Sickly Fruitless Mulberry

[BlessedinTx]

Hi. I have 3 fruitless mulberries in my front yard. Unsure of their ages, but think one is probably about 25+ yrs while the other two are around 20+. One of them is looking very puny. Deadlimbs, yellowing/dropping leaves. the leaves that are green are much paler than on the other trees. We water regularly with a sprinkler for 2-3 hours at a time. Someone suggested that it may need fertilizer spikes, so we did that,but I don't see any change in the tree (but the grass over each spike is positively lucious! We did that about 4-6 weeks ago. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Is there anything in particular that these trees are susceptible to? I have seen these type trees all my life in this area and have not seen this before. Also, don't know if it is relevant or not, but there is a spot about halfway down the trunk in one area that looks like rust running all the way down it (about 1/2-1 inch wide... Thanks!! :angel:

 

[Stumper]

A picture would help. Fruitless Mulberries are very hardy and don't suffer commonly from any one disease but there are many which CAN affect them. Based on the symptoms described the first thought I had was Fusarium root rot-A fungal disease that , while not a chronic problem for the species, is probably the single most common ailment in my experience.