Kitchen Garden Forum

First of all thanks to everyone who replied to my last topic the replies were all very welcome.
M,LADY who lives at the old rectory has a beech tree that is about thirty years old one of the branches died back to the trunk last year. When it was removed the bark was covered in a soot like dust.
I don't know if this the correct name for it.
Can anyone give us some do's and don'ts .
Kind regards Old herbaceous.

Hi Old Herbaceous. I asked the other half as he is a tree surgeon and knows such things.

If you had die back on lots of branches that would indicate a root problem - either disturbance or a fungal infection. As it was only a single branch, he reckons it was probably a localised bacterial disease that got in, then a fungal disease moved in to take advantage and that would be the sooty effect you saw. The only remedy is to remove the dead wood and hope the disease has not tracked back into the trunk. Trees have a clever trick of walling off infected branches and sacrificing them, so the tree may be OK.

Sue

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