I planted this tree few weeks ago (dwarf plum tree)
Now I see that this morning there was some black sooty stuff at the bottom base of tree!
I vacuumed it up. It looked like it was sprinkled there. Was this something the HOA does to kill plants? Couldn't find a thing online... Please help?
that is odd, and not the usual way somebody would kill a tree, but I don't know what it is. Possibly a dry organic fertilizer.
There are several granular vegetation killers that will kill woody plants. Have you asked the HOA?
Yikes! That's pretty dirty if it turns out to be plant killer.
What kind of neighborhood do you live in that the HOA 1) would take care of the residents' grounds and 2) try to kill any plants put out by the residents?
Our HOA hires a landscape company to take care of the common areas (entrance, playground, and pool) for instance. The residents are supposed to keep up their lawns which runs the gamut.
I would think that there is a logical reason why the unidentified stuff is there without jumping to conclusions.
It looks like dry soil brought up by earthworm (ant?, other?) activity. Is there a particular reason why it may not be that, e.g. chemical odour?
I was kind of thinking the same thing altagardener, mainly ants though. Seems like earthworms would push up a ball of wet soil and not as spread about (at least in my neck of the woods). If there are ants in the soil, then more of the same stuff will soon show itself.
Well, I guess earthworms might push up wet soil if the soil is wet; then it dries. You can see the little soil deposits on lawns sometimes... just suggesting that there are natural and normal ways that soil can come to the surface on top of the mulch. :-)
Anyway, the question is just whether there's any evidence to say it's not simply soil. The original poster hasn't commented.
