plants & trees are dying

[oldtimer]

OK, all of our rhubarb is turning yellow and dying. So are a huge patch of trees in our shelter belt. The trees are: honey locust, ash, pine, cedar, and siberian elm. What's wrong. The lilacs look like they're surviving but our trees look like it's October by the color. We're thinking it's herbicide from when they sprayed the neighbor's soybeans.

No one around here knows how to cultivate. They farm thousands of acres and put their beans right in a weed patch, the have it sprayed by plane so the weeds can die and the beans live. Do you suppose drift from the planes is killing our trees? If so, what recourse do we have. We're losing fifty year old trees.

[Southerngirl]

Not sure where you live, but could it also be from heat and drought? That is the problem we are having with our trees, our Weeping Willow tree, which is always full and beautiful is nothing but twigs and even they are breaking off :(
Is anyone else in the area experiencing the same problem?
It's sad to lose trees that mature :(

[Blacksmith]

Don't know what part of the country you are in, but air-spraying is not good for a homestead, especially depending on the wind conditions where you are. I used to live in the center of South Carolina in a rural area. My little town was surrounded by thousands of acres of soybeans and cotton. They used crop dusters to spray defoliant for the cotton, and different herbicides and pest control for both crops. Every year just about this time through August, our Dogwoods, and Pecan Trees would begin to defoliate..leaves turned yellow and dropped off. Vegetable garden would also suffer, if the wind was blowing toward us when they sprayed. Many folks in the town had serious cancer issues, of all types.
There was one particular illness that many had..but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was. It was 25 years ago. I have heard since that time cotton is no longer a major crop, but soybeans and sunflowers are the big ones. I heard they still spray.

[BonnyLake]

I would take samples of each plant that is dying to the county extension office/agent and have them tell you what it is that is causing it. Even if they don't know, you will have alerted them and they will watch for others in the area. At least that's what they are supposed to do.

[Grouchy-Hermit]

What have the weather conditions been in your area? I lost a couple of shrubs (yews) this year and finally determined that excessive rain had killed them. These shrubs are about 20-30 years old with substantial root systems but they couldn't hold up to all of the rain that we received this spring.

[oldtimer]

No drought and no floods. Finest growing spring we've had in ages. Talked to a neighbor down the road a couple miles. They have a tree patch next to a field that was sprayed that are dying too.

[warriorwolf47]

I would take samples of each plant that is dying to the county extension office/agent and have them tell you what it is that is causing it.

I will add to this by saying that if you have a local College that has an ag
department to invte them out to check everything you're losing !

I would leave out any officials to begin with !!!!

[oldtimer]

OK, state ag dept. says that the rhubarb has a blight, pull it up and it will recover.

The trees they photographed and took samples. Neighbors trees are far worse than mine. They believe it to be spray drift from aerial spraying on other neighbor's land. They took samples to verify but will take a month.

I want to know what killed them but that won't get me my trees back. The guy from the state said if they get a positive confirmation we can take legal action.

I believe it's wrong for Christian people to sue, so I'm out my beautiful trees. :sad:

[DavidOH]

I believe it's wrong for Christian people to sue, so I'm out my beautiful trees. :sad:

Nothing is wrong with bringing the problem to your neighbor's attention.
If they voluntarily agree to pay compensation it doesn't hurt quite so much.
It gives them the chance to do the right thing.
If it's a moral decision, put it to them to choose to do right or wrong.
Either way you walk away with a clean conscience.

[flyingpuppy]

But at least you can make a loud noise. The people applying the herbicide may be christians as well and have no clue of the devastation they're causing. Write an article in the local paper, or have a reporter check out all the neighbors and write something up. You can effect change even if you don't sue!

[bookwormom]

pull up the rhubarb and look at the roots. Same has happened to me for years. There are big fat grubs that like to eat up the roots, which kills the plant. A possibility.
Your plight is one of the reasons we live in our crappy area. I would not live in farming country, surrounded by big fields. Spray drifting on to my place, killing bees, poisoning the water, if you have a well. We used to live near farms and the ground water had very high herbicide levels.
I am still contending with the after affects of what previous owners did to the ground when they raised tobacco. (this place had an one acre tobacco base).

Where does it say that Christians can not sue, for damages for instance? I seem to remember that they are admonished to work out their problems among themselves, so the pagans would not laugh at them for taking each other to court. Would have to look for the scripture. But I am pretty sure of it.

[mountain man]

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/05/dupont-withdraws-imprelis/

[mountain man]

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/389586