My Silver Birch is poorly

My silver birch, now 8 years old and about 20 ft tall, is not looking at all good. The foliage is sp**** and what there is looks dry, browned and curly. They've been falling off since it started to leaf. I can't see any infestation or anything.

Any suggestions?

(Soon as it stops raining, I'll get you a photo!)

 

Hi Daisees,

What you're describing there is leaf dieback and can be associated to many problems. A picture would help, but so would a description of the are it's planted in and the history of the site - have there been changes to the soil? Is the site waterlogged at all? Has the tree been pruned? Are there signs of decay or fungus? Try and make a report of the tree and that may help to diagnose the problem.

 

Thanks, tree. The history of the ground is that when I moved in here in 2000, I had some landscaping done that included 15 tons of 'top soil' in that particular area. Only I recently discovered that what I was given was not top soil but sub soil and the plants have never really flourished as a result. I regularly pile on compost and stuff to try and neutralise it a bit but it seems a long, tough battle. I could cheerfully kill the bloke that did this to me! The birch was planted later that year.

It's not waterlogged, that part of the garden is elevated.
Has never been pruned
Can't see any decay or fungus but then, I'm probably not sure what I'm looking for.

I'll try and get pics tomorrow if the sun comes out!

 

Hi Daisees,

A photo or two would help. The only thing I can think of just now is something along the lines of nutrient deficiency (but you say you're adding lots of compost?) or root damage. I'll have to look into this further for you.

 

Finally the rain stopped and (after hanging out the washing I put out yesterday and had to take in more wet than when I'd put it out!!) I've been able to take some pics.













hope this helps - let me know if anything other info would help


Thanks for this - much appreciated ....

 

Hi Daisees,

Thanks for the photos. After looking at them and reading through your description of the tree and its location I can only suggest that your tree is suffering from nutrient deficiency, especially potassium. Try and search for a potassium rich plant feed and apply it around the roots. Failing that, you could apply a balanced NPK (7-7-7) mix and see if that works. Hope it helps.

 

Oh, cool! Thank you so much. To be honest, never thought a tree would need feeding - stupid me!

 

Normally, in a natural environment, a tree does not need artificially feeding as it gets its nutrients from humus, dead animals, organc matter etc. However, in gardens the tree gets little nutrition from such material and needs at least a good feed once a year. Trees need a balance of 16 nutrients in varying amounts inc. nitrogen, potassium, phosphates, copper, zinc, molybdenum, chlorine... blah blah blah.