hey

12 inches make me think of a large dog... adding high nitro fertilizer resulting in a burn.. and perhaps a secondary pathogen ... fixing the 2ndary thing.. will not stop the dog ....

are there dogs in the hood ... and WHO LET THE DOGS OUT...

i would just snip out the black area.. and get it off the property ... burn or garbage ... in my world.. its not really worth the expense of treating anything ...

ken

That's fungus primarily caused from water bouncing off the soil and splashing water/dirt onto the foliage - combined with humidity that builds up from the water.

You should get a razor blade and some rubbing alcohol and a towel and cut off the infected foliage... cleaning the razor between each cut. It surely wouldn't hurt to spray a fungicide (read the label but possibly Liquid Copper) after you've pruned these areas away.

Dax

Mulch will help stop this tremendously diverting the rain.

Dax

dax is probably right.. but i used to live near a large neighbor dog.. who killed many a branch that way ...

ken

I would say that Dax has nailed it as a fungus. I've never seen any dog wandering through my yard, and this tree is in my backyard as well.

I'll pounce on this with the liquid copper ASAP. Thanks for your help.

P.S. My guess was that I had burned the tree with the hot motor of my lawnmower. Though if this was the case I'd certainly see it on more than one tree.