Can you take cuttings from Elm?

[openspaceman]

2 hours ago, Paddy1000111 said:

I looked it up after MattyF said about it, It seems like English Elm specifically has evolved to be self sterile. By the looks of it that article talks about other species? 

Yes English elm was named ulmus procera, it is now classed as a hybrid or variety of ulmus minor and is sterile.

 

I have collected seeds from the streets of Brighton and successfully grown from them. I must have dropped one on the path beside the house as it keeps growing from the crack betwixt  house and concrete path.

[MattyF]

Read this then had a google search and found this

growing elm from seed

ERAZ-CONFERENCE.COM Started reading it and thought that there must be something wrong here.  Anyone know any more?

Not English elm though... have a Google on its origins it’s quite interesting the history of our once most common Feild tree.
Chinese elm is what the article is based on.

ulmus glabra (wych elm ) will grow from seed and will have a some resistance to DED but is not immune.

[Billhook]

11 hours ago, Paddy1000111 said:

I looked it up after MattyF said about it, It seems like English Elm specifically has evolved to be self sterile. By the looks of it that article talks about other species? 

I suppose that we will have to wait for the beetle or the fungus to mutate instead of the Elms

Our hedges and woodland sides are stuffed with English Elms that grow for about fifteen years until the bark starts to crack open and the beetles enter.

They just have a long wait which may take decades or centuries but they have all the time in the world .

Bit like us waiting for lockdown to end!

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Billhook said:

 

Our hedges and woodland sides are stuffed with English Elms that grow for about fifteen years until the bark starts to crack open and the beetles enter.

 

I think the scolytus beetle feeds on the twigs as soon as it finds them but  the tree reacts to the single celled fungus and isolates it in compartment one., You often see little black sections in the cross section where this has happened as the tyloses formed by the trees defences are filled with suberine, a complex resistant chemical. The tree survives this attack because it has plenty of other twigs to carry leaves.

 

The problem for the tree arises when not only do the beetles feed on it but they also breed in the bark, this happens when the phloem becomes wide enough to support the breeding gallery and is sufficient for the grubs to feed as they fan out from the main gallery and then bore their way out. During this time the fungus has entered the sapwood and the tree reacts to it, if the reaction occurs in the whole  sapwood ring the laying down of tyloses  blocks all the vessels and prevents sap getting to upper parts so the whole crown wilts and dies. The reason the english elm (introduced by the romans) is susceptible is that in common with having genes to produce tall straight poles it is dependant on this years sap ring, which is now blocked, a bit like an immune system that over reacts in humans causing sepsis the trees defence mechanism has killed the crown, but not necessarily the root. At least that is my understanding from 45 years ago, science may have moved on a bit since.

[Billhook]

8 hours ago, openspaceman said:

I think the scolytus beetle feeds on the twigs as soon as it finds them but  the tree reacts to the single celled fungus and isolates it in compartment one., You often see little black sections in the cross section where this has happened as the tyloses formed by the trees defences are filled with suberine, a complex resistant chemical. The tree survives this attack because it has plenty of other twigs to carry leaves.

 

The problem for the tree arises when not only do the beetles feed on it but they also breed in the bark, this happens when the phloem becomes wide enough to support the breeding gallery and is sufficient for the grubs to feed as they fan out from the main gallery and then bore their way out. During this time the fungus has entered the sapwood and the tree reacts to it, if the reaction occurs in the whole  sapwood ring the laying down of tyloses  blocks all the vessels and prevents sap getting to upper parts so the whole crown wilts and dies. The reason the english elm (introduced by the romans) is susceptible is that in common with having genes to produce tall straight poles it is dependant on this years sap ring, which is now blocked, a bit like an immune system that over reacts in humans causing sepsis the trees defence mechanism has killed the crown, but not necessarily the root. At least that is my understanding from 45 years ago, science may have moved on a bit since.

Brilliant explanation, thanks

[Rough Hewn]

Yes English elm was named ulmus procera, it is now classed as a hybrid or variety of ulmus minor and is sterile.
 
I have collected seeds from the streets of Brighton and successfully grown from them. I must have dropped one on the path beside the house as it keeps growing from the crack betwixt  house and concrete path.

Having lived in Brighton I can testify the seeds drop in such abundance they form little drifts.
And they will grow like weeds! Anywhere!
[emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

[Billhook]

9 hours ago, Rough Hewn said:

Having lived in Brighton I can testify the seeds drop in such abundance they form little drifts.
And they will grow like weeds! Anywhere!

Sorry if I am being a bit thick , but if the seeds are sterile how do they grow like weeds?

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, Billhook said:

Sorry if I am being a bit thick , but if the seeds are sterile how do they grow like weeds?

I was trying to explain that english elm, ulmus procera, is now known as a sterile hybrid or variety of ulmus minor. Brighton has a number of species of elms in its parks and streets that are hanging on though the disease is endemic and still killing them. One of the species is ulmus minor the smooth leaved elm and that drops seeds that are fertile.

 

Whereas the english elm has no resistance and cannot develop it as it is all one clone that can only propagate vegetatively, by suckering the smooth leaved elm has some resistance and may be able to develop more resistance because the seeds carry genes from two parent trees.

[nepia]

10 hours ago, openspaceman said:

the disease is endemic and still killing them

But they're not all going to waste:  this lot has just gone to a very good woodturner

 

[openspaceman]

That butt at the back looks like it would have made some windsor chair bottoms.