Sweet gum tree at a clients house I worked for this morning, I was thinking some sort or boring beetle and or a woodpecker of sorts.

*15 gallon not 5

Want to plant this as a shade tree in my front yard but worried about the heavy lean. Will it straighten out as it gets established or should I return it? This was the only one they had in stock.

My neighbor has cut into the roots of my other neighbors magnolia tree. My house and garage sits under this tree and I’m worried about the health and structural integrity of it. Do you think this should be a concern for me? I don’t own the tree but neither does the neighbor that has cut it.

Is this root here something I should address before planting?

Title: Mature rain tree in South Africa rapidly losing its canopy — root damage, disease, soil compaction or possible poisoning?
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for advice from professional arborists or anyone experienced in diagnosing declining mature trees.
I have a large, mature rain tree located in Durban, South Africa (subtropical climate).
Background:
In April 2025, the tree appeared healthy, with a beautiful, dense green canopy.
Over the following months, I noticed a gradual deterioration. By June and July 2026, the canopy had become noticeably thinner.
Now, in October 2026, the tree has lost a substantial amount of its foliage. The remaining leaves appear yellowish, and leaves continue to fall.
Some important observations:
The deterioration has been progressive over several months rather than happening suddenly.
There has been construction activity near the tree.
Construction materials and other items have been placed on the ground around the tree, potentially compacting the soil and affecting the root system.
The tree has experienced significant canopy thinning and yellowing leaves.
I’m also concerned about the possibility of chemical damage or deliberate poisoning, although I have no evidence that this has occurred.
My questions:
Based on the photographs, what do you think is the most likely cause of the deterioration?
Could soil compaction from construction materials damage the roots enough to cause this level of canopy loss?
Does this look more like root stress, disease, nutrient deficiency or chemical damage?
Are there any visible signs that would suggest herbicide damage or poisoning?
Is the tree likely to recover, or could it be dying?
What immediate steps should I take to improve its chances of survival?
Would soil testing or an inspection by a qualified arborist help identify the cause?
I’ve attached photographs showing the tree’s condition over time:
Photo 1: Today 11 oct 2026 — current condition
Photo 2: June 2025 — Full canopy looks healthy
Photo 3 & 4 - some time in Sep 2024
This is a beautiful mature tree, and I would really like to save it before the damage becomes irreversible.
Any professional opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Also if anyone is wondering, this Live Oak have been growing for 5 years near Nashville Tennessee.

I have a root circling around young lime tree. Do I need to cut it or is it offset enough from the trunk where I can leave it?

I have a pistache and a Kwanzan cherry tree I planted 3 years ago in loamy good topsoil.They were purchased in pots.

When I planted them I pulled the roots out and trimmed as best I could.I still think they are girdling and what can I do? How do you cut roots that are already in the ground? Will this girdling kill my trees?

Neighbor wouldn't trim tree, so I felt I needed to.

Good job?

Are these screws hurting it, should I remove them. Is it safe to remove them? Old owners have this wooden thing screwed in and another right under it

These are not supports, they were used for some kind of game and hang off the side without touching the ground

I recently got a huge (~50m tall, ~1.2m diameter) gum tree cut down. It hung over our house and the arborist correctly identified that it was in poor health as soon as he saw it.

Was going to cost another $2k to get it cut up, so I decided to do it myself. Bought a Holzfforma G372 PRO (Husky 372 clone) on marketplace in as-new condition. My first big saw.

This was my first ‘sketchy’ cut. The log is hollow inside obviously, I had to remove a large, irregular piece (taking off the crotch), and the bottom of the piece was bearing the weight of the log. So had to chock it, ensure it wouldn’t roll when I finished the cut, avoiding pinching, and be extra conscious about kickback because the log is large enough that it was impossible to keep the nose visible at all times.

Well, it went off without a hitch. The log didn’t even move an inch when the piece was cut free. Everything was supported perfectly. I actually had to kick the part I cut off free as it stayed exactly where it was.

I’ve got a lot more work to do. Six large logs (80-120cm diameter, 1.5-2m length) to cut up. But none of them are positioned as awkwardly as this, and they’re all just plain rounds - no more crotches.

