Tree root rot and soil - sorry for the long post!

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angele Apr 08, 2008

Sorry I don't have a specific name for the following root rot questions. We just had a Dwarf Catalpa tree removed from our yard last night. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/78875/ (the first two pictures happen to be of my tree)

Here's a little history: A year and a half ago the Catalpa started a very rapid decline/death. We had a man from the local university extension come out to look at it last fall. He said it was puzzling. The tree was grafted, looked like it had been frozen & split. He took a root sample several feet out from the trunk which he sent it off for analysis. Nothing came of that. We had also found a couple of very large borer beetles, dead, near the tree around the time it first started going downhill. Last fall there were some very nasty looking mushrooms that grew near the trunk. They turned very black.

The tree was removed by being pulled whole out of the ground. When we were doing the cleanup afterwards we found the roots farthest from the tree were fat, healthy looking and full of moisture. As we worked closer to the tree many of the same roots were dry & withered looking. Lastly many of the roots directly around and under the trunk were black & smelly. We are going to ask the university man to have another root sample tested.

We had planned on relandscaping our yard but I don't know a thing about what we need to do first. I'm nervous and hope you might know what we are in for. Are we going to have to have the soil replaced? Are we going to have to use chemicals to treat the soil? Do we have to wait a long time before we can plant again? My entire front yard is now just bare sandy soil with a beautiful large hole waiting for a tree. I feel jinxed!

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Apr 08, 2008

I think you're doing the right thing by getting some tests done. If it was some sort of fungal disease, those are typically somewhat specific to one plant family or a couple of families but don't affect all plants, so you wouldn't be able to plant something that's related to Catalpa but other types of trees might be totally fine. The key is to know what the problem is, then your local extension should be able to give you some ideas on what (if anything) you need to do before planting and what sort of plants you might be able to plant there safely.

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ceejaytown The Woodlands, TX(Zone 9a) Apr 18, 2008

Catalpas are susceptible to cotton root rot (Phymatotrichum ominvorum), and that sounds like what happened to your tree. Unfortunately there isn't much you can do about it, except to plant things that are NOT susceptible. The fungus should show up in your sample.

This site has good information, including a list of resistant trees.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/publications/cottonrootrot/cotton.html

This message was edited Apr 18, 2008 2:13 PM

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