There are a few trees on the property that are failing and I wanted to get Cathy's opinion on the cause of decline. A small Spruce along 4 has a bacterial disease that is unavoidable (this may spread to other Blue Spruces on the course), and two trees on 8 and 9 are dying due to stress.
This Sweet Gum along 9 died this spring after leafing out. There are no evident signs of cause, it most likely died due to stress - flooding and extremely cold winters. It finally just gave up. I suppose we could say the cause of decline was 'the wrong tree for that location'.
This Norway Spruce on 8 is declining due to stresses that it just couldn't handle anymore.
Cathy also gave us great reminders on proper planting, watering, mulching and tree care techniques that can keep our younger trees healthy. While we are a golf course, our trees are very important to us. We take a long range approach to our trees, the trees we plant today will be the trees that will show their true potential 50-100 years from now.
