Typically, we get calls asking about brown leaves on trees in September, but here we are in early August, and we are starting to see trees begin to drop some of their leaves. Browning leaves on our trees this time of year is usually a sign that your tree is under stress, and with not much rain recently and temperatures approaching 100 degrees for longer that we like to remember, I think we know what is causing the stress. Here are a couple of reasons we’re starting to see browning leaves.
The first issue is environmental leaf scorch. You will typically start to see leaf scorch on trees when you notice the edges of the leaves turning brown. They start to turn brown at the edges because the edges are the farthest away from the veins on the leaves, making it difficult for the leaf to push scarce water resources out to those edges.
A contributing factor to leaf scorch can be the type of tree and where that tree is located. For example, dogwoods are primarily an understory tree. This means that dogwoods do best when they are planted under the canopy of another larger tree.
The shade helps them survive the warm dry season. But sometimes, dogwoods have been planted out in the open without any source of shade. When this happens, you will almost always experience leaf scorch on your dogwood tree.
Dogwoods planted on the west side of the house can also experience more leaf scorch due to little protection from that cooking afternoon August sun. This would also be true of dogwoods that.