Why is my tree dying

[Foxyfox]

Many tips of my tree are losing leaves. I cut them and attached a photo of the affected branches. They have hard black spots on them. I don't know anything about trees, not even the type of tree this is or what the black spots are.

What can I do? The leaves on the tips are coming out a little and turning yellow and shriveling up right now. The green leaves have yellow spots.
There has been enough rain this year.. Any time it needed I have watered it as well. Most of the trees in the areas are having the same problem, some have died already.

There are other species too and a lot are having the leaf loss on tips of branches like mine has. What causes this?

 

[Del_]

Curled leaves are the classic sign of broad leaf herbicide damage.

The spots on the dead twigs may just be fungi eating the dead twigs and not the cause of the twigs dying.

I believe those are locust trees. Likely the Shademaster cultivar.

 

[Foxyfox]

Curled leaves are the classic sign of broad leaf herbicide damage.

The spots on the dead twigs may just be fungi eating the dead twigs and not the cause of the twigs dying.

I believe those are locust trees. Likely the Shademaster cultivar.

Here in Ontario Canada we are not allowed to buy any strong herbicides for weeds. The WeedMan sprays Fiesta on people's lawns who pay for it... but not too many do, because it's expensive. http://www.fiestaweedkiller.com/
Could that do anything to trees?

I am surprised that once I started looking around with Google Street View historically in my area, there is foliage loss all around. Do herbicides cause that as well? .. I'm seeing slow to no growth, and lots of branches with no leaves. There is a green maple down the street that just suddenly turned yellow.. and others losing foliage have small leaves that turned brown already.

I attached some pictures of other trees doing bad in the area.. Even green maple gets the same problem: branches with no leaves. It seems like a universal problem..

There are also Linden trees that have tiny leaves and are becoming see-through, but I don't know much about Lindens... if that is normal or not.

It just seems the overall health of trees all around is declining here, but I haven't heard of any experts checking into it or anything.

Thanks.

 

[Jason Douglas]

Could be herbicide damage and there's some plant bug damage to go with it.

Perhaps thyronectria canker setting in leading to dieback.

Tree has some issues, locust borers may be involved as well. Canker and borer are generally stressed induced.

 

[ATH]

The curled leaves in the last pic is Mimosa webworm.

When I read your description, I expected to see scales (little bugs that attach to the twigs), but the black things are just fruiting bodies ("mushrooms", if you will) from the saprophytic decay - it is just fungus breaking down the dead wood. They aren't attacking the live. I'd look at the slightly larger limbs to see if there are holes leaving evidence of the locust borer's Jason mentioned.

This is a recurring question on stressed trees: can you get a pic of the trunk where it enters the ground? A lot of trees are planted too deep causing stress. Others are beat up with the lawnmower (I learned it as Toro Blight...others call it Deere damage)

 

[Del_]

The curled leaves in the last pic is Mimosa webworm.

We should see skeletonized leaves, too. And webs.

I zoomed in on the photo and see neither.

 

[ATH]

They are just getting started. Check back on those same leaves in several weeks. OP is in Toronto. Probably a month behind Georgia phenologically. They only started here in NW Ohio about 10 days to 2 weeks ago.

 

[ropensaddle]

Don't see a root flare in the blurred picture of the trunk. Mulch against bark as well

 

[Foxyfox]

Ok here are some more pictures.
In Bark10.jpg, I scraped off the hard black stuff.. It looks like it doesn't go deep at all, and it can be just scraped off.. but it's all over the tree, even on live branches.

I did have mulch at the bottom, is this bad?

Maybe I should dig around it to bring it down to soil level, as the mulch is still buried there and grass has grown on top of it.

 

[Foxyfox]

The tree is also covered with little green bugs that fell on me while I was taking pictures. Even one brown one.

 

[Jason Douglas]

Honeylocust plant bug is the little green one causing some of the leaf symptoms, not sure about the first one but it is a "true bug," thyronectria canker on the stem. Its a canker rot pathogen on locust.
Mimosa webworm first generation may be out and about but hard to tell

 

[Foxyfox]

Honeylocust plant bug is the little green one causing some of the leaf symptoms, not sure about the first one but it is a "true bug," thyronectria canker on the stem. Its a canker rot pathogen on locust.
Mimosa webworm first generation may be out and about but hard to tell

Is there anything I can do?..
Some soapy kind of spray or something that might help? I don't want to use toxic stuff.
Would adding more compost help strengthen it against these things?

 

[Jason Douglas]

HL bugs are almost done for the season but canker appears to be the real problem.

Improving the tree's growing conditions and improving vitality may help it outgrow the problem. Mulch it WIDELY and apply irrigation when hot and dry spells hit. Have a local arborist assess the tree for what pest and disease problems may be at hand. Plant health care treatments don't have to be toxic, many many options exist