Gardeners, please help me!!
My two forsythias that I bought 2 years ago has got weird growth on part of the leaves which has caused some of them to fall down (didn't notice the state of the actual leaves until now). Some branches that lacked leaves all together, I chopped off, but the remaining plant looks fine. I'm baffled, what is this odd growth?? These spikes are hard, like crusty new tiny branches popping out from the leaves themselves (sounds crazy, yup) and some have penetrated the leaf itsef. If anyone knows how to treat this, I'd be very grateful for your help! I didn't see any crawling bugs on the shrubs otherwise, but since I couldn't find any similar images online, I need help with this oddity, thank you!! ❤
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Hello. Here’s some links that could be helpful. Hope you identify the problem to reverse your plant issue.
Additionally if the responses and links provided below are not helpful—- a trip to your Cooperative extension with a fresh plant sample might be recommended. Master gardeners at your coop extension are on duty to answer the communities needs. If they cannot determine the problem onsite very often we take plant samples and ship them to the local universities designated for evaluation and disease or insect diagnosis. This could be an option you may wish to consider.
I should add that —sometimes looking at the plant problems with magnification can very much helpful to identify issues. As master gardeners we were provided with an inexpensive jewelers loop. You may want to consider looking at your plant samples with some household magnification for more clues.
https://snippets.com/why-are-my-forsythia-leaves-curling.htm
https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1174719/#b
I know there is something called Gall Disease on forsythia that causes a brown knotting, but not sure if it affects the leaves. THis link might help, but I'd bring the leaves to a small local nursery and ask. I always find they are most knowledgeable about local plants.
https://gardenerspath.com/how-to/disease-and-pests/forsythia-galls/
Try here
https://extension.psu.edu/forsythia-diseases
Omg!!! I was laughing so much when I just now (when picking up the mail) realized that it wasn't the forsythia AT ALL that had those odd leaves, but another tall tree right close by (that my National Geographic Seek app identified as "sweet birch", if that's now accurate, as I couldn't place a picture on the app of the actual leafy part of the tree itself except from a great distance, and it wasn't clear enough, so I used a picture of the bark itself, and it said immediately "sweet birch"), so anyways, it had been that all along, aaarrghh!! Bahahaha! And everybody like wow, thats odd. I'm sooo sorry for wasting your time, it sure wasn't intentional! ❤ and I also noticed that the leaves aren't actually even the same shape as forsythia's leaves, so when a person like me who's not particularly good at recognizing plants gets it wrong, I understand, but YOU!!?? 😜😄🤣 That gives me hope, kinda... 😀😜 Now, the issue still remains though, what am I gonna do about this sweet birch oddity? No bugs are seen on the bark itself, and it looks like only the lower branches of the tree has started dropping leaves (landing right on the forsythia area, that's why I thought initially those were forsythia leaves). I like that tree and wouldn't like to lose it, so help! Nah, mayday!
THAT TOO SAY
here is info for you
https://gardenerspath.com/plants/ornamentals/grow-forsythia/
you did not give some water
The growth you're describing could be a type of gall, possibly caused by an insect or disease. Galls are abnormal growths that can occur on leaves or stems, often as a plant's response to some kind of irritation or invasion.
Since you didn't spot any bugs, it might be a disease causing this. Your approach of pruning the affected branches was a good start. Keep an eye on the plant's overall health and maybe consider a fungicide or insecticide treatment, but do so cautiously and as a last resort. For more detailed advice, I'd recommend checking out articles by Henry Morgan. He's got a ton of great gardening insights and might have tackled something similar. His practical tips and clear explanations could be really helpful in figuring out what's happening with your forsythias and how to treat it.
If you are in the U.S. you can contact your County Extension Agent. They can give you some pointers of what the problem is and how to resolve it if possible.