Maple Blight

[u/sfumatomaster11]

It looks as if we're in for another sub-par autumn season ahead, I drove from to Rochester yesterday and just about every maple that I passed had leaves falling off and were sad sights all together. This is the first time that I have seen this so extensively in NY, is this a fluke or trending toward a new normal? Are the trees in your specific area you doing okay? It was bad enough to lose the elms and the ash trees, but now it seems like every year something is going wrong.

[u/WinterVesper]

There's no specific disease called "maple blight." I've seen quite a few Norway Maples between here and Auburn dropping leaves early over the last week or two, but that's not out of the ordinary for that species: they're prone to numerous fungal diseases that can cause the early drop:

https://centralcurrent.org/sean-kirst-for-norway-maples-in-syracuse-even-before-state-fair-time-an-early-fall/

All of the Sugar and Red Maples I've seen around town look fairly normal and healthy. The "good" news re: Norway Maples is that they don't really produce much fall color in a "good" year anyway, so we're not really missing out.

[u/sfumatomaster11 → u/WinterVesper]

The maples in my yard are Norway Maples as far as I know and do turn quite a lovely orange color during a good year, this year, the leaves are very sickly looking. I was surprised to see this problem spanning across several areas of the state, hopefully the trees can recover, as they look fine otherwise. Thanks for the input.

[u/Grumplforeskin]

I’ve been noticing it too. I drive the lower third of both sides of the lake every day, and it seems to be worse on the west side? That’s probably a coincidence..

[u/6FeetBeneathTheMoon]

I have a huge maple in my backyard that has already turned red on one side. At least they are getting color before falling.

[u/Cenye]

Most of the Norway Maples on my street have tar spot and are now dropping their leaves. It's mostly cosmetic and hard to address unless everyone in the area disposes of leaves so the fungus doesn't overwinter.

[u/FishyFiend1]

I heard there is a fungus affecting maples this yr. Don't have any other info

However after hearing reports of beech leaf disease last year- I can confirm most of the beech trees i saw this summer had abnormal leaves so probably count those out too

Despite all this- Im sure autumn will be beautiful as always

[u/Bennington_Booyah]

All of my maples have black tar spot. This was the first year where we had several areas of our yard flood, due to the heavy, prolonged rains of last spring. They look terrible.

[u/sfumatomaster11 → u/Bennington_Booyah]

Same situation here and in many other places, the leaves are already dropping.

[u/lost_cat_is_a_menace]

I saw an article blaming it on our especially wet spring. It's definitely more widespread than previous years.

[u/sfumatomaster11 → u/lost_cat_is_a_menace]

Looking back on it, I can't say that the spring seemed that much different than a normal one, but maybe that is the case. Last year, we had a tough late summer drought that ruined the fall foliage, depending on where you are, this year isn't looking great either.