I just found the site while looking for an answer about a tree issue. I am on brackish tidewater creek in NJ that occasionally, about twice a year floods and i have several fruit trees and a large Catalba. A few years ago the town put in new sidewalks without notice and i am sure they disturbed the roots on this huge very old catalba as it was only a few feet from the sidewalk. It is a huge tree with a big girth even 45 years ago when I moved here. I don’t know its age but it must be much older than 60, the average lifetime or so I read. After the sidewalks the tree had very small leaves and few. I thought it was going to die but dreaded the idea of taking it down. Each year since it has done better, more large leaves although the higher parts are smaller and it has flowered the last three years but still does not produce fruit. What could or should I do to help this tree?
Here’s a picture of the tree now. Leaves are already starting to fall. It used to be that you cold hardly see the sky through the tree.
I don’t know anything about this species but maybe edit the title to “Catalpa help” and maybe someone with experience can help you. I think your suspicions are correct though and damaging that large of a root area takes a while to fully repair. Also it could be a slow death due to causing decreased vigor, especially if you have caterpillars on it defoliating it also. Good luck and welcome
I have several catalpas and truth be told, although they are popular as street trees, they are not particularly keen on extreme heat and low humidity - the leaves perspire too much. The bigger problem is susceptibility to fungal infections. Could be from the root damage or maybe there is a crack on the left side of the trunk (looks like that in the photo), or the exposed wound after limb removal, but it is likely the underlying issue. Could be verticillium wilt or some other fungus.
Welcome to the forum @Wreckless! I just edited your thread title so it better described what you were posting about, I hope that’s ok with you. I don’t have any knowledge of those trees myself, though.
Welcome to the forum. We have planted Catalpas a few times here and in our hot wet climate; they rarely make it out of juvenile status. They are a drama queen of trees. Seemingly catching ever passing ailment that passes by.
I’d talk to a local arborist or two. I’ve seen some old trees respond to careful pruning by someone that knows what they are are doing by putting out new healthy growth. I don’t know if catalpas do that or if that would just injure it more. It might just want to sit there doing its thing for another year. Some of the AG stations claim catalpas only produce a lot of seeds every 2-3 years, and I imagine root injury would “feel” like a super heavy bearing year in terms of a shortage of stored nutrients.
That said…it’s a tangent, but in places where I have a beloved old tree at life expectancy I like planting a baby tree near it, so it is already filling in and maturing if the old tree declines. I figure worst case scenario I end up with two trees I like a little too close together.
My road here in WV is chock full of them. I have 2 on my property, my neighbor has 3. There is one neighbor down the road that cut it down to about 2 feet and it came back pretty vigorous.
I had to delimb mine as it was going into the power lines.
I built some nice crude looking fences for aesthetics out of those limbs i really enjoy it.
I forgot about a couple of the logs from the delimbing and the ones that touched the ground set root…
So it must propagate pretty easily?
The worms that get on them and devour the leaves are highly prized for fishing… and the worm poop looks like mini grenades… i think somehow the tree benefits from it… i have seen them skeletonize my trees many times… with no harm.