Maple wilt, or Verticillium wilt, is a soil-borne fungus that primarily targets woody ornamental trees.  If your trees are infected, you’ll most likely see it on the oldest branches and leaves on the tree.  They’ll begin to develop yellow blotches on the lowest leaves and can end up killing off entire limbs of trees at once.  If you take a cross section of one of those branches, you should see a brown discoloration in the stem tissues of the plant; this is the fungus blocking the vascular tissues of the plant.  Without nutrients and water, the limbs and the leaves will begin to die off.

How To Treat Maple Wilt?

Unfortunately, you only have two options if you want to know how to treat maple wilt. While there is no cure for maple wilt, you can prevent it from spreading. Once maple wilt establishes itself in trees, it becomes incredibly difficult to control. If a tree is significantly infected, you should cut down and destroy that tree.  Otherwise if the infection seems minor, you may be able to save the maple tree by pruning the dead branches.

Prevention Is the Best Defense

Healthy trees are the least susceptible to maple wilt primarily because they can produce new vascular tissue to limit the damage caused by the fungus.  The best prevention is to keep your trees healthy all year round, meaning keeping your trees well-watered during dry seasons and well-groomed and fertilized during growing seasons.  Furthermore, you may want to consider purchasing maple wilt-resistant plants (usually marked with a V under the “disease resistance” portion of the tag).  It may also be helpful to regularly disinfect your garden tools, especially if you use them in gardens or soils other than your own, as you may be introducing new fungi.  Simply wash them in a 10% bleach solution or rubbing alcohol to kill off any residual fungi.

Have A Professional Remove An Infected Tree

Ultimately, you may not be able to save your maple trees.  If you need to cut down or even try to salvage infected maple trees, you should consult a professional tree removal service.  You should use TalkLocal so that you can talk with a high-quality, local professional in just minutes.  You’ll have a  personalized assessment about your maple trees in no time!

Do you have fallen tree branches from dead or dying trees cluttering your yard? Are you asking yourself, “What can I do with tree branches?” We have some interesting ideas to help you put those tree branches to work — or to simply get rid of them.

Rent A Wood Shredder

Renting a wood shredder will allow you to convert your branches into wood chips. Tip – Check with your neighbors to see if they too need any branches disposed of. This way, you can split the cost of renting the wood shredder with other people, and have more wood chips to use as mulch.

Use Branches In Your Garden

Branches are great for supporting growing flowers and plants in your garden. The branches can be used to allow the flowers and plants support and stability as they grow. You can simply tie the plants to branch sticking upright out of the ground.

Decorate Your Home!

Use a tree branch to give your home a nice, woody, rustic look by creating a towel holder of your own!

1. Take a branch that is around 3 inches in circumference and smooth out the edges.

2. After you have cleaned up the branch, begin searching for fake flower arrangements that can be placed on the end of the branch in order to give the branch some decorations and color of its own.

3. To secure the branch along the wall, use wall brackets and glue. Use clear glue in order to avoid unnecessary glue marks appearing.

4. Apply the mounting brackets for a store-bought towel holder. This will give you the support needed to glue the branch onto the wall.

5. Apply the glue and hold the branch in place with the brackets for a few minutes to allow the glue to take hold.

6. Next, pick a towel color that correlates to the wood color and the rustic feel you are aiming for. Oftentimes, greens and browns are great options to go with.

Use Branches As Kindling

If you enjoy a nice, warm fire in your fireplace, or on a cool evening outside with your fire pit, dead branches are great to use as kindling. Simply store the branches wherever you store logs to dry.

Have more questions about what to do with tree branches? Already made enough branch towel holders to fill your entire home and still have a lot of branches left over? It may be time to call a tree removal service to help you out! Check out TalkLocal. You will be connected directly to local, high quality professionals that can help you with any of your tree removal needs. Check it out!