Cotoneaster query

[Tahiri]

Can anyone suggest what might be killing this cotoneaster?
Is the white stuff lichen and if so is it cause or effect?
The whole plant is going at once rather than a branch at a
time but the ones either side appear to be okay - so far!

http://www.tanygraig.force9.co.uk/E/plants/cotoneaster.jpg
Sorry, but it is a reasonable size file in order to keep the detail.
T.

[nm...@cam.ac.uk]

In article <-KudnegOCb45QynM...@brightview.co.uk>,

The white stuff looks like lichen and, if so, it is merely an
irrelevance. I have it in large quantities on my yellow berberis
and nowhere else. And for why? It's because it gets sloughed
off the bark of even moderatedly fast-growing shrubs.

On the other hand, its growth looks a bit odd, and there isn't
quite enough detail for me to be sure of the identification.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

[Tahiri]

>>Can anyone suggest what might be killing this cotoneaster?
>>Is the white stuff lichen and if so is it cause or effect?
>>The whole plant is going at once rather than a branch at a
>>time but the ones either side appear to be okay - so far!
>>
>>http://www.tanygraig.force9.co.uk/E/plants/cotoneaster.jpg
>>Sorry, but it is a reasonable size file in order to keep the detail.
>
> The white stuff looks like lichen and, if so, it is merely an
> irrelevance. I have it in large quantities on my yellow berberis
> and nowhere else. And for why? It's because it gets sloughed
> off the bark of even moderatedly fast-growing shrubs.
>
> On the other hand, its growth looks a bit odd, and there isn't
> quite enough detail for me to be sure of the identification.
>
>
> Regards,
> Nick Maclaren.

I could leave the 'lichen' to grow bigger if I am sure the cotoneaster
doesn't have some awful disease. You can see this year's leaves
have grown before it decided to die so it is being killed fairly quickly.
Couldn't just be old age could it? The healthy ones should be the
same age which would be at least thirty years old.
T.

[Sacha]

Cotoneasters can be affected by woolly aphid so it might be worth your
looking that up. Hard to tell much from the photo but if it is that,
sprays can be effective.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

[echinosum]

'Sacha[_10_ Wrote:
> ;Cotoneasters can be affected by woolly aphid so it might be worth your

>
> looking that up. Hard to tell much from the photo but if it is that,
> sprays can be effective.
>

Unless you actually find some insects, I think it is a waste of money
spraying.

The wood has that sort of look of something in the advanced stages of
death - when there isn't much sap transport the wood has a pinched,
dried up look to it, and yours has that sort of look to it. (Though I
could be quite wrong, maybe it's just the photo.) Things dying of fungal
disease look like that. When they get to that stage, they are generally
unsaveable, unless you can cut back to healthy wood, and you say the
whole plant is affected.

The "frilly" bits of white do look very like lichen, but we'd need a
close up to be sure. But there are other bits of more general white on
the thing, on the small branches, that look more like some kind of
fungus.

Sometimes individual plants do randomly succumb to disease and once it
is advanced there isn't much you can do about it. In general,
cotoneasters are exceedingly robust plants that are very unfussy about
conditions (well maybe they don't like it waterlogged, I've never seem
them tested by that) and need a lot of hacking back to keep them under
control. So, one has (maybe) got fungus and died. I'm forever pulling
volunteer cotoneaster seedlings up, maybe you'll find one that can
replace it. Or maybe the adjacent ones will grow out to fill the gap.




--
echinosum

[stuart noble]

Always amazed at how attractive horizontalis is to bees. Such hard work
for them visiting hundreds of tiny flowers, but I suppose it's a
delicacy for them

[Wendy Tinley]

On 10/06/2013 09:43, stuart noble wrote:
> Always amazed at how attractive horizontalis is to bees. Such hard work
> for them visiting hundreds of tiny flowers, but I suppose it's a
> delicacy for them

Agreed... they absolutely love it don't they... and come Autumn and
Winter the blackbirds enjoy the fruit. :)

--
Wendy Tinley
SE Sheffield
4 miles west of junction 30 M1

[stuart noble]

On 10/06/2013 10:03, Wendy Tinley wrote:
> On 10/06/2013 09:43, stuart noble wrote:
>> Always amazed at how attractive horizontalis is to bees. Such hard work
>> for them visiting hundreds of tiny flowers, but I suppose it's a
>> delicacy for them
>
> Agreed... they absolutely love it don't they... and come Autumn and
> Winter the blackbirds enjoy the fruit. :)
>

Funny you should say that because here the blackbirds don't touch it!
That said, there's a pyracantha right next to it, which they regularly
strip down to the last berry :)

[Martin Brown]

On 09/06/2013 20:59, Tahiri wrote:
> Can anyone suggest what might be killing this cotoneaster?

Hard to say since the bit you show appears to be coming into leaf fairly
normally. Need to see the diseased plant material, but it is susceptible
to fireblight which does characteristic damage and is obvious at this
time of year with parts looking like they have been scorched by fire and
then becoming dead wood quite rapidly.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cotoneaster+fireblight&qpvt=cotoneaster+fireblight&FORM=IGRE#view=detail&id=5E04EC692E40222DB04051EC4768FC86003C0B8F&selectedIndex=1

That isn't a good picture of it either. If I remember I will try and
take a shot of a badly fireblight infected hedge at my brother in laws
next time I am visiting.

> Is the white stuff lichen and if so is it cause or effect?

I think that is just lichen from age. Clean a white fluffy bit up with
some meths on a brush and if it is an insect pest like woolly aphid or
mealy bug you will see it when it is wetted with the meths.

> The whole plant is going at once rather than a branch at a
> time but the ones either side appear to be okay - so far!
>
> http://www.tanygraig.force9.co.uk/E/plants/cotoneaster.jpg
> Sorry, but it is a reasonable size file in order to keep the detail.
> T.

A picture of the dead and dying bit would be most helpful.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[Tahiri]

>> Can anyone suggest what might be killing this cotoneaster?
>
> Hard to say since the bit you show appears to be coming into leaf fairly
> normally. Need to see the diseased plant material, but it is susceptible
> to fireblight which does characteristic damage and is obvious at this time
> of year with parts looking like they have been scorched by fire and then
> becoming dead wood quite rapidly.
>
> http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cotoneaster+fireblight&qpvt=cotoneaster+fireblight&FORM=IGRE#view=detail&id=5E04EC692E40222DB04051EC4768FC86003C0B8F&selectedIndex=1
>

snip

That was an interesting set of pictures Martin, thank you. Thank
you also to the other posters for their helpful suggestions.

I spent some time today disentangling and removing the entire plant
and found parts that had been dead a long time that I had not noticed
before. A fungal infection seems to have been the culprit as there
were white patches on the soil also, possibly the rotting root from a
long gone broom. I decided to leave the stump for when my husband
has time to remove it, as there is a power cable (to the outside lights)
between it and the wall.