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Serviceberry tree help - half of it looks dead - what should I do?
Mahonroy
Posts: 1
Hello, last summer I planted a serviceberry tree in Colorado. It seemed to do well all of last year and the beginning of this year. Recently I noticed that a large branch appears to be dead? I am not sure what I should do here - do I chop that branch off, leave it, do something else, etc. It seems like its going to look really weird if I chop that branch. I should also mention that people said there was a late frost in the Spring time this year, and it caused a lot of trees all around town to look really messed up - e.g. a lot of trees aren't growing much leaves, especially upper leaves, and they are growing a ton of suckers instead. I don't know if this caused this branch to get weird. It looks like there are dried berries on this branch, so I don't know at what point this happened, or why.
Some additional info: I have a drip system that waters everything every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday morning. It waters for an hour, then waits an hour, then waters one more hour, then is done. I recently checked the PH of the soil and its at 6.8.
Here are some photos. I put green arrows on the photos to show the dead branch:
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
0
Posts
We know your serviceberry as amelanchier lamarckii, a tree often recommended for its size being suitable for smaller gardens as well as having a succession of seasonal interest from flowers to foliage colour. It is reputed to be hardy down below -20C and be good for exposed sites but not like alkaline soils.
It may well be that a severe frost at the wrong moment in spring has killed off that branch in which case you'll have to prune if off at its base making the cut as clean as possible and sloped so any rain doesn't sit on it.
As growth has been poor this year I wonder if your drip system delivers enough water and whether your tap water is hard/alkaline. I would be tempted trying to pour a 2 gallon bucket of rain water around the roots instead and doing it slowly so it soaks in deep and encourages the roots to go deep instead of staying up near the surface where they could fry if those stones heat up in the midday sun. Repeat every few days till the autumn rains arrive, assuming you have them.
The Royal Horticultural Society has a database of plant info that says amelanchier suffer from few pests and diseases -
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/26602/Amelanchier-lamarckii/Details