North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Hilborn.E@epamail.epa.gov]

Wow!  Thanks for letting me know about Garden Watchdog.  I will use it
in the future.

Well now I kind of wonder what is growing in my yard...

The trees sure look like pecans.  Only the Lord apparently knows what
varieties they are.  I also ordered some chickasaw plums and an AU
Rubrum plum from them.  They are all apparently what I ordered, although
the Rubrum is only 3 years old, and has not retained any of the sparse
fruit it has set so far...

The first Stuart I received from them did have a very poor root system.
I received another that was much better, and was thriving last year, but
is having the problem leafing out this year: see recapitulated post
below:

"I planted the Stuart as an 8' grafted bare root tree in the fall of
2005.  It leafed out well last year and seemed vigorous.  This year, it
is leafing out slowly compared to the nearby 11' Pawnee (8' grafted bare
root planted fall 2004).  I also noted that some of the new shoots (on
the Stuart only) have withered and died apparently just as they were
leafing out.  This is particularly true of lower branches, and on some
of the mid branches, only the tips are withered.  The withered tips are
medium brown in color and curve back on themselves, similar to the
'shepherd's crook' appearance of fire blight.

This spring both of the tree's buds were tight and closed during the
Easter freeze.

I fertilized both trees this year with a new product that contains zinc
sulfate.

I have observed twig girdler (Oncideres cingulata)
                                                                         
 damage, otherwise the trees have seemed healthy in the past.            
                                                                         


Anybody else have any ideas on this phenomenon?

Betsy Hilborn
 zone 7a, NC"


I am not getting sprouts from below the graft, so I do not suspect a
graft failure at this point.  Michael had suggested anthracnose as the
cause, but it does not seems to fit based on my observations.  There are
no leaf spots, just young growth on lower branches and tips on mid
branches withering. This has been happening for about 3 weeks so far....