What are some sweetgum diseases?

Answer 1

Trunk canker, leaf spot, root knot -- but basically, the natural species thrives with little trouble. Which makes for two sorts of troubles. The natural species has two characteristics that make it abundant; and horticultural varieties are rife with unnatural diseases as usual. Sweetgum makes billions of seed balls which litter and lump the ground, and it also sprouts widely from its roots making colonies. That is how it thrives. The varieties that are sterile or deeply colored or columnar etc. are also susceptible to, or at least more obviously display, diseases such as leaf spot. If there is one on your property, do not plan much beneath it or even near to it, because the balls will bury the ground. They can grow over one hundred feet tall, and lose large branches and whole tops in storms as they do. Being a bottom-lands species, the roots are very dense, close to the surface, very extensive, and powerful enough to penetrate any paving or even foundation walls. Very fast growing, potentially magnificent, but to be respected for what it is and enjoyed more easily where it naturally grows.