Monday, July 14, 2008

Fall? In mid July?

My sycamore trees are dropping leaves like crazy. Even though they aren't getting any less water than normal in this drought...because I never water much where these trees are...and even though its the middle of July, they are shedding as if it were October. Is this "normal" or could it be the fact that we've had a month of dark days due to the smoke from forest fires? Or all of the above? This IS July isn't it? I haven't been in a coma have I?
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4 comments:

Angela Pratt said...

Anthracnose?

UC IPM Pest Note 7420

Katie said...

Interesting...I made the same observation about the sycamores in our neighborhood earlier today. I think it's the heat + slight overcast that's causing it. I recall ours did this last year too.

weeder1 said...

I don't think so. The leaves look perfectly healthy other than they are no longer attached to the tree.

Anonymous said...

Weeder - if you were in Ga, I would say delayed stress from drought might be causing it but in California that is probably not the case. If you have ruled out anthracnose, which give a reddish ring on the leaf, perhaps consider some environmental changes. These could be over the last few years as trees take a while longer to respond than plants. The good news is that most trees have a reserve bank of leaves and new ones may come out.