Dieback recovery

[peds]

I've got a photo here of a tree that was 95% bollocksed last year. It had a handful of greenery right at the very core of the crown, and nothing out on the boughs. Honestly, if you'd seen it over a footpath or next to someone's driveway it'd be gone 2 years ago, no question.

But because it's out in the middle of nowhere on my regular dogwalk route, it got ignored, and it seems to be doing brilliantly. This doesn't look like a panic display, a last gasp attempt at using its final energy reserves, it looks like healthy new growth. There's still a good few dead sticks out at the ends, but pretty much every bough has a decent amount of growth on it.

 

 

This isn't an isolated case: I've seen loads of new growth on trees that I'd written off as screwed before. 

Just yesterday I was chatting to a previous client about a heavily leaning ash over his front garden. He likes the tree and wants to keep it if he can. It's got the dieback, but again, it looks much healthier this year than it did last year, so I advised we just wait and see, the worst damage to clear up if it does go would be a few holes in the lawn.

 

Am I imagining things, or has anyone else observed this kind of thing too?

[Alan Smith]

We've had a mild winter and there has been plenty of rain.  I suspect many Ash trees with die back had also been suffering from lack of water in previous years. It will be interesting to see how things go this year but I suspect that it's only slowing down the process in many cases.

[Stubby]

6 hours ago, peds said:

I've got a photo here of a tree that was 95% bollocksed last year. It had a handful of greenery right at the very core of the crown, and nothing out on the boughs. Honestly, if you'd seen it over a footpath or next to someone's driveway it'd be gone 2 years ago, no question.

But because it's out in the middle of nowhere on my regular dogwalk route, it got ignored, and it seems to be doing brilliantly. This doesn't look like a panic display, a last gasp attempt at using its final energy reserves, it looks like healthy new growth. There's still a good few dead sticks out at the ends, but pretty much every bough has a decent amount of growth on it.

 

 

This isn't an isolated case: I've seen loads of new growth on trees that I'd written off as screwed before. 

Just yesterday I was chatting to a previous client about a heavily leaning ash over his front garden. He likes the tree and wants to keep it if he can. It's got the dieback, but again, it looks much healthier this year than it did last year, so I advised we just wait and see, the worst damage to clear up if it does go would be a few holes in the lawn.

 

Am I imagining things, or has anyone else observed this kind of thing too?

I can't tell from the quality of the pic too well but it looks like a Birch ?

[Stere]

Leaves are  ash i think, but bark on trunk looks like birch for some reason?

Edited June 4 by Stere

[Stubby]

8 minutes ago, Stere said:

Leaves are  ash i think, but bark on trunk looks like birch for some reason?

Must be a Bash then . 🙂

[5thelement]

Maybe you have just assumed that because the tree looked sparse, that it logically had ADB?

It probably didn't  and was more likely suffering from drought stress and made a recovery.

[Stubby]

1 minute ago, 5thelement said:

Maybe you have just assumed that because the tree looked sparse, that it logically had ADB?

It probably didn't  and was more likely suffering from drought stress and made a recovery.

Could be a Biltmore Ash . They have white bark I believe .

[peds]

3 hours ago, Stubby said:

I can't tell from the quality of the pic too well but it looks like a Birch ?

 

Changing species would be a very effective way of avoiding dieback, maybe more trees should try it.

 

As far as I can tell, and I'm happy to be corrected on this, it is a self-seeded native Irish ash. Its location renders anything else improbable. 

Edited June 4 by peds

[peds]

3 hours ago, 5thelement said:

Maybe you have just assumed that because the tree looked sparse, that it logically had ADB?

It probably didn't  and was more likely suffering from drought stress and made a recovery.

 

And the others? Not the only one I've seen.

I don't know, perhaps I'm just being optimistic, and there are definitely thousands of skeleton trees visible all over the place right now, but maybe the projected 95% fatality rate will end up a bit lower. 80? 75? Every little helps.

[MattyF]

Looks bolloxed to me … the ratio of live to dead growth is around 65-35? 

They will look good now as they have only just flushed and dragged up stored energy reserves and put out new shoots … saying that I have dead wooded some and they haven’t looked any worse two years on but they never had the tip due back like the one in your photos and don’t forget it will effect the tree in many different ways from roots to shoots.