Brown leaves on trees, shrubs, etc.

[flamesfever]

I look forward to the beautiful yellow coloured leaves this time of year, and all I see is brown.

Obviously the extreme weather i.e. going from record hot to record cold in a very short period of time, and the early snow, are the causes. However, I wonder if there will be any short or long term damage to the vegetation as a result.

Also I wonder if there is something that we should be doing to mitigate any possible damage e.g. watering or not watering, etc.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by flamesfever

I look forward to the beautiful yellow coloured leaves this time of year, and all I see is brown.

Obviously the extreme weather i.e. going from record hot to record cold in a very short period of time, and the early snow, are the causes. However, I wonder if there will be any short or long term damage to the vegetation as a result.

Also I wonder if there is something that we should be doing to mitigate any possible damage e.g. watering or not watering, etc.

There was a story on the news the other night saying it is a concern but too early to tell if there will be any lasting damage.

And he did say that yes, the trees still need to be watered.

[LChoy]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/healt...431/story.html

Three key weather events over the growing season led to this unusual circumstance of green dead leaves being retained on trees, said Janice Cooke, a University of Alberta tree biologist.
The first is the summer drought. That reduced the amount of yellow and red pigments produced in leaves. So even if the other events hadn't happened, the fall colours would still have been weak, she said. The second event was the prolonged warm spell in September. Right up until Sept. 24, both daytime and nighttime temperatures were warm. Normally, many plants would have naturally been undergoing their winter preparations, taking their cues from the lessening hours of daylight. But temperature can be an overriding factor, Cooke said.
"We had these merrily happy trees --as happy as they could be in a drought year--doing their summer thing in September."
That was followed really closely by the third event--a dramatic cold temperature and hard freeze.

[Shazam]

http://donnabalzer.blogspot.com/2009...was-right.html

A week ago I was worried that my life (as a gardener this season) was over! The temperatures dipped to minus 15 celsius and the leaves on trees including my little silver maple were horribly crispy and shrivelled. Registered Consulting Arborist Anita Schill told me not to worry. Trees that are horribly dry may need water, she said but everything else will be okay. I am publishing a photo of a leaf from the same maple I was so worried about a few weeks ago. It has thawed, come back to life and looks like it will go into normal fall colour and perhaps senesce normally. Go figure. You were so right Anita!

Remember if your leaves have not dropped and do not look like "normal" fall leaves you must get out and water right now. While the soil is still alive. Don't wait until February to think about this. In all many gardening years this is the first time I have seen heavy freezing as a general rule on trees in the fall before the leaves have dropped.

[Methanolic]

Great Question.

Awesome Thread and very informative.

I have 2 Hawthorn trees in my back yard whos leaves are green and crisp, but not close to falling off. I brushed the branches with my leaf rake and the leaves will not fall off.

I thought it was strange, because normally this time of year I would have raked up all their (yellow) leaves by now. So I guess I better water them right away.

This is going to create huge problems for my rink if these leaves ALL don't fall soon!

[4X4]

Stupid leaves. They land in the box of my truck and then float around while I'm driving down crowchild. Distracting and messy.

I've been working on this 15 year plan to eliminate all leaves. It's not quite ready, but I'll post it when it is.

[Madman]

Drive faster.

[Ashartus]

From what I've heard there could be some problems. Healthy plants should be ok, but borderline plants might need extra compost/fertilizer in the spring. I'm not really a plant expert though, and I'm not sure even the experts really know since it was such a weird event getting that deep freeze so early.

[chid]

we should ban all leaves from calgary

[Hemi-Cuda]

the trees seemed very confused this year. some were totally green, convinced it was still summer in September. others were completely bare, like they said at the beginning of September "Look, it's cool! Leaves off now, before the snow!" *FOOM*

then in my mind i like to think the green trees were mocking them for being so trigger happy

[Jedi Ninja]

Well, one consequence of still having leaves is that there were a lot of damaged trees in my neighbourhood today because of the snow. And speaking of a few leaves on your car, better that then the limb of a tree, which happened to one unfortunate neighbour up here.

I wonder if the dead leaves will eventually fall off? Could be bad for the trees if they stay on most of the winter.

[Cowperson]

Remember if your leaves have not dropped and do not look like "normal" fall leaves you must get out and water right now.

I hope she realizes that pretty much every Poplar in the forests of the Foothills from Waterton to Grande Prairie probably fits that description right now.

Are they all going to go stone cold dead next Spring?

I doubt it.

Can't hurt to water though.

Cowperson

[Shazam]

There will be lots of dieback, if that's what you're wondering.

[flamesfever]

I think this is a fairly singular event, as I have never seen it happen before.... and I have been in Calgary since 1962.