We planted this tiny mail-order tree from TyTy in January 2013. Until 2016, it had not really suffered from any issues (apart from june-bug attacks which I fended off with imidacloprid), but the leaves have always been a little too yellowish for my liking. Application of fertilizer, iron, and epsom salts didn't make much difference. The leaves tend to be on the small side, except for the ones near the top.
On July 8th 2016 I returned from work to see that most of the leaves on the River Birch had turned completely yellow and were falling off - only the leaves at the tips of the branches remained green. Although I was watering twice a week (about 3 gallons each time), I guess it wasn't enough. I gave it a deep watering and arrested the decline. Reading on the internet, it seems like it's very hard to keep River Birches alive as their roots need to be in the shade, and their leaves in the sun (they tend to grow at the edges of forests apparently). The base of my River Birch is in the blazing sun all day so I guess that's the issue. In May 2017, the River Birch leafed out, but many / most of the spindly branches were dead. On August 19th 2017, the tree had made a significant recovery and was looking skinny but reasonably healthy. In the spring I had pruned off the dead branches and the growth had been quite vigorous from the branches that remained. On April 22nd 2018, the River Birch was looking very poorly again - almost no leaves on the upper branches and the few tiny leaves that had appeared on the lower branches had brown edges and were curling. Around the base of the tree there was a lot of dead grass - perhaps june-bug larvae had been feasting on the roots of this tree. On June 10th 2018, most of the leaves of the River Birch had become yellow and fallen off. The tree now hardly had any leaves.
In July 2018, the River Birch sprouted lots of new leaves again on the lower half of its crown - the upper half remained bare. On June 22nd 2019 the River Birch was doing much better than the previous several years. During the winter I snipped off the dead top and put a new ring of mulch around it. In the spring I fertilized it, and gave it plenty of water. For the first time it started to get the characteristic peeling bark of a River Birch. When the bark first peels off it is orange underneath, but over several weeks it gets bleached white by the sun. Found a beautiful caterpillar in this tree. The same species of caterpillar has been infesting two of the small Persimmons, and the Black Willows. Looks like this is a type of "Unicorn caterpillar".
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River Birch (end of June 2019)
River Birch (July 2018)
River Birch (July 2017)
River Birch (July 2016)
River Birch (2014)
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