Beech leaf disease treatment? Does anybody know how to treat this disease?

[bnb]

Beech leaf disease treatment? Does anybody know how to treat this disease? I just got two young beech trees for bonsai. One European and the other American and want to make sure this disease doesn't kills them.

 

[Tieball]

Welcome here!
I know I can’t help with an answer, because I’m not a Beech expert, however, what specific disease are you treating? I have both your types of Beech trees growing around me though.

I’d recommend you go to your profile and add your location information. It will help people responding to understand more about your environment.

 

[rockm]

Pictures or we can't help.

 

[Tieball]

A photo of the tree and diseased area closeup will also be helpful.

 

[Gabler]

I had never heard of it. Apparently, it’s caused by nematodes. Copper should kill it, as with any other invertebrate.

To clarify, I mean a copper-based pesticide. I don’t know that mixing old pennies into your substrate would help anything.

 

[Wood]

I can't find it, but I remember reading a potentially relevant thread on this forum.

Found it! https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/hand-me-down-j-beech-help.14921/page-5#post-901841

Someone placed a translucent shelter over their beech tree, then sprayed with a chemical, and it seemed to prevent the disease from reoccuring the next year. They were working with a college's botany(?)/agriculture department. The theory was that the disease was treatable, but spread by infected raindrops falling onto healthy leaves. Possibly @ABCarve ?

 

[BobbyLane]

Never known anything to affect Beech other than powdery mildew or aphids occasionally. Harry lists the pests and diseases here: https://bonsai4me.com/speciesguides/fagus-beech-bonsai/

 

[Gabler]

Never known anything to affect Beech other than powdery mildew or aphids occasionally. Harry lists the pests and diseases here: https://bonsai4me.com/speciesguides/fagus-beech-bonsai/

Apparently, it’s new and limited to Ohio and bordering U.S. states, but spreading quickly.

 

[BobbyLane]

Apparently, it’s new and limited to Ohio and bordering U.S. states, but spreading quickly.

Biden: You already know my stance on this guys, we dont want another 'incident' occuring. As if Covid 19 wasnt bad enough, I dont want to have to put the entire state of Ohio under quarantine. Burn the fucker before it spreads!

 

[ABCarve]

I can't find it, but I remember reading a potentially relevant thread on this forum.

Found it! https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/hand-me-down-j-beech-help.14921/page-5#post-901841

Someone placed a translucent shelter over their beech tree, then sprayed with a chemical, and it seemed to prevent the disease from reoccuring the next year. They were working with a college's botany(?)/agriculture department. The theory was that the disease was treatable, but spread by infected raindrops falling onto healthy leaves. Possibly @ABCarve ?

It requires no chemicals to treat this. There are none that reliably treat a foliar nematode. Mine is totally cured. Read post #86 #88

 

[AJL]

What evidence do you have that your trees are actually infected?
Check out this info:- https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-le...st-health/insects-diseases/Beech-leaf-disease
They should be able to advise you

 

[RJG2]

spreading quickly.

Yep, it has been found in Maine.

 

[Jzack605]

BLD is in fact spread via nematodes throughout the plant. Those dark bands you see in the leaves are galling caused by large concentrations of nematodes. There is still no solid theory on how it is spread geographically. The best theory right now is a specific species of migratory bird (blanking on what type).

No, copper in no way shape or form will treat this. Copper does not treat nematodes.

It’s spread much farther than Ohio.

While the defoliation idea is interesting, the only reason it may have been successful is due to low numbers of the nematode. Beech that are heavily affected by the nematode will naturally defoliate. This triggers the auxiliary buds to push growth that usually is BLD symptom free. However the trees will show symptoms again the following year and the beech that are this far along are usually doomed. That second flush of growth is typically taken advantage of by other pests like aphids and scale due to the tender nature of that new growth and time of year thus adding to the trees decline. Affected and untreated trees typically die within 5 years.

The only available treatment currently is a fungicide called broadform. One of the two active ingredients acts as a nematocide. This product may not be labeled for BLD yet in every state or even be legal yet. Some states are allowing it under an emergency authorization. Fungicides like reliant/agrifos or high potassium phosphate fertilizers will help in building a robust plant that has better defenses to remain healthy but is not a sole treatment.

