Horrid wilting across multiple species

I am try to grow a screen of trees between me and my neighbor.
It consists of transplanted trees and some Jerusalem Artichokes.
I was transplanting a new crop of trees when I noticed wilting on the tops of many of the plants.
Im suspecting the worst, but I haven't any evidence beyond the wilted plants and a history of bad relations with this neighbor.

Ouch, yeah. I'm guessing some gicky spray. Is it reasonable for you to throw up a camera watching that area and plant some freebee trees as bait? And if it's that, what do you do about it?

Not a pleasant situation.

Wilting? Check
Cupping Leaves? Check
Twisting? Check

I'm sorry William! What an absolute bummer.

Did the soil you dig in give any hints to potential contamination or lack of nutrients? Did you by chance use some kind of amendment you normally wouldn't use?

Looks like Verticillium wilt to me or another form of wilt.

Could you have picked up the fungi with some of those transplants?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verticillium_wilt


It could also be from some gicky spray as Christopher suggested.  And this is simpler to treat, maybe.

I probably should have installed a camera years ago, but it's on a property with zero utilities, so it would have to be expensive and/or not operate in real time.

The plants are all volunteers from one of two yards and the plants that are shorter than the fence seem largely untouched.
There is seriously bad blood between me and that neighbor, for reasons I won't belabor, and this isn't the first time I suspected him of spraying my plants.
That is why I only use volunteer plants.
I would love to plant  a thick screen of Arborvitae between us, but I can't afford that kind of investment  when enemy action is afoot.

sure looks suspicious!
what a dilemma to have to deal with.

If you knew the type of toxin I wonder if there are plants that might resist it?
Something really rampant...although if it's invasive it might be a bother for you also.
maybe a giant ornamental grass if this is a broad leaf spray?

When we first moved here, before the fence, I suspected spray damage from the neighbor who thought he could free range his mower and dogs over here...it turned out to be male dog and cat spray marking 'their' territory burning an assortment of plants ...the fence was a game changer.

In your case I see the fence and how close the neighbor's house is...looks like they could almost reach out and pour something on your plants

so sorry you're having to live next to an antagonistic neighbor.

Is the bad blood so bad that this approach won't work?

"Hey, I was thinking about planting some stuff along the fence line between our places and I want to make sure that it makes your yard nicer too, not just mine. Do you have any preferences?"

I hate to say it looks like some kind of nasty spray blow-over. Maybe hose them down really good and see what happens, I seem to recall catalpa are pretty resilient?

And a Very Purple Suggestion. Here in Brazil you plant rue for this kind of thing- I planted it against the wall with our nasty neighbors (after they broke our sewer line, had their visitors throw trash into my garden, and had street parties constantly for the first year or so we were here. Things have gotten better since). I can't tell you the mechanics of how it works, but it's supposed to protect against negative energy coming in. Maybe see if you can rustle up some rue!

We had an awful neighbor growing up who sprayed toxic gick all over my Mom’s front yard garden over what started as a property line dispute. It escalated to her— a middle aged woman with a daughter I used to play with— mooning my 8yr old brother, spitting at me from her car, then trying to hit me with her car twice, kidnapping our cat, calling CPS on my parents, trying to get my Dad fired from his job, and setting our border plantings on fire. She would sometimes sabotage her own garden in the same way to claim to the police my Mom, an exceedingly passive person, had done it to her. My parents ended up selling my childhood home due to this woman’s decade of harassment. What they did do, was sell to a couple made up of a litigator and a prosecutor.

Christopher Weeks wrote:Is the bad blood so bad that this approach won't work?

"Hey, I was thinking about planting some stuff along the fence line between our places and I want to make sure that it makes your yard nicer too, not just mine. Do you have any preferences?"

To be clear, this is neighbor is next to my gardening lot, not my home.
He had an opportunity to buy the lot, but declined.
Since I've owned it, he has used the civil code to try and enforce his idea of best use upon MY property.
He has cost me thousands of dollars in fines after I went out of my way to accommodate him.
My city finally put  urban farming/community garden laws into place, which has given me a degree of protection

He has his own code violations, like a shed built on the property line, but why would I care?
I am not interested in mobilizing the state against my neighbors for anything short of a threat to my health and welfare.

Im pretty certain he has physically attacked my trees in the past, taking live willow stakes and trying to break them off at ground level.
That wasn't enough to kill them(!) but I think that's when he sprayed them
I've actually seen him in my yard,one time but couldn't get photographic evidence.

Because of his toxic personality and his use of toxins,if I could build a 3 story fence between us, I would.
It turns out there are laws against that,such fences are known as "spite" fences.😐
So instead of a fence, or a very creative trellis,I've been transplanting volunteer trees to the bed next to the shared property line to create a buffer strip.
A visual screen for him
and a source of biomass for me.
Evidently he doesn't care for this, so this "Forest of Spite" has experienced quite a setback.

I'm seriously tempted to plant running bamboo.
That's how much I desire separation from this guy.
I am considering investing in conifers.
They grow fast, and they are evidently resistant to glyphosate.
Given his disdain for my property rights, he will probably not stop at spraying, so investing in a camera might be a better bet.

William Bronson wrote:

I'm seriously tempted to plant running bamboo.
Given his disdain for my property rights, he will probably not stop at spraying, so investing in a camera might be a better bet.

+1 on the bamboo
+1 on a basic trail cam you come review when you go by the property

They are easy to hide and, at this point, it does not sound like you need real time video. Unless he steals the trail cam. Maybe get two and hide both with one watching the other :-)