Gas injury
Landfills, natural gas lines, sewers, and wastewater disposal vents can emit or leak gases that injure or kill foliage or roots.
Identification
Gas injury causes aeration deficit and its symptoms. Damage from gas exposure may also resemble that from herbicide phytotoxicity or other chemical phytotoxicity, root-disease pathogens, thermal injury, and acute water deficit.
Diagnose gas injury by smelling air and soil near injured plants. Odor of ammonia, natural gas (methane), or hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs) may be detectable. If the source of gas is underground, soil may be discolored bluish or gray. Look for any pattern to the damage, such as only on the plants near vents or over the gas or sewer line.
Damage
Gas injury symptoms include slow plant growth and foliage that wilts, then turns brown, crispy, and dry. Affected roots may discolor and appear black, bluish, or water-soaked. Plants may only partially leaf out in the spring, limbs may die back, and plants can be killed.
Solutions
Contact the utility company immediately if a leak of natural gas is suspected. With a sewer line break, depending on the situation, the local water agency, property owner, or persons causing damage are responsible for repairing it.
To diagnose whether the cause is gas emissions from garbage decaying at a former landfill, investigate the site’s previous land use, test air using special gas monitoring instruments, or send air samples to a laboratory. Grow plant species that are shallow rooted or otherwise more tolerant of landfill emissions. See Abiotic Disorders of Landscape Plants for more information. |
Dieback from a gas leak
Roots blackened by gas
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