Brown leaves

Krone

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Should / Can I cut of all the brown leaves from trees?
My carpinus betulus has brown leaves for about a month now. Leaves are completely dry and brown but they don't fall down.
 

sorce

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Wind block is important, we know this.
I have a hypothesis, that if the tree doesn't drop em, it's using them for something.
Hiding buds from bugs? Windblock? Sunscreen?

I don't know why they made the adaptation, but adding it to the list of possible things that killed a tree isn't the right thing to do.

Sorce
 

Krone

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So, if i understand correctly, i can not do anything wrong if i just leave them on?
 

Paradox

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So, if i understand correctly, i can not do anything wrong if i just leave them on?

You can leave them on, they will fall off eventually on their own. Some tree species tend to hang on to leaves longer than others

But if they really bother you, you can cut the leaves off by cutting the stem of the leaf, NOT the branch where the leaves are attached to the tree.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Wind block is important, we know this.
I have a hypothesis, that if the tree doesn't drop em, it's using them for something.
Hiding buds from bugs? Windblock? Sunscreen?

I don't know why they made the adaptation, but adding it to the list of possible things that killed a tree isn't the right thing to do.

Sorce

Caterpillar eggs. They're on the foliage. The caterpillars are too.
Now just before you build new food for the critters, you drop the critters on the forest floor, forcing them to crawl their way back up again. On the trunk, that's where the birds get them.

Also, you're a tree, you've just eaten. You're going to sleep for a couple of months. Do you keep the scraps on the table and let them deteriorate, or do you freeze them, drop them at the end of your slumber and have the microwave ping - food's ready - when you wake up? Beeches better recognize. Hornbeams know the drill.
 

Paradox

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Carpinus is Hornbeam yes?

I don't know if they keep leaves or not, but I don't mess with the ones that keep em on purpose.

I'm lost!

Sorce

Yes Carpinus are hornbeams.

My young ones don't seem to keep their leaves but my beech sure do.

I have cut any remaining leaves off all my deciduous in the fall after the color display is done and before putting them into winter storage.

The reason I do that is to cut down on the leaves falling off later and cluttering up the storage area with dead leaves. It keeps the place cleaner and gets rid of potential fungus, critter eggs, leaf mold
 

Zach Smith

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Beech, hornbeam and hophornbeam hold their leaves into winter, with beech the most tenacious. In beech at least no abscission layer is formed to separate the leaf from its stem. We don't know why they were created that way, but no doubt there's a reason. They are lovely in winter, especially amongst all the gray and brown nastiness.

My hornbeams tend to hold their foliage into winter. I just pruned my big one, which took most of the dried out leaves off.
 

cbroad

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@Krone
A lot of my trees are hanging on to their dead foliage this year (crapes, maples: Japanese and amurs, hornbeams: Korean and carolinia, elms: Chinese and alata, etc...)

This is mostly from our temps going from night time lows in the 50s to mid 20s for a few consecutive days. The foliage got freeze dried and didn't go through its normal change this fall.

I suspect a lot of trees hold on to their foliage during winter to insulate the newer axillary buds, especially in cases where there wasn't enough time for normal/complete leaf drop; these buds may need extra protection from the cold.

I wouldn't cut them off at the petiole unless it's really bugging you, or like Paradox said, to keep your overwintering area cleaner and bug and fungus free.
 
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Orion_metalhead

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My front japanese maple has a ton leaves still. Cant stand it.
 

Krone

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Thanks for all the info. I think i will just leave them be.
 
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