Dieback

It is normal and healthy for the pruned tip of a twig to dry up and seal itself off from pests and disease. When that death keeps moving inward, there’s a problem. This creeping death is called dieback. Dieback can be from environmental conditions, insect feeding, or disease.

Hot wind and poor irrigation can cause twig dieback and shade tree decline (Kate Russell)

Physical dieback

It is not understood why, but delayed leafing out seems to be associated with dieback. The same environmental conditions that cause delayed leafing out and dieback include winter drought, extreme cold, or insufficient chilling hours. This form of dieback is common in blackberries and raspberries. Other causes of dieback include poor irrigation and hot, dry winds, potassium or zinc deficiencies, phosphorus toxicity, insect feeding by shot hole borers, black scale, wooly aphids, and mealybugs. Also, when the raspberry horntail, a tiny wasp, lays its eggs in a raspberry or blackberry cane.


Dieback by nematodes

Nematodes are microscopic, eel-like roundworms that live in the soil. Some nematodes are beneficial predators, and some are plant-eating, disease-carrying parasites. Nematode feeding can cause reduced plant vigor, wilting, smaller fruits and leaves, and twig dieback.


Fungal dieback

Several different fungi can cause dieback. Each pathogen has its own set of symptoms and host plants:

• Anthracnose - spotted leaves, cankers on stems and twigs, stunting and chlorosis; almonds, avocados, berries, citrus, cucurbits,, lettuce, spinach, and tomatoes
• Botryosphaeria (aka ‘Bot canker’) - sudden wilting and death to new leaves, dead spurs, cordons, canes; circular to oblong cankers; grapes
• Eutypa - sudden wilting and twig death in late spring or summer; leaves remain attached; discolored bark with amber-colored gumming
• Fusarium - tiny beetle entry holes show frass and a sugary discharge; apricot and other stone fruits
• Leptosphaeria (aka ‘cane blight’) - purplish-black lesions girdle canes; blackberries, blueberries, currants, raspberries, stone fruits, and strawberries,
• Phomopsis - wedge-shaped wood cankers, dead spurs; avocado, grapes
• Phytophthora (var. ‘Branch canker and dieback’) - white, oozing patch; avocado​

Tomato dieback due to botrytis (Goldlocki) CC BY-SA 3.0

Viral dieback

Lettuce is susceptible to viral dieback caused by the lettuce necrotic stunt virus. This pathogen causes stunting, leathery, dark inner leaves, and rotted areas on outer leaves.


Bacterial dieback

Apple, citrus, pear, and stone fruits are susceptible to bacterial blast, blight, and cankers, all caused by Pseudomonas syringae. This pathogen kills flower clusters and nearby leaves, along with twig tips. Fireblight is another bacterial infection that causes twig dieback. This disease is easy to spot because the dead twigs curl into a shepherd’s crook shape. Watch for fireblight in June. Huanglongbing, a deadly citrus disease, includes twig dieback as one of its early symptoms.

Fireblight of apple (Kate Russell)

How to prevent dieback

Healthy plants can often protect themselves from dieback. These tips can help reduce the risk of dieback in your garden and landscape:

• Ensure plants receive enough irrigation in late fall and winter to help them survive colder temperatures.
• Allow infected areas to go fallow.
• Use crop rotation to break the disease triangle.
• Prevent introducing these pathogens to your garden by quarantining new plants.
• Prevent water from traveling from infected plants to healthy plants.

There are many causes of dieback. Determine the reason behind dieback to find an effective treatment.