I noticed this morning one of my plum grafts is showing signs of foliage distress with most withering and dropping off. I picked off the majority of dying leaves and removed from site. Then I noticed another plum tree within 10’ has similar withering however the grafts on this one are healthy showing no distress (second pic).
Is this just dry weather distress or a sign of infection? I cut off one twig tip on the first graft (first pic) and the interior looks healthy. The buds all look ok. Please advise if you have clues
Dennis
Kent wa
1 Like
I have the same issue on my oldest most mature plum tree while younger smaller trees are still quite healthy looking. This makes me suspect it has some disease.
I hope someone help’s identify this as I don’t want to lose the tree.
1 Like
It’s either very dry or possibly a root issue. Too dry usually results in bottom leaves turning brown and falling off. Leaves that wither while green are an ominous sign.
1 Like
Do you have two different issues going on here? The bottom tree looks heat stressed to me, but the top tree looks different.
Probably not what’s going on here, but overwatering a plum can look like that - the leaves are droopy like they need water, but watering it just drowns it. We did that once.
1 Like
I gave the top tree a 5 gal bucket of water this morning to see if it can recover, but this is the only limb on the tree affected, but you could be right about over watering. I will let it be a few days. Our weather here goes from high 80s to low 50s so that could be the issue.
Standing within 6’ of the second tree is another native plum that’s been very healthy all spring and still looks unaffected. I have watered them about the same!
Dennis
2 Likes