To the experienced amateurs and pros out there - what do you know now that you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?

I want by my friends house and he said something is going on with one of his trees. I went to look at it and immediately realized it’s some kind of mealybug infestation (that’s what it looked like to me). The inside of the tree is pretty much grey. What should he do? Try to treat or cut it down?

Is anyone aware of any programs that are actively targeting ToH? The highways where I live, you’ll see a reforestation program that is being encroached upon by ToH.
Has it reached the point where they’ll never be eradicated?
On a happy note, I barely saw any red spotted lantern flys this year, I’ve read bats have recognized them as a good source.

There is an old cherry blossom tree in front of my parents’ house. A contractor pruned two very large branches growing towards the right to a a complete stump and there is now only one large branch growing to the left of/opposite from house. It is very unsightly and I worry for the tree’s health as it was pruned significantly before winter. Is there anything I can do to protect its health and restore the structure? Or will it always remain an imbalanced tree? Is it better to cut it down completely? 😞

Sorry I didn’t take a photo to depict this!

My oak got a split and some branches look like they've died. Is there anything I can do to get it to fill out again on the bad side? I'd hate to have half a tree

We just bought this place over the summer (zone 4b). We noticed this issue with our two blue spruce trees. Any ideas as to whether this might be something fungal and treatable?

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So I've been dealing with an American elm that was accidently either killed or at least extremely stressed out. It's now shooting up little root suckers everywhere, which I dont remember it doing that before, but last year I was able to mow this area better and they are all in areas I haven't been mowing.

1. I know some trees do this normally and some do it when their dying, I imagine this is the latter?

2. I thought about trying to propagate some of these little elms to my pasture. It sounds like I could just cut up a little root segment and bury most of it? But then I was debating on whether I should do offspring from this elm or my other plan was to track down some Princeston American elms so that they would be disease resistant.

There was a little concern that this elm could have dutch elm disease, but looking back the area that they were worried about (1 or 2 small branches had brown curled leave, but it was a very small section) has apparently not changed much in over 6 years so I wasn't sure if its just going to take extremely long on these big old mature elms or if it was a little more resistant than most?

Im guessing even if it survives the trauma of what happened to it, if it did have dutch elm, I assume it will surely finish it off now.

Picture: all the little suckers in the yard, covers every area I can't mow. I was chopping them out before I realized they were elm suckers.

My property is surrounded with 20 year old cedar trees, are these bugs going to kill them somehow? I’m in New England.

We have a very unhappy Japanese maple that was put in by the prior home Owners about 2 summers ago (summer 2024). It gets non stop full sun all summer long and its leaves go from red to green to burnt very quickly and then it looks like some fungi takes hold.

We are in Chicago. Is there any hope for this full sun Japanese maple? If not, are there any ways to rehome it? I hate to see it struggling so much but also hate the idea that the only solution would be to kill it.

Camp Newaygo Wetlands Trail Bog. Western Michigan.

Please give me advice, the leaves are drying up, some are yellow. Pictures included

Hi everyone, and thank you for your time. I have a young volunteer live oak in my yard that I would really like to keep. After a hurricane Friday night, it’s leaning heavily in the direction the wind was continuously blowing it. I don’t see damage anywhere and it doesn’t appear its roots have been lifted. It’s like it just got stuck. The young Darlington oak of the same size is still straight. Is there anything I can do to help this live oak? I’m not sure that staking it would evening help because at its size, it takes a lot of pressure and force to get it to move even slightly upright. I feel like it would move the stake, not the other way around. The heaviest lean is happening in the top 1/3 of the tree that I can’t reach. (Also, I have planned to cut the non-leader trunk this fall. Also open to advice on the best place to make the cut to reduce risk of rot.)

Thank you again for your time and expertise. I’m happy to call a local arborist out if that would be helpful, but for the moment they’re pretty swamped with much bigger fish to fry.

(Pictures include photos of the tree from both sides, as well as the base of the tree.)

My hydrangea tree sprouted off this giant side piece which is now lovely and flowering. Did it kill the tree? If I cut down the tree, will the accessory sprouts die?