On Monday I checked on an ash tree for a client in East Greenville. She said the leaves appeared to be wilting. Well, they didn't really look wilted to me, but they were distorted and curled. I unrolled some of them to check for pests; none were there. No aphids, no silk from any caterpillars. There was an outdoor fireplace nearby. But if that were the cause, I would expect the symptoms to be the worst closest to where the fire would have been. Next to the ash is a young saucer magnolia. Last year I treated it for a bad magnolia scale infestation; so while I was there, I examined it. The scale was gone, but it too had a lot of distorted leaves. And, like the ash, no pests, no aphids.
Mrs. B from Royersford called yesterday concerned about her douglas fir trees. She told me one was turning brown at the top, and also the white spruces didn’t look so good. She reminded me that I had sprayed them to control a disease problem a few years ago and was wondering if maybe they had the same problem again or maybe bagworms or something. As soon as I saw them I knew that it was neither of those problems. I explained to her that similar symptoms on different species most likely indicated an abiotic problem, not a disease or a pest, which are usually host- specific. The way the young growth of the doug firs was wilted and killed made me think of herbicide poisoning. In fact, it looked
