Cotoneaster

Something is eating my cotoneaster.

You'll have to give us a little more info than that if you're looking for suggestions of what to do about it :-)

Check for escaped elephants.

No, no elephant tracks nearby. LOL

I don't see any bugs. I just find dead places on most of the limbs, mainly closer to the "trunk". The limb past the dead looking place is still green. The limb is brown and some cobwebs on it. I have spider mites on the other side of the garden (150' away) but this isn't like that is.

Might be fireblight, cotoneaster is in a family (Rosaceae) that's susceptible to it. A picture would really help though since there are probably other things that it could be too.

Rabbits? They will try to eat mine during the winter.

I thought of the camera when I was outside last night but was lazy in the 101 degree heat and didn't trek back inside to get it to take a picture of the Cotoneaster. Would Fireblight start at the center and work to the outside? How do you fix fireblight or do you?

Peggy

I don't think there's a cure for fireblight, and if that's what it is and you have other plants in your garden that are susceptible to it, your best bet would be to cut it down and get rid of it ASAP to minimize the chances of it spreading to something else. I've never had a plant with it so I'm not sure how the progression of the disease goes, your best bet would be to cut off a piece that shows the problem and take it to your county extension office, they should hopefully be able to identify the problem for you. But definitely don't go cutting it down until you show it to them--it could be something else entirely, it's hard sometimes to guess what the problem is even when you have a picture, and without one it's even harder so I could be way off base.

It looks like it has spider webs on it and it is brown from the trunk out. I sprayed some bug killer on it the other night so I will see what that does. I don't like bug killer especially that close to the pond.

Peggy

The spider webs are most likely not related at all to your problem. Spiders won't hurt your plants, in fact they'll eat some of the harmful insects that do eat plants, so I wouldn't spray them. Your problem doesn't sound at all like an insect problem, it sounds bacterial or fungal, so I don't think the spray is going to do much for you.

I would definitely cut off one of the dead parts and take it to your county extension agent and find out what it is. I still think it could be fireblight, or it could be something like Phytophthora or oak root fungus (aka Armillaria root rot), I believe that Cotoneaster is susceptible to both of those and it's definitely susceptible to fireblight.

Fireblight can spread to related plants that are in your garden so if that's what you have you definitely want to find out and remove the plant before it spreads to other things. Phytophthora and oak root fungus are carried in the soil so they won't have as much tendency to spread across the garden, but you'll have to be careful what you plant to replace the cotoneaster if it dies since any other susceptible plants that you put in that spot will also wind up with the same problem. (I don't think there's a cure for Phytophthora or oak root fungus either)

OK I'll quit being a lazy bum even if it is hot out and go get a picture. I think you guys will be more apt to help instead of my local extension center.

Honestly, I don't know that I could distinguish between the three things I suggested from a picture, all three look a lot the same. So I still think you might need to make the trip to the extension office! But it's definitely worth posting the picture first, it could turn out it's something completely unrelated to what's already been suggested.

The 'looks like it has spider webs' description makes me think it might have a webworm. There is a Cotoneaster webworm...

Resin
It would have been easy if there were Elephant tracks, the poor thing might have sprung back up after that.

Elephants are clever, they can cover their tracks to avoid detection . . .

But they don't make any webbing, so I think it is safe to count them out as a cause now.

;-)



edit: typo


This message was edited Aug 16, 2007 8:59 AM