By Kristia Postema
Capital News Service
Disease and a newly identified fungus have been killing Michigan’s blue spruce population for roughly a decade, and the dangers show no signs of slowing.
Symptoms of the fungus known as diaporthe include branch die-back that moves up the tree and sometimes kills it, said Jill O’Donnell, a Michigan State University Extension senior agriculture and agribusiness educator, said.
Diaporthe was first identified in blue spruce during studies done from 2011 to 2018. The findings were published this year.
“The problems tend to be in older trees, but we did see some problems in the Christmas trees,” O’Donnell said.