Second photo.

Just bumping in case anyone has any thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Cynthia

i have a birch doing that.. and discovered borer ... treated with bayer tree and shrub ...

and wondered if birch borer can cause such???

ken

Classic borer symptoms are the top 1/3 dies first. The tree appears healthy. B. nigra also has a remarkable resistance to the BBB.

This appears to show a tree with most of the branches on one side. Fast growth and limber trunks, added to the preponderance of the weight on one side, and the result is the photo.

I haven't seen it on a birch, but occasionally a young tree will do that if it grew a lot in one year. Was it particularly rainy this growing season?

It was a rainy spring and early summer, yes. Not much rain at all since mid-July, but I have watered every other week or so.

Oh, Ken, I really hope it isn't a borer. Guess I had better get someone to look at it just in case.

Thanks all. If it is just too much growth on the one side or too much too fast, I suppose we will just live with it. I really do appreciate your thoughts!

why do you have to get someone else to look at it..

google IMAGEs.. and go look yourself..

borer holes are not that hard to ID ...

if you find some.. snap a pic ... and let us tell you what to do about it ....

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: its the half moon thingee... that makes it easy ...

I'll check in the morning-year from you-know-where at school this year (work with Emotionally Disturbed kiddoes) and too tired right now, Ken. Thanks for the pic.