Browning leaves on my seedling - Ask Extension
Hello, I got this seedling (Nyssa sylvatica) last year and recently as the leaves emerged, they started to turn brown as if the tree was burned. I hav...
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Browning leaves on my seedling #931699
Asked May 14, 2026, 1:42 PM EDT
Hello, I got this seedling (Nyssa sylvatica) last year and recently as the leaves emerged, they started to turn brown as if the tree was burned. I have been watering it regularly. Is this a fungal disease? Or something else? Is there anything I can do to return the tree to good health?
Prince George's County Maryland
Expert Response
It's been too dry so far this year for most leaf-infecting fungi to have caused any noticeable disease. Instead, this is most likely due to damage from the overnight freeze back in late April. (We're still getting questions about plant damage from that event, even three weeks later.)
The tissues damaged by the freeze/frost cannot heal and recover, and badly-damaged leaves will typically fall off (mildly-damaged leaves might not). More new growth should eventually be produced as the trees recuperate. It may take several weeks for affected plants to generate enough new growth that they look more normal. As an example, many wild sycamores were impacted, and they are only just now starting to produce visible new growth.
The ongoing drought is stressing many plants, even those without visible freeze damage, and it would help to monitor them for watering needs when possible. You can find watering guidance on the linked page. It takes lots of root-available moisture to produce and expand new foliage, and Nyssa sylvatica is also a moisture-loving species that prefers to grow in sites with readily-available water. If you've been watering periodically, that should suffice, and not other intervention is needed at this time. If, in a few more weeks, any branch tips become and remain bare and do not produce new growth, they can be cut back at that point.
Miri
The tissues damaged by the freeze/frost cannot heal and recover, and badly-damaged leaves will typically fall off (mildly-damaged leaves might not). More new growth should eventually be produced as the trees recuperate. It may take several weeks for affected plants to generate enough new growth that they look more normal. As an example, many wild sycamores were impacted, and they are only just now starting to produce visible new growth.
The ongoing drought is stressing many plants, even those without visible freeze damage, and it would help to monitor them for watering needs when possible. You can find watering guidance on the linked page. It takes lots of root-available moisture to produce and expand new foliage, and Nyssa sylvatica is also a moisture-loving species that prefers to grow in sites with readily-available water. If you've been watering periodically, that should suffice, and not other intervention is needed at this time. If, in a few more weeks, any branch tips become and remain bare and do not produce new growth, they can be cut back at that point.
Miri
