Hardiness Zone: 7a
Pat from Lubbock, TX
Sweet Gum trees are considered to have a medium to fast growth rate. A medium growth rate indicates a tree that has a vertical growth of between 13 to 24" per year. A vertical growth rate of 25" or more a year is considered fast. These rates represent ideal conditions, of course, and don't take into account numerous variables such as soil fertility, drainage, moisture availability, light exposure, etc. With a mature height of 60' to 75' and a canopy spread of 40' to 50', they provide wonderful shade and diverse fall colors.
Sweet Gum trees prefer full sun and moist soil conditions, although they are considered somewhat drought tolerant. They seem to tolerate a wide variety of soil conditions.
One thing you may want to consider with these trees is the fact that after the first 12 to 20 years, they start to flower and produce prickly round "gumballs". Many homeowners find the gumballs a messy (and dangerous) tripping hazard and a real nuisance to clean up. Others use the gumballs for craft projects or as mulch (animals, especially rabbits, don't like stepping on them). If you are planning on planting a Sweet Gum in a high traffic area, you may want to consider the sterile, fruit-less cultivar called Liquidambar styraciflua ('Rotundiloba'), otherwise the fruiting varieties are best located in an area of the yard where the gumballs won't pose a problem.
Ellen
This is a page about, "Do sweet gum trees weep sap?". Sweet gum trees do not weep sap, however the trees may have aphids and they can drip honeydew on you, your car, or patio.
Many yards contain sweet gum trees and they can have issues with pests and disease. This page contains advice about problems with a sweet gum tree.
I have a 12 year American sweet gum tree growing on my front lawn. The roots are very large and growing all over the lawn's surface. It has become very difficult to keep grass growing on the lawn. What are you suggestions?
By Mike R
Here it is end of May and my sweet gum tree has almost no leaves. It is approximately 7-10 yrs old. The branches look dead. We are in zone 5, but our severe winter this year put us in a much colder zone. We are in central Indiana.
By Lin J from Lebanon, IN
My sweet gum tree is producing very few whole balls this year, but is producing what looks like chewed up pieces. I have never seen this before.
By Nancy
One of my two sweet gum trees seems dead from an infection. It has sap bleeding, the bark has some green areas, and white spots. What is this infection and how can I prevent my other sweet gum from getting the infection?
Although it seems healthy, I noticed some white spots in the bark. Are those normal or a symptom of the infection?Is there anything we can do to save our two 7 ft tall Sweet Gum trees? It's been like a drought here for the past month. We have been watering them but not much in past week. It poured a lot yesterday and last night, but the leaves are starting to turn brown and withering.
By Mike
Unfortunately sweet gums are exceptionally hardy and will probably be fine if they got water as you said. I say unfortunately because in our area we get rid of them there are so many!
I have 28 beautiful sweet gum trees. They are getting these web looking things. I either burn them or cut them out of the tree. How can I prevent these bugs or what ever it is from destroying my trees?
By janeteileen
Willing to bet you have tent caterpillars, which get nasty, make webbings, eat or destroy the leaves like crazy. Most have to burn or cut away the areas they infest. We just had a great crop of them in western MN.
I am looking for information about Sweet Gum tree diseases. I was told my Sweet Gum tree that is about 30 years old has an aneurysm. It has three holes about two inches deep about 24 inches from the dirt line. What can I do for this tree to save it?
By Janet Wands from Stow, OH
Sweetgum may be attacked by canker diseases. These diseases cause sunken areas on the trunk and some cause profuse "bleeding". Infected bark and sapwood will be brown and dead. There is no chemical control for canker diseases. Severely infected trees will die. Prune cankers out of lightly infected trees. Maintain tree health by watering and fertilizing.
Leaf spots of various types may attack Sweetgum, causing premature defoliation, but are not serious. Rake up and destroy infected leaves to help control if there are no adjacent Sweetgum to add inoculum.
good luck.if this is not helpful call your county exten office in ph book.
I have a sweet gum tree that was damaged in a storm a couple years ago. It lost a large branch and is now rotting the tree. Is there anything that can be done to save this tree?
Thank God for the favor He has done you and take the hint. Chop the blasted thing down - don't forget to dig up the roots or you'll have babies all over your world!
I was interested in the sweet gum tree fruit comments about them being helpful to the bird flu virus, is there anyone we can give the fruit to? Who would I contact?
Source: American Chemical Society
Posted: April 5, 2006
Sweetgum Tree Could Help Lessen Shortage Of Bird Flu Drug
The sweetgum tree grows widely throughout the country and is known for its mace-like green fruit, which are sometimes called "gumballs." Now, this spiny fruit may become an important source of a chemical needed to make a lifesaving drug against bird flu - a drug that is currently in short supply worldwide, researchers say.
Chemists have found that the seeds of the sweetgum fruit contain significant amounts of shikimic acid, the starting material used to produce the main antiviral agent in a much-heralded drug for fighting bird flu. Their findings, which could help increase the global supply of the drug, were described today at the 231st national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
Shikimic acid is used to make a generic drug called oseltamivir - best known commercially as Tamiflu® - which is used to fight many types of flu viruses. Some health experts believe that this and similar antiviral drugs could help save lives by slowing the spread of the virus in the absence of a bird flu vaccine, which is still in development.
The drug, which blocks the replication of the flu virus, is being stockpiled worldwide to slow or stop a possible bird flu pandemic that some experts predict could kill millions - if the virus mutates into a form that can spread from person to person. The virus, a strain known as H5N1, primarily afflicts birds at present but has been known to kill a small but growing number of humans who have had close contact with infected birds.
There is a skyrocketing demand for Tamiflu, but some experts fear there won't be enough of the drug to treat everyone if a worldwide pandemic occurs. The supply problem resides in the drug's source: The shikimic acid used to make it is obtained almost exclusively from the Chinese star anise, a fruit that is found mainly in China and whose supply has dwindled due to high demand for the flu drug. Although shikimic acid is found in many plants, star anise has been considered the most abundant plant source, until now.
"Our work gives the hearty sweetgum tree another purpose, one that may help to alleviate the worldwide shortage of shikimic acid," says study leader Thomas Poon, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry from the W.M. Keck Science Center at The Claremont Colleges in Claremont, Calif. "They have lots of potential for fighting bird flu."
The sweetgum tree grows widely throughout the United States and other parts of the world. In this country, it is particularly common in the South, including the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, but also can be found as far west as Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma and northward in parts of Illinois.
Although shikimic acid is found in the leaves and bark of the tree, it is most abundant in the fruit, Poon says. In the mature tree, the fruit emerges as a green seedpod that later dries into a brown, spiny husk, which releases an abundance of tiny, grain-like seeds. To optimize shikimic acid extraction, the gumballs need to be harvested when they are still green and before the seeds have been dispersed, Poon says. Each tree can hold hundreds, if not thousands, of seedpods.
The American Chemical Society - the world's largest scientific society - is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
