Last thread.... I have this sugar maple up in the woods that has a nice canopy Almost every limb has the white mold on the underside, similar to the second picture. I normally see this on maple that has sat on the ground for a while . Any tree guys know if this means the tree is dying?
Can you get a close up? Does it have a full crown or are leaves dying off in the fall early? Could it be lichen? Is the bark dead there.? As long as it doesn't find its way under the bark into the cambium layer, I would think you should be okay. Large crown promotes fast growth and better disease resistance. If you tap it for syrup, you might not touch it for a year or two just to see how it does.
I think your right about lichen. I think it looks ok by the looks of the photo, you should be able to tell for shure in the spring if it has a healthy looking crown on it.
It was healthy during the summer of 2016. I just do not remember the mold or lichen on the limbs. May just have missed it. I guess I will know on 6 months. I don't plan to cut it down, but if it dies
Easy there big fella. I think Dennis is correct, nothing serious, we see quite a bit of that stuff on the sugar maple here from time to time. Doesn't seem to hurt anything. Set the saw down & back away slowly.
Hmmm, I assumed as much. I will set the saw down for the time being. Plenty of other trees outback to satisfy the need.
I've seen that on plenty of live trees of all different species...so it looks like that one is not quite "ripe" for cutting just yet......throw it back
Alot of the trees I tap have lichen on them and they are big healthy trees, imo I'd tap that thing in the spring .
