Hello,
I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm fairly new to taking care of my backyard and gardening, and a lot of my plants seem to be getting sick or dying. This tree was doing very well until about 3 weeks ago. It survived a swarm of bees in the summer, and was home to a bird's nest for at least 6 months. Recently it began to loose leaves and now they're all falling. The photo on the left is from 12 days ago and the one on the right was taken yesterday. Anyone has any advice?
Thanks!
It looks to me like there's a mountain of mulch piled up against the tree trunk. I can't rule out the possibility that there were other problems too, but piling mulch up like that holds moisture around the base of the trunk and can cause problems. When you plant trees, there's an area at the bottom of the trunk where it starts to flare out into the roots--the top part of this flare needs to be above the soil level and not piled high with mulch in order for the tree to be healthy. Otherwise the base of the tree can rot which will kill it eventually. I don't know when all that mulch was added, but it's very possible that the tree went on for a while and seemed fine, but all of a sudden enough damage had been done that it was no longer able to get water & nutrients out to the leaves, so they started dying.
If you haven't had any significant rain for a while, you could have fire ants nesting at the base of your tree. When it's very dry, they don't mound, they go underground. They kill newly planted trees and shrubs in a hurry. I amend the soil every time I plant anything in my yard and the fire ants just love all that soft new soil. You can check for underground fire ant nests by gently prodding the ground at the base of your tree with a long stick (they may come to the surface if you simply prod the mulch first). I do frequent fire ant patrols here, especially after a rain when the winged ants fly to other areas to create new nests.
Thanks ecrane and NatureLover1950,
Indeed there were fire ants nesting in the mulch. I discovered them recently and took care of them. (After the tree started dying). It almost looked like the pile of mulch was a big mound. But, could that have killed the tree so fast?
Sounds like the fire ants could be a culprit too. But the pile of mulch certainly didn't help things any, and in the absence of fire ants something like that could kill a tree. It won't kill the tree instantly, what'll happen is there'll be gradual damage over time that won't necessarily result in a lot of symptoms, but you'll reach a point where all of a sudden enough damage has been done that nutrients and water can't flow properly from the roots up to the leaves. When that happens, it can seem like the tree died suddenly when in reality the problem started months ago. If you just put the mulch there a few weeks ago it's unlikely that's the problem, but if it's been there all season or longer then it could have contributed. Hard to say whether that's what killed it or the fire ants though--but now at least you know two things to watch out for with your other plants.
It is never a good idea to pile mulch against the trunk of a tree as ecrane stated.
Since you did indeed find fire ants in the mulch, I would venture to say they are the culprit. They tend to chew on young roots and make open pockets of air around the roots. The waxy coating they are covered with gets into the soil also and helps protect the eggs from water by "shedding" moisture away from the area. I have had them kill small plants in pots in a matter of days.
