Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 8 · column 5 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
By DR. DIANE RELF
Rappahannock New* Contributing Writer
Tree lovers sometimes become alarmed when leaves fall from their favorite shade trees in summer. It may seem unnatural for leaves to fall during the active growing season, but many factors can be responsible for trees shedding their leaves in midsummer. Most of them are normal phenomenon which should be no cause for concern.
Vigorous, deciduous trees may make too many leaves in spring. When the excess suddenly drops in mid-June, it is a natural adjustment to summer heat and lower soil moisture. This leaf-drop does no damage to healthy trees.
During droughts, trees may shed up to 10 percent of their leaves. This benefits the trees as a reduced total leaf area lessens water loss to the air. Loss of 10 percent of the foodmaking capacity does a healthy tree little harm.
A tree’s inner leaves and twigs normally drop due to lack of sunlight penetrating the tree’s interior leaving large branches bare near the trunk. “Shade out” caused by a tree’s own branches is generally not harmful to the tree.
Two trees may mutually shade out branches on their adjoining sides. As long as both trees live, this may not be noticed, but if one is removed, the other has only dead branches on one side. To avoid this occurrence, when planting trees, space them to let light reach all sides at maturity.
Leaves can fall if shaded out by a dense crust of dark fungi called “sooty mold.” The fungi grows in sugary excretions of aphids and scale insects. Once the insects are eliminated, the sooty molds weather away and finally vanish.
Leaves may also drop because an insect tunneled in the leafstalk. One example is the maple petiole borer which leaves a very short piece of petiole attached to the leaf blade. This insect affects little foliage, and stops each year about two weeks after it begins.
In certain, leaf-spot, fungal diseases such as anthracnose, leaf drop may occur in localized areas after in
71.2%