What is wrong with my horse chestnut tree?
By Reverend
United Kingdom 
The tree became too big for the series of pots it has been growing in and so I transplanted it into a spot in the centre of my lawn a few months ago. It was clearly very happy and put on about 6" of vertical growth and was well leaved. Suddenly the leaves are turning brown at the tips and almost look as if something has been eating them though there is no sign of any infestation. Do you have any ideas as to what is happening? Rev McNicholas
20 May, 2009
Answers
Me again. Of course, I have ignored the obvious - if you've put it in the ground, have you been keeping it watered sufficiently?
20 May, 2009
Oh dear. It's probably got one of the three things that are seriously affecting all our horse chestnuts. One is a moth of some kind that does turn the leaves brown, so by July it looks dreadful (we've got one here which is fine currently, but any day now it'll start going brown, just like all the ones in the parks). There's also some kind of fungus attacking them that's killing them off, and something else I can't remember. No treatment, as far as I'm aware, for any of these things, but you could ask the Parks Dept of your council - they usually have an arboreal/tree person. And they might want to know about it anyway.
20 May, 2009