Hello,
I am having some issues with some of my chestnut and walnut trees expressing some symptoms that seem like a disease to me. I'm looking for help or suggestions.
There are two main symptoms that are concerning me:
1) The darkening of some branches to a charcoal color. Other branches, or even other parts of the branch on the same tree look fine. I first noticed this last winter and I pruned out most of the darker wood on the affected trees. It seems to have come back in some extent with most, if not all, of the trees I pruned. (1st photo)
2) Dying cambium around the lower several inches of the trunk. At first I thought it was sunscald or borer damage until I realized it goes all the way around the trunk on all sides and there are no signs of borers. (2nd photo)
What's throwing me off is that both of these symptoms are being expressed in the walnuts as well as the chestnuts. Photos show only chestnuts but it looks pretty much the same in either case. They are all generally planted in the same area.
Is anyone able to help suggest the cause of the issues or is it too tricky without lab analysis? I'm hoping to avoid paying lab prices, but I might do it if it's too confusing.
Should I pull out trees that are affected and replant? Should I let them grow and see how they do in the long run?
Thanks in advance for your advice and wisdom!!
Thank you so much John! I had trouble finding anything particularly helpful searching these symptoms online. Hopefully someone here has seen these symptoms and has experience with them to help me ID the issue.
One other thing I should mention is that we have gophers and one suggestion I heard was that the dark gray bark could either be a disease or symptom of gopher damage belowground. I kinda hope that's the case because its better than disease, but I'm not convinced or certain yet either way.
Chestnut blight presents as orange blisters on the bark on older trees. Maybe less obvious on smaller trees. I have a chestnut affected by the blight. It’s about ten to twelve years old. Thank you everyone for your input!
@sweepbjames that's a great suggestion! I managed to find a moment to dig up a few of the chestnuts that had died this season. At least one of them was expressing the lower trunk black bark/dieback issue. None of the three I dug had any obvious gopher damage unfortunately. I am hesitant to dig up any of the trees that are still alive like the one sprouting back in the first photo, in case it makes a comeback. But if it is confirmed this is likely a disease that would spread it might be better to dig them out proactively. I'm torn on the best approach without knowing for sure.
@Dubyadee thanks for the photo! I am sorry to hear about the blight in your tree. 🙁 I am definitely not seeing those orange blisters on my trees but they are much younger, so I am not sure if it would display differently on young trees. When this started happening last year I was searching blight online and didn't find any photos that look like the issues in my trees, but with the online photos they all seemed to be mature trees and not 1-4 year olds like mine.
A friend mentioned it could be phytopthera which sounds nasty when I read up on it. Is anyone here familiar with how phytopthera presents in young chestnuts or walnuts?
I was hoping it was drought stress because the trees are getting watered only every few weeks, but like @jafar and @John S suggested it seems like a disease. Still it's strange to me that both the walnuts and chestnuts have the same symptoms!
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