I just planted a lovely hearts of gold red bud this spring. It has suddenly developed some bright red/orange spots. It also looks like it may have some leaf scald. I have been watering regularly- maybe too much? I planted in full sun ( shade after 3pm). Is this a fungus? Do I treat it? With what? Should I back off the watering? Do I move the tree to a shadier location? HELP!!!!! lovepat
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=h550
Scroll down to the paragraph about 'problems' and google some pictures of each of the diseases, and more info like where on the plant each problem will show up.
I have searched through hundreds of pics and have yet to find this. The color on the surface of the leaf is bright red, irregular in shape, with out any ring or anything fuzzy or spotty in the middle . It bleeds through to the underside where it looks less red.
My bet is that it is a fungus- so I picked off as many affected leaves as I could and applied a fungicide.
My other thought is it could be a result of too much nitrogen as I had reseeded the area before planting and applied quite a bit of grass fertilizer.
Still, I wish I knew for sure and could do the right thing to curb it as it is a lovely little tree...
If it is a disease it would likely be Anthracnose or Alternaria.
It could be related to the lawn fertilizer... as too much can cause burning of the leaves. Do you know if the lawn fertilizer came in contact with any roots? Does it contain a herbicide?
Did you get the leaves wet or spray any oli based compounds on the leaves in the sun?
The lawn fertilizer was the kind used when new grass is seeded and was applied over the entire yard area when grass was planted in early April. No herbicide was applied.The tree was planted in May. Grass was already sprouting in the area.
I have been careful not to wet the foliage when I water at the base of the tree although we had a great deal of rain in May and June. I left a bowl shaped depression at the base of the tree as instructed. The collar of the roots is even with the soil. Compost was mixed with the native soil ( a lot of clay) to refill the hole. Nothing oil based has been applied. I did spray with a fungicide a few days ago (after the tree was in full shade ) after removing many affected leaves. I stopped watering and today I plucked off several crunchy but not discolored leaves.
I planted 3 dogwoods ( two cornus florida /one kousa), a river birch, a sweet bay magnolia in the same yard at the same time and they do not have these reddish splashes on the leaves. The birch and the magnolia get more sun, the dogwoods less.
Thanks for your thoughts- I will look for foliage pics od those two diseases.
