birch.

Birch are designed by nature to be "temporary". They are the first to appear when a forest is injured....fire. They are nurse trees protecting the forest so the more permanent trees such as hickory, oaks, etc can get started. Nature has not given birches good defense systems against disease.....they are designed for "short life spans." In the west the fall-guy tree is the aspen.....another short lived tree.

Call a certified arborist. Not Joe-Pickup-Truck-with-a-chainsaw, but someone certified by NAA or ISA. They can examine your tree and give you the odds on survival. They hate to see trees die too, but are also realists.

Answer 2

How do you know it's dieing? With the dry weather we had here in NE Ohio in July, some birches were dropping their leaves. If your city has an arborist or forester, have them look at it, or call your county extension agent for advice. The leaf drop due to lack of water is a self defense mechanism, and if this is the case, they will be fine next year.

Visit our website for more gardening ideas at-
http://www.gardening-at-the-crossroads.com/

Good Luck and Happy Gardening from Cathy and Neal!

Answer 3

Chances are you have a borer in the tree. What you would need to do to save the tree would be to cut just below where it is dying. You would then with luck beable to see small holes in the wood (right below cut ON tree not on discarded) where they entered. and remove them. There is a borer systemic you can buy to protect your tree for future attacks.

Answer 4

most likely you can't. You need to get a professional to examine the tree for insect damage and determine just what the problem before you can start any treatment to try and save the tree.

Answer 5

I hope some one has an answer other than to cut it down and plant another,,,,,