What's wrong with my oak saplings?

[sandspider]

Hi all

 

I've got about 20 oak saplings (recently transplanted) and about 5 of them seem to have some sort of whitish mould on them. Pic hopefully below.

 

Can anyone tell me what this is? Is there anything I can do about it? And is it contagious? And terminal? One sapling is looking pretty sickly, but the rest just have a lighter sharing of the white for now...

 

Many thanks.

[David Humphries]

Oak mildew I'd imagine.

 

Have a read up here.....

 

Oak mildew (Forest Research)

 

 

Good piece by Dr David Lonsdale here.....

 

http://www.ancienttreeforum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Arb-mag-Spring-2016-powdery-mildew-of-oak.pdf

 

 

.

Edited July 19, 2016 by David Humphries

[easy-lift guy]

If your using clorinated water that may also contribute to the appearance. Move the saplings into their own container so their not competing for food, water, and space.

easy-lift guy

[sandspider]

Thanks chaps, yes, that looks like the one.

 

Hmm. Can't find much about treatments online. I'm watering with rainwater, and the trees are in light shade. Not sure I'll be able to repot them, but I'll hopefully be able to plant them out in the next few months.

[Beardie]

Theoretically I suppose you could treat trees in pots, but the mildew is so ubiquitous now that it would just come back when they were planted out. The main effect it has is to reduce the amount of light penetrating the leaves, so oak seedlings are effectively more light-demanding than they would be otherwise.

 

The American oak mildew reached us just over 100 years ago; prior to this it was possible to establish young oaks under the shade of older ones. Now they require full sun and an open aspect.

[Pinkfoot]

Oak grow surprisingly fast if you can keep mildew and insects away.

Give them a pot each and keep the mildew off and they will recover

[sandspider]

Thanks all.

 

I've taken out the worst affected sapling. Hopefully most of the rest will recover and keep going. If all goes well I should be able to plant them out in q couple of months. Not sure what else I can do to keep mildew off them..

[timbernut]

A weak solution of water and ladies wee sprayed on em works well!

[sandspider]

Really?! I'll ask the wife!

[timbernut]

Really! My mates dad is a permaculture/organic fanatic, thinking about it there may be other ingredients, I'll try and get details of ingredients