Our climate is considered temperate and has no extremes worth mentioning. But during a long life, plane trees will have to experience one or the other dry period. Will they survive unscathed or will they bear any marks? And is there anything the owner can do?

Prolonged drought favors diseases

Plane trees cope well with drought

Plane trees like moist soil, but they are also heat and drought tolerant. As a so-called heart root, the plane tree has a root system that goes both deep and wide. This allows their roots to still track down water even in hot summers.

Only freshly planted or young specimens whose root system has not yet fully developed need support. Also water older trees if it has been hot for many days or even weeks without raining in between.

Drought can promote disease

If the weather is dry and hot, middle-aged plane trees in particular can contract Massaria disease. In the worst case, branches can rot and break off. This danger must be recognized in good time and averted by removing the branches in a targeted manner. However, you have to look closely here, because many branches are affected on the poorly visible upper side. These are other signs that point to this fungal disease:

  • reddish to pink discolored bark parts
  • in the following year with dark fungal spores
  • dying and falling bark
  • the foliage is getting thinner and thinner

Cracked, peeling bark

In hot summers, it is noticeable that the bark of the plane tree bursts open to a large extent and detaches itself from the tree trunk or branches. Accompanying this, loud space noises can also be heard. Are these really the consequences of drought, as is often assumed?

Even if it looks like it at first glance, drought is not the reason that plane trees lose their bark. In the case of the plane tree, this is a natural process. While the tree grows up to 70 cm per year, the bark does not grow. The trunk increases in size and at some point “bursts” the tight corset of bark.

Signs of water shortage

The easiest way to tell if a plane tree is suffering from drought is to look at its leaves. They lose moisture first and then hang down powerlessly. By then at the latest, such a suffering tree must be watered extensively.

Category:

Trees