More threats to the horse chestnut ~ by Chris

Our 40 yr old Horse Chestnut has become very sick. The leaf cover is very sparse and yellowing. Today I noticed a thick growth of a blue-grey fungus, like tiny mushrooms clustering round the base of the tree and over the superficial roots. Please can you advise re. treatment.

See “Horse Chestnuts - under attack?” (May 2006) and follow Forestry Commission and DEFRA links. Sounds more like leaf miner than fungal. Advice seems to be to sweep up fallen leaves and destroy them (not composting).

[…] and sweet chestnut trees are common throughout the UK, though the former is presently under attack from moths, bleeding canker, drought and leaf blotch fungus.  Like oak and beech, to which it is […]

I have just walked around Tooting Common and noticed maybe 20 or 30 Horse chestnuts in quite bad condition although I’m no expert but they do look sickly

After cutting down an infected tree - does anyone have advice for treatment of equipment?

I have noticed this week in Oxfordshire that quite a few horse chestnuts have very brown sad looking leaves

We have noticed many horse chestnut trees in the Milton Keynes area that are suffering badly like those described by David ie most of the leaves are brown. Young and older trees are both affected. This doesn’t sound like the symptons of ‘bleeding canker’ which seems to affect the bark, or other common problems like leaf blotch fungus or moth attack. Any ideas?

I have noticed many if not all horse chestnut trees in Suffolk appear to dying off with all leaves turning brown and it is only end of July. Are they diseased? Everyone else I have spoken too doen’t seem to have noticed until I pointed it out.

The symptons of brown leaves on horse chestnuts described in earlier emails are common in the Watford area and we saw them last week in Essex and Suffolk. What is the problem and can any action be taken against it spreading further.

I’ve noticed horse chestnuts all over the country with horrible brown spots covering the leaves; the ones near me had it last year, and the leaves came through OK in the spring but quickly got the same spots again.

we have at least 100+ on our drive uop to the house infected with it. please let me know if there is anything we can do to save them, i had a,lso heard it was reportable, so therefore i will contact you and defra, i would appreciate ANY FEEDBACK . i, personally am quolified in horticulture, but we are all concerned about it with ttanks katharine pearse

Every tree in the Winchester area whose leaves are brown and half-dead looking is a horse chestnut; this is the 3rd year (at least) that I have noticed this, but nothing seems to be being done about it. Nor have I heard anything much on the radio, even though it is so obvious. If there are people out there researching into the cause (and, hopefully, a cure), I wish they would make their work better known. It is surprising that the trees manage to come into leaf at all. As far as I know, they are still producing conkers.

A couple of months ago, I drove from Wimbledon to Barnes and noticed that all the horse chestnut trees looked very sick. Since then, I have been seeing horse chestnuts and oak trees in the same condition everywhere I’ve been including the whole of Richmond Park. I have heard nothing about this in the media. Incidentally, a very large elderflower tree also appears to have suffered the same fate but this may not be related. Other sprecies of trees appear to be vigorous and healthy so it seems unlikely to be drought.

Every single Horse Chestnut I see here I Bishops Stortford (East Herts) has brown patches on leaves. Varies in severity but none seems to have escpaed completely. Got here via google - amazed this hasn’t been in the news more?! seems really serious.

Some have loads of conkers, some none, but they are starting to fall off and still white not brown inside.

There’s a recent article here (see link below) urging people not cut down sick looking trees. There are three main threats (all mentioned in Chris’ article above) but they are not necessarily fatal. It seems that bleeding canker is the biggest threat in terms of killing off the tree. The leaf miner attack and Guignardia fungus attack make the leaves look bad but don’t appear to be killing the trees. The article states that people “can help reduce the spread of the disease by disposing of leaves during the autumn and winter and then composting them thoroughly.”

http://www.huntsdc.gov.uk/News+and+Communications/Press+releases/2008/August/horse+chestnut+trees+under+attack.htm

I see that most of our Horse chestnuts are very badly affected by this canker and blight in tha malvern hills area worcestershire very sad sight is there any likelyhood of a cure?

I live in Harlow, Essex and have 2 beautiful Chestnut Trees (Pink flower) at the bottom of my garden and several at the front of our row of houses. I have noticed over the past 5 years they have looked rather poorly and now realise they have been infected with the Miner Moth - I shall gather and burn the leaves this Autumn in the hope the trees will benefit and look healthier next year.

[…] in 2006, the Woodlands blog commented on the problems facing horse chestnuts, namely disease ( leaf miner moths, leaf blotch […]