For those who care about their trees, the presence of brown or black spots on their leaves will naturally be concerning. These spots not only make the tree look worse, but will often signal a form of fungal infection that’s dangerous to the tree’s life.

At Green Pointe Tree Care, we’re here to offer a wide range of services in Holladay to help prevent or deal with tree issues, including infections. Our solutions range from tree injections and tree spraying through other insect and disease prevention methods, ensuring your trees are in good health year-round. What are brown or black spots on your leaves signaling, and what should you do if you notice them? Here’s a primer.

Likely a Fungal Infection

As we noted above, the most common cause of black or brown spots on your tree leaves is a fungal infection. Black spot fungus and brown spot fungus will both cause small, circular dark spots on the tree’s leaves. These infections typically thrive in hot, humid weather conditions and can affect most trees of any type or species.

In many cases, these are ornamental problems that will resolve on their own. However, if this has not happened within a few weeks, or if the condition begins to spread to other trees and cause leaves to fall off entirely, it’s time to contact our team.

While it’s possible for these fungal infections to spread from tree to tree, keeping your trees healthy is an excellent preventative measure. If your trees are regularly spraying, pruning, and maintaining their leaves, they should be well-equipped to fight off common infections like these. And if you notice brown or black spots on the tree’s leaves despite its best defenses? We can help.

What Should be Done

Either on your own or with the assistance of our arborists, here’s what often needs to be done if your trees are seeing black or brown spots on their leaves:

If an infection is present, stopping it from spreading is crucial. The tree should be sprayed and/or injected, and you can even consider spraying your other trees to assist in the process.
The infected leaves should be pruned away as they appear. If possible, don’t compost them; instead, put them in the trash or burn them. This ensures that the infection does not spread to other parts of the tree or to neighboring trees.
Keeping tree leaves as dry as possible is ideal, including limiting watering in some cases.
Fungicides may be used in some cases to prevent spread of the fungus. However, this is not always recommended or desired by homeowners, and should only be carried out by a qualified professional.

For more on how to deal with black or brown spots on your trees, or to learn about any of our arborist or tree care services in Holladay or other parts of Utah, speak to the staff at Green Pointe Tree Care today.