Green Horizons

There's been a new Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD) detection on black walnut in Virginia. This is the second state in the eastern range of black walnut with TCD detections.

In Missouri, visual surveys for TCD have begun at high risk sites across the state. The Missouri Department of Agriculture is surveying sawmill sites and urban areas and MDC is surveying campgrounds, high-risk natural forested areas and plantations. We are also following up on reports of declining walnut from the public. So far we have not detected TCD in Missouri.

Keep watching for declining walnuts with possible TCD symptoms. This is the time of year when we expect to start seeing fresh branch flagging, wilted brown leaves attached to branches and epicormic sprouts that may begin to become visible below dead branches in the upper canopy. Keep in mind there is other damage visible now as well including cicada injury, walnut caterpillar defoliation and foliar anthracnose.

If you haven't watched the webinar on finding and reporting walnut trees with TCD, you can find that, other information and reporting forms at www.mdc.mo.gov/thousand-cankers.

There are three ways to report suspect walnut trees:

• Online at http://extension.missouri.edu/scripts/eab/eabreport.asp
• Email suspect photos to forest.health@mdc.mo.gov