mistletoe - good or bad?

[Mr. Bish]

I have a very big job to price up, lucky for me I had a copy of the report from the previous people in and part of their quote was for removal of mistletoe.

 

Most of the mistletoe is about 60 to 80 feet up fully grown poplars. I don't know why they wanted to take it out so can anyone tell me if mistletoe can harm trees if left unchecked?

[David Humphries]

My understanding is that it is a parasite, but generally harmless to its Host.

 

 

We tried grafting some on to Limes at our site, from a load we obtained from an avenue of Veterans that were felled at Hampton Court a few years back,

unsucsessfully it has to be said.

 

http://www.mistletoe.org.uk/

[Anna]

I've always wondered myself

[Mr. Bish]

One reason that I can think of for removal....

 

To prevent pikies climbing up and hurting themselves before christmas!

 

If no-one knows a good reason for removing it then I can leave it off the quote and save about a day.

[cerneARB]

My understanding of miseltoe ,Viscum album, is that it causes a deformity within the trees xylem vessels. This results in witches broom , which deforms branches into dense twiggy clusters..not nice for amenity. The only other thing is that it steals vital carbohydrates from the host tree causing stress in the host tree affecting its vitality.

[Adam]

it can also cause the branches to swell where large ammounts of miseltoe has been . i found this when we were removing it at college and it makes the branch very unstable.

[MasterBlaster]

Damn guys, Mistletoe is CRAP, can kill the tree, and should be removed ASAP!!!

 

 

Crikey, I thought this was a troll thread...

[Mr. Bish]

okeydokey thanks for the technical answer cern. I can at least explain a little when saying I agree and the mistletoe should come out. I was kinda hoping I wouldnt have to add it in as there are 12 trees effected and the lowest clump is at about 60 feet.

[Adam]

  MasterBlaster said:

Damn guys, Mistletoe is CRAP, can kill the tree, and should be removed ASAP!!!

 

 

Crikey, I thought this was a troll thread...

 

what i have been told at college is that miseltoe doesnt actually kill the tree. but hey, learn something new everyday.

[MasterBlaster]

It might not kill a healthy specimen, but it sure as heck will put a stressed tree in an early grave.

 

Mistletoe is BAD.