Rowen tree looking sickly in parts?

BettyWales · May 2023

I have a well established Rowen tree (over 10 years old) but noticed during last year’s drought it looked very stressed, hardly any leaves & certainly no berries (much to the disappointment of the blackbird!) despite regular watering.
I was hopeful this year it would recover, it’s certainly looking much better with leaves and blossom on a lot of branches but there are quite a lot that to be honest, look dead. I tried the ‘snap a branch test’ today but sadly found there was no green & clearly no sign of life 😖

I just wanted to explore the options I have by asking, am I best cutting off all the ‘dead’ branches, even though it may look a bit sparse & out of sorts, but at least if these branches are diseased, it may restrict the spread to the healthy branches? Grateful for any tips or from others who’ve experienced something similar caused by the drought.

I’ve attached a couple of pics that show the good and bad parts of the tree. Thanks in advance 👍

Fairygirl · May 2023

You can certainly prune out dead branches, then do a full prune later in the year. They can be coppiced without any problem.
It's likely to have suffered from those drought conditions last year - they need huge amounts of water to thrive, and moisture retentive soil, so the damage was probably done then. if you don't have that sort of soil, good mulching after a really thorough soaking will help - bark is ideal, but any organic matter will do. Keep an eye on it this year though. It's virtually impossible to over water rowans unless they're sitting in a bog.

The berries wouldn't have materialised - they'd have been shed to save the tree itself. It's common with many shrubs/trees - shedding buds/flowers/berries to save the main part of the plant instead.

Dovefromabove · May 2023

Whether it’s disease or the effects of the drought, I’d remove all the obviously dead growth. It will at least improve the appearance a bit while you wait to see if the tree will recover. Obviously you’ll try not to let it go short of water this year, if at all possible 🤞

If and when the Rowan has made some new branches you can assess the shape and do a bit of pruning if necessary to improve its shape.

The effects of last summer’s drought are showing up in lots of dead, dying or damaged trees this spring 😢

BettyWales · May 2023

Well thank you both for your detailed replies 😊

I recall soaking the tree a lot during the drought but I guess with our sandy soil (living only 3 miles from the coast) it isn’t moisture retentive enough. By coincidence I collected a bucket full of bark yesterday that I used to mulch dahlias over winter so I now have a place for that over the summer 👍

The healthy branches have a lot of blossom at the minute so I’m hoping a good part of the tree will be ok 🤞 but I’ll set to pruning the dead branches and see how it goes during the year. A slightly deformed tree for a while will be better than losing the tree completely! Do you think it may benefit from a feed of something like blood fish & bone as well, before I mulch it?

Happy Sunday to you both 😎

Fairygirl · May 2023

No - don't feed a struggling plant of any kind

The sandy soil certainly isn't ideal, so if you can keep adding loads of organic matter - anything will do, that will help it in future.
They'll grow in almost nothing on our hills here - moss covered rocks included, but they're getting constantly watered by the rain. That's the difference

BettyWales · May 2023

👍noted! I’ll do what I can & hope for the best
Thanks again 😊

Rowen tree looking sickly in parts?

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