 

[ABCarve]

BLD is in fact spread via nematodes throughout the plant. Those dark bands you see in the leaves are galling caused by large concentrations of nematodes. There is still no solid theory on how it is spread geographically. The best theory right now is a specific species of migratory bird (blanking on what type).

No, copper in no way shape or form will treat this. Copper does not treat nematodes.

It’s spread much farther than Ohio.

While the defoliation idea is interesting, the only reason it may have been successful is due to low numbers of the nematode. Beech that are heavily affected by the nematode will naturally defoliate. This triggers the auxiliary buds to push growth that usually is BLD symptom free. However the trees will show symptoms again the following year and the beech that are this far along are usually doomed. That second flush of growth is typically taken advantage of by other pests like aphids and scale due to the tender nature of that new growth and time of year thus adding to the trees decline. Affected and untreated trees typically die within 5 years.

The only available treatment currently is a fungicide called broadform. One of the two active ingredients acts as a nematocide. This product may not be labeled for BLD yet in every state or even be legal yet. Some states are allowing it under an emergency authorization. Fungicides like reliant/agrifos or high potassium phosphate fertilizers will help in building a robust plant that has better defenses to remain healthy but is not a sole treatment.

This is really interesting. Are you familiar with the work Holden Arboretum is doing?
I know my tree (bonsai) really doesn’t relate to the forests but mine was heavily infected. There were no signs of disease 2022. It won’t be long until the buds unfurl for this growing season. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Jzack605]

This is really interesting. Are you familiar with the work Holden Arboretum is doing?
I know my tree (bonsai) really doesn’t relate to the forests but mine was heavily infected. There were no signs of disease 2022. It won’t be long until the buds unfurl for this growing season. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Please keep me updated on your tree. Did you send the leaves for sampling? How much of the tree shower symptomatic leaves when you did the defoliation?

I’m sure I heard about Holdens work at some point but I was involved with this in other ways. Are you referring to the bird netting?

 

[ABCarve]

Please keep me updated on your tree. Did you send the leaves for sampling? How much of the tree shower symptomatic leaves when you did the defoliation?

I’m sure I heard about Holdens work at some point but I was involved with this in other ways. Are you referring to the bird netting?

I’m not sure about bird netting. Holden had my tree at their facility for a month until admin. decided that they didn’t want a bonsai collection. I’m friends with one of the research staff. She told me what they knew of the life cycle and I figured the way to interrupt it. This only can work with trees in a pot that are covered. It’s a bit much to go through to control this but “so far”, it has worked.
The tree did not shower any symptomatic leaves on its own. The entire tree had infected leaves. I cut them off late in the 2021 growing season before the new bud could be infected. 2022 emerged healthy. The tree was kept covered from rain and dew and only watered from the bottom. I did the same late season defoliation for the 2022 growing season. We will see what happens. Large infected American beech are no more than 50 yards from my covered bonsai.

 

[Jzack605]

I’m not sure about bird netting. Holden had my tree at their facility for a month until admin. decided that they didn’t want a bonsai collection. I’m friends with one of the research staff. She told me what they knew of the life cycle and I figured the way to interrupt it. This only can work with trees in a pot that are covered. It’s a bit much to go through to control this but “so far”, it has worked.
The tree did not shower any symptomatic leaves on its own. The entire tree had infected leaves. I cut them off late in the 2021 growing season before the new bud could be infected. 2022 emerged healthy. The tree was kept covered from rain and dew and only watered from the bottom. I did the same late season defoliation for the 2022 growing season. We will see what happens. Large infected American beech are no more than 50 yards from my covered bonsai.

View attachment 479283

Super interesting and as usual Bonsai being the outlier to shatter preconceptions. Was the Holden trials involving all potted beech?

 

[ABCarve]

Super interesting and as usual Bonsai being the outlier to shatter preconceptions. Was the Holden trials involving all potted beech?

Can’t say, but I doubt it. I think their concerns are with forestry although potted trees would give a control.