Silver birch early leaf fall

Hi creditman & welcome...
Other than the inclement weather as Celia says, it is very dry now & allot of trees are starting to shed leaves around here. Although I do have to say my silver birch of 30 odd yrs is looking lovely & green with no leaf drop... :confused: Has there been any disturbance to the roots at all..?? Otherwise, if there is nothing obvious I think I might be inclined to wait for the spring & see what happens.. Perhaps give them a good high nitrogen feed in the spring.... Maybe someone else will have some ideas... Best of luck...

 

:( Well not sure but if they are established trees it could be due to "Anthracnose disease". These are not harmful in the short term it is a fungi..

Anthracnose fungi may cause defoliation of most maple, oak, elm, walnut, birch , sycamore, and hickory species and, occasionally, of ash and linden trees. Damage of this type usually occurs after unusually cool, wet weather during bud break. Single attacks are seldom harmful to the tree, but yearly infections will cause reduced growth and may predispose the tree to other stresses.
When looking around locally I can see signs of it on birch & maple & a few oak trees.
This is it on a maple.

That is how it looks to start with.

This is a link to an American site. Only used this one as it has the best pictures. It is widespread in the UK & the USA after Spring & summers like we have had.
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/anthracnose_east/fidl-ae.htm


I hope this helps a little. Compost maker, if you planted in early summer, have you watered it much since the dry weather arrived, as lack of water could be more of the problem with yours... Not too sure about the catkins....