Emergency aid for my Linden (tilia cordata)

well first of all, dont shoot me because its allready too late, i've allready done it.

that is, i pruned it back, left some green, but i trust it's gonna be ok. Its a linden, and it has tons of buds everywhere, of which some were allready opening. I guess it was allready trying to recover by making new shoots.

But about what's going on... I took an educated guess, it suffers from 'cercospora', a leaf stain illness (fungus).
So now i'm waiting for the results (and consequences) of pruning it back this late in the season. If new shoots appear (i'm confident of that), offcourse this means i will have to give it a very good winters protection.

I also sprayed it with a systemic fungicide that also treats cercospora (compo Duaxo).

now it rests in semi-shade... waiting to thrive again next year.
Much work still to be done:
- pruning it back some more in spring
- drastically shorten the lower right branch (or delete it)
- refining, refining, and more refining

Any others have had this disease? Linden has a reputation of being susceptible to this.

Here is my linden. First 2 pics are after, and last picture is before.

Hi yves,

I've never had a problem with fungus but my linden did have an insect problem which I sprayed with insecticidal soap. It took care of the insects but left the leaves curling and dying so I defoliated and trimmed the branches. One thing I know is that I've never had good luck with budding on old bark so I cut the branches down to the last viable bud. I suspect the leaves are very fragile and, by the way, I showed this tree in a recent article about the Japanese beetle.

Your soil appears rather heavy with humus/organics; perhaps this creates the problem. I hope the systemic works but I would also give the tree a faster draining soil soon.

Here's a photo of my linden after defoliation:




Good luck,
Norma

I've dealt with cercospora on my Pomegranate as well as cherries in my fruit orchard. There's no need to defoliate as most fungicides will prevent further spread of the spores. Its important to treat at the very first sign of infection then regularly afterwards.

The spores incubate in leaves over winter so destroy whatever you pruned off your tree. Also learning which species are susceptible and when (seasonally) will allow to do a quick preventative spray next year and hopefully head it off before it starts.
-Jay

Hi Norma, and thanks for the reply

Its just I once had a linden some years ago and it also suffered the same...it came from the same nursery. I then didnt know what i was dealing with, but since i did a little research, i seriously suspect it to be that Cercospora. Its no insects, that i am quite sure of. But illnesses like Cercospora, there are several that do about the same damage.

About the soil, yes you're right! But it wasnt my choice, it had it like that and a repot was scheduled next spring, i'll use 80% zeolite and 20% cocopeat (cocosol by DCM)

thanks and cheers

drgonzo wrote:I've dealt with cercospora on my Pomegranate as well as cherries in my fruit orchard. There's no need to defoliate as most fungicides will prevent further spread of the spores. Its important to treat at the very first sign of infection then regularly afterwards.

The spores incubate in leaves over winter so destroy whatever you pruned off your tree. Also learning which species are susceptible and when (seasonally) will allow to do a quick preventative spray next year and hopefully head it off before it starts.
-Jay

much obliged...