Anybody Know About Chinese Pistacchio Trees Getting Sick & Falling

[JSngry]

Tree had be getting dead branch ends on one side for a few years now, but sprouting new leaves closer to the trunk, so we figured the thing was fighting back against whatever it was.

But on Saturday afternoon, heard this prolonged groaning sound and then a little-less prolonged rustling sound and said to myself, that's not normal...looked out the front window and there it was, 20+ years old, easily 30+ feet tall. Looked like one side of the roots just...ceased to exist, and gravity finally won. No strong winds going on, nothing.

Fortuitously, did not land on roof, car, fence, person, pet, anything, and just banged up one corner gutter on its way down. Not enough damage to file insurance on, not with our deductible.

But money/luck is not the issue. What I'm wondering about is what kind of behavior was exhibited by this scenario. Can a tree more or less die in one half of its root system, or what? We'd pruned the dead branches off to "give hope" to the live ones, but the tree was not serious one-sided or anything as a result.

Is there a tree surgeon in the house?

[Jim R]

A shame, as those are lovely trees- especially in Fall (er... the season, not the activity). Seems like a very unusual occurrence... maybe a root fungus? I dunno, but I like to learn about such things, so hopefully someone else will chime in. Anyway, glad there was not damage or injury involved.

Those are quite popular out here, btw. My wife's family had one in the front yard where she grew up, and it's quite massive now. We thought about putting one in our front yard some years ago, but opted for a sycamore. Beautiful tree, although it turns out I'm allergic to the damned things.

[JSngry]

Gorgeous trees indeed. We have one in our back yard that is quite large (pre-massive, one could say), and healthy as you'd want it to be, as are all our other trees.

Just wondering if we should've pulled the plug on this one when it first started getting sick, like, are they great trees that are generally healthy but once they get sick, they got no recuperative powers?

I'd get another one in a second if I knew what the problem was that got this one. We put that tree in, like no later than three years after moving in. It's grown up with the family, so to speak. Brenda actually got a little emotional about it. Me, not so much,but I do enjoy giving a good tree a good home and us both growing old together. That's a hardcore win-win right there!

[Jim R]

I'm sure most people (including me) would have just done what you did, especially since you had new growth closer to the trunk. I mean, pulling the plug on a 20 year old tree seems like a stretch, unless you were advised to do so by an arborist. Speaking of which, I wonder if you have a city arborist that could advise you. Even in a large city like San Jose, we have a guy who is quite accessible (and knowledgeable, and was quite generous with his time when I spoke to him a few years ago). Have you already tried searching for pistachio info (pistachinfo) info on the web?

I do like the idea of planting trees and growing old with them. When we lost a red cedar in the back yard several years ago, we planted two crape myrtles and a saucer magnolia. The crape myrtles have grown steadily, and blossomed nicely. The magnolia seems to grow about an inch per year (even failed to produce a blossom this year, after finally producing one last year). Sycamores, by contrast, grow like there's no tomorrow!

[Tim McG]

Yike!

We have a huge Chinese Pistachio tree in our front yard next to the garage and another smaller one in the backyard. I'd sure like to know if there is a reason for this, too.

Gorgeous trees indeed. We have one in our back yard that is quite large (pre-massive, one could say), and healthy as you'd want it to be, as are all our other trees.

Just wondering if we should've pulled the plug on this one when it first started getting sick, like, are they great trees that are generally healthy but once they get sick, they got no recuperative powers?

I'd get another one in a second if I knew what the problem was that got this one. We put that tree in, like no later than three years after moving in. It's grown up with the family, so to speak. Brenda actually got a little emotional about it. Me, not so much,but I do enjoy giving a good tree a good home and us both growing old together. That's a hardcore win-win right there!

Jim,

How often did you have the tree thinned out?

We called a tree guy a couple years ago and he advised us to trim the big tree every 3-4 years.

Edited May 29, 2013 by GoodSpeak