simon has carbunkles on his garfunkle

sorry for the title but "lesions on a juniperus virginiana" just sounds so... clinical.  
and i didnt put this under "pest & diseases" as it looks more like growths rather than a pest or disease

anyways, i was doing some pre-season branchlette removal from a eastern red cedar forest i have planted in a cut-off cask



and came across a bunch of these things on some branches of several, but not all the trees
in situ:





close-ups:





and dissections:







so, like i said, to my untrained eye, it doesn't look like a pest or disease, but i could be wrong...
but if anyone knows what it is or if i should be concerned i would be most appreciative...

Looks in second-to-last picture like a gall.  Trees also look very unhealthy and maybe dead.  J. virginiana turns ugly color in winter, but that light brown spells death w/o the transfiguation.

thanks jim... yes, i know they are in less than perfect health... i won a bucket full at in a raffle drawing and they were really crammed in there, so i separated them and stuck them in that cut off cask last spring... they didnt look bad last summer, but right now it is march in wisconsin, so i am hoping they rebound this spring if left unmolested (any further)...

so, what is a gall ???

and should i be concerned ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall

Here's a similar gall found on bald cypress -- in this case, one of mine, in Florida:

Looks like cedar-apple rust galls to me. If so, may produce gelatinous protrusions this spring.
Oliver

thanks jim and oliver...

i just got back in from picking them off as best i can...

but per oliver i was now able to find this:

http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/factsheets/CedarAppleRust.pdf
(googling just "gall" was too general.)

but still pretty vague on how to treat other than fungicide and even that they couch in disclaimers

Oliver Muscio wrote:Looks like cedar-apple rust galls to me.  If so, may produce gelatinous protrusions this spring.
Oliver

I Agree! Before or as soon as you see the tell tale orange spore masses oozing out of the galls, remove them, bag and burn or dispose them, dont let the spores release and spread - it is a chronic problem with junipers and will spread to apples, its alternate victim. (equally ugly in apples) The infection is difficult to cure, diligent gall removal is mandatory.

damn... after pulling them off, i just tossed 'em on the ground...

didnt know i was dealing with the crichton's andromeda strain

i will be more diligent now that i know

The more I look at those pic the more certain I am that it won't matter for those trees.

you may be right...
maybe thats why they were tossed into the raffle

and if so, oh well... live and learn.

should know for sure sooner than later

I really think that unlike the title of a song by a certain singer and songwriter pair of artists the 'Leaves that are Green' they are almost assuredly are not and even if 'April Come She Will' it is may not save the tree from being 'Home Bound'

sorry to rain on the naysayers parade, but this is the forest as of this weekend...
(the appearance of browning on the right is just that - an appearance due to an extra shaft of light coming thru the shade)



only found a coupla galls... been treating with a systemic...

Glad to see it -- and surprised.

by the way, michael... i neglected to acknowledge the cleverness of your gloomy prediction...
well done !

Hi Kevin, Any updates on your Eastern Red Cedar grove?? Love to see pictures if you have any.

Thank you!

dave - no real update other than it is living !

LOL - actually just did a major clean up, height reduction and branch selection on it during our last warm spell in january...
(and in keeping with this tread, i did not see any carbunkles on it)

this is the only picture i have available from that session and it shows all the beautiful drabness of winter



the future is repotting this spring at which time i will also rehab and preserve the wooden pot for longevity...
after that i am just going to let it run a bit to gain some more trunk girth, and do more branch selection.

(typing this seems like de ja vu... did i already post this ??? )

this is what the gelatinous blobs looked like in the spring of 2016...
luckily, after treatment, there have been no further outbreaks since then
(resurrecting this thread for the benefit of some of our AAC guys)

I have a bunch of parsons juni growing out in grandmas yard. Half of them had this shit,on them last spring. Ill be out chopping off all those garfunkles before they turn to goo this weekend and fungicide spraying everything. I treated all my crabs and junis at home last fall and now bud break is upon us, I'll be blasting the Danconil on them again biweekly thru midsummer to stop this grossness...

yeah man... when i saw the alien goo, I literally freaked the hell OUT.

so far it seems like once the funugae is eliminated, it stay gone...
unless of course they get re-tainted.

Wild juniper and apples can be effected and easily spread to the benches, even from over a mile away. Regular and early Prevention is the best treatment.

wow... didnt know the spores could travel THAT far !