To pollard or not?

[David oakman]

I am clearing around a couple of ponds lots of dead Elms but there are two 9 inch DBH trees not yet showing signs of DED. Iwas thinking of pollarding them both see if i can get a longer life for them. Has anyone on here pollarded Elm trees and did you have any success? i know they will need pollarding every 15-20 years but hey i am game:001_smile:

[Stephen Blair]

they will throw out loads of growth and then die, you could do one and leave the other, a wee experiment for monkeyd as you say

[Steve Bullman]

coppicing to preserve the root stock seems a more common practice

[tommer9]

I think that the trees may be still vulnerable after pollarding as soon as the bark becomes sufficiently fissured for the scolytid beetle to get in. I think they have a range of about 2-3 km, and there is a theory that if only one tree is left in a given area it stands a greater chance of non-infection. Could you maybe leave the best speicmen and fell any others?

Conversely, i also think that the height of the tree also pertains to its attractiveness to the beetle, so pollarding would possibly have a useful effect, i.e if the tree is kept to a smaller height then it wont get attacked..

[skyhuck]

coppicing to preserve the root stock seems a more common practice

 

I thought the tree used its starch reserves from the root to survive until sufficient new foliage is produce.

 

So depleting the root?

[hesslemount]

don't pollard is the answer ... or better still question "why pollard"? Pollarding is an ok practice where it is NEEDED .. i.e. roadside. The wounds will be to big and too many for our little beetle friend to do his worst.