we have two beautiful old dogwoods that were on the woods line of our property when we built the house...the last two winters have been very bad and both of them showed it last summer. but one rebounded .this spring I did some recommended treatment but it came back weak again...and recently this orange appeared...not a tree person could really use so help thanks
That looks like a decompositional fungus - meaning it is growing on some dead wood.
I can also see in this image that there is bark missing where it looks like there is evidence of borer tunneling damage. Likely, that borer damage has led to the dead wood which the orange fungus is now helping to decompose.
Without more information, images, or actually being there - I don't know what else I can do to help. There is no reason to "treat" this fungus, because it isn't hurting the live part of the tree and it didn't cause the dead part to die.
Winter storm damage can be quite rough on older plants. Dogwoods have a hard enough time defending themselves when they are otherwise healthy, with all the environmental hazards that they must tolerate. Good luck with yours, but you may need to plan for succession as these individuals decline.
Thank you so much for taking the time to get back...should I prune off the dead branches? there is still considerable growth on many of the other branches..
Yes - keep branches that are showing life, and remove deadwood so that the tree can start closing the pruning cuts you make.
I suspect you may have Dogwood borers. Look for holes in the bark on the trunk under the dead branches. It's been years since I have treated for bark borers. We used to cut the bark at the edges of the hole area to find the grubs and determine the amount of damage done. Also I'm not up on timing for preventative care. If the damage is not too extensive, I would fertilize the tree and look into an insecticide that would be absorbed by the roots,
If the trunk is more than half girdled by the borers, it is time to think of a replacement. Since Dogwood anthracnose is also a factor with the American Dogwood in your area, I would go with the Kousa Dogwood. Anthracnose shows itself by dieback on the ends of the branches. Hope this helps.
Herman
thanks you both for all for the help...I did fertilize....more than two-thirds of the branches seem unaffected yet..I will prune the others..seal and hope thanks again
I should have said -Lo nitrogen (1st number) fertilizer because of the anthracnose. No need to seal the cuts. When I started working on trees, they made us seal everything over 2". Later they determined it was un-necessary.
thanks again
