By Firstfelix
London,
United Kingdom 
Two photos of my plum tree. Is it silver leaf? There appears to be die back and the leaves look silver. They are also brown. I have heard there is such a thing as false silver leaf . . . I have not cut the branch yet to investigate as it is raining and I don't have wound paint.
26 May, 2014
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Check the branches, if it's true silver leaf there should be bacterial ooze which trickles down the stem staying tacky to the touch, strangely silver leaf produces only very subtle leaf signs.
It looks a lot more like false silver leaf from the photos, although I'm no expert.
I have heard though that wound paint is now mostly frowned upon, as it doesn't bond sufficiently well to the wound, it lifts or peels and leaves a gap just big enough for fungal spores to enter...
So, cut a branch, if it has a brown mark inside the cut surface it's definitely true silver leaf and the tree's a goner.
False silverleaf resolves with a good feed'n'mulch though, so keep fingers crossed!
27 May, 2014