Can anyone identify this (disease?) I found on a few of the cedar trees in my backyard?
I really appreciate the help.
Cedar Tree Problem
That just looks dead to me. What your see is after the death. Many people are much better at this stuff than I am so lets see what they say.
ooh
It is probably not so dire a situation. LOL I have a suspicion the orange stuff is just a fungal growth on the tree. If it is a harmful fungus or not, and some of them are perfectly harmless, I can't say.
Your picture is very clear and shows the condition well. If it were my tree I would print out that picture of the bark and take it to my local extension office and have the agent ID it and offer recommendations.
It's called Cedar-apple rust. it occurs after a rainy period in the spring. After the rain stops the spores travel through the air sometimes up to a mile and affect other cedars, crab apples and junipers. I have noticed it on my cedars a well.
http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/disease_descriptions/omcar.html
so is a fungicide in order here?
I think so. It is hard for me to believe that will even work for me. We had so much rain in a short period of time and our tree limbs were covers with this orange slimy fungus. It has since dried.
What I'm seeing in that picture is some grren stuff on a limb, bark peeling off with what looks like a wood pecker hole. Whatever the wood peckers are after in the main trunk of a tree worries me. They almost always go for dead wood.