Magnolia Tree Troubleshooting

Hi All,

I have what I believe is a Southern Magnolia Tree. It is huge. It was here when we bought the house (recently), and this tree and a lot of the yard has essentially been neglected for quite a long time.

I have noticed what I believe to be leaf spot, which does not overly concern me, as the best method I've read for controlling that is good cleanup (the gardeners do this on a weekly basis). However, I want to make sure there is nothing else going on with this tree that could be making that worse or could be more serious than that. I have noticed several spots on the trunk of the tree where the bark appears to be pulling away and falling off. There are also areas toward the base of the tree where the roots start to spread that do not appear ideal. However, I am not at all sure whether this is normal for a magnolia or not.

The tree does not get watered by the sprinkler system, though it may still pick up that moisture underground from the roots. I believe, especially with 110 degree summer coming up, that I need to start doing a deep water on it at least once a week. The tree has also not been fertilized since I've been here and I do not know if anyone did that for all the years it's been there. Is a fertilizer treatment necessary?

This first picture is some of the leaf spotting.

This is another leaf spot picture.

Leaf spot on tree.

Trunk of tree.

Base of tree.

Looks fine to me. It is just the old worn-out leaves that are getting spots, they would fall soon anyway. If the fresh new foliage was affected, it would be different.

Resin

Thank you, Resin. What do you think about the pictures of the bark? Is that normal? Am I just overreacting? =)

I have a couple big magnolias and that is fine for this time of year. New leaves should be coming in and those are prefectly normal old leaves dropping off. I don't know if it's the same in CA but in SC a big magnolia has no problems with anything, very hardy tree. Mine are blooming right now and I have the exact looking leaves on the ground.

Thank you, CoreHHI. I admit, I'm a little paranoid about this tree, mainly because it is so big and if something goes wrong, it either comes down on my house, my shed, or the neighbor's garage, all of which I'd like to avoid. =)

I love the tree, and wouldn't mind those leaves coming down all the time, except they are ugly and have those black spots on them. But mostly I'm concerned about the trunk, because it seems like there are a few places where the bark is starting to come off or slip off. Growing up, I had other trees that did that on a regular basis (though I don't know if that was healthy for them either), but don't know if that's normal for magnolias.

That is a beautiful picture of one of the blossoms! Does your tree have branches that are closer to the ground so you could get that picture? I keep trying to get pictures of my blossoms, but the lowest branches are too high up to get a good picture. Think I might need to get the good camera out. =)

Yes the lower branches are pretty low but I have pruned some off so I can get a mower around the tree. Also my kids love to climb the trees so they will simply step right on any branches close to the ground.

Those leaves should only drop at this time of year, you will get a few time to time but now is when most leaves fall out. I just use a mulching mower on them but some people pick them up(not worth the effort to me). One thing is those leaves will stain various surfaces so if you plan on putting anything close to the tree realize that.

I'm trying to think of when I've seen a magnolia falling down but I can't seem to remember one. Around here old live oaks will lose huge heavy limbs in a storm and they can be blown right over if it's old and windy. Pines will lose huge limbs as well but they won't topple over. Those two I would keep an eye on but I really not sure what happens when a magnolia starts dying of old age.

I had an arborist come look at the tree today. He said it looks good and is beautiful. It should have been pruned a long time ago, because there is at least one huge branch that has twined its way up the tree and should have been taken out, but it's way too late for that now. He does recommend doing a light pruning - taking out about 10-15%, mainly the little sucker branches coming off the main limbs. Also to prune some back from the electric lines. But he said otherwise, it looks great. I feel better now.

I have to say that it is very expensive to get a tree of this size pruned though. Unfortunately, all of the branches are pretty high up, so it's not something we'd feel comfortable doing ourselves.

That is awesome that your kids climb all over the tree. That was one of my favorite things when I was a kid. =)