Ash dieback - Different perspective?

[Stubby]

5 minutes ago, AHPP said:

What do you think killed the 8?

Probably Chalara Fraxinia .

[AHPP]

9 hours ago, peds said:

It would have been very interesting to have left the problem completely unaddressed, and see what would happen to let nature take its course. 

A million quid more property damage and ten million quid less spent on grapplesaws. As ever, man plans and god laughs. 

[AHPP]

6 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Probably Chalara Fraxinia .

“Probably” being an extrapolated 70% in a sample size of 17. Far from conclusive. Only a little above 2:1 in a small area. Could be anything. 

[Mesterh]

1 hour ago, Stubby said:

Probably Chalara Fraxinia .

Plus a ms460 for good measure.

[Stubby]

10 hours ago, AHPP said:

“Probably” being an extrapolated 70% in a sample size of 17. Far from conclusive. Only a little above 2:1 in a small area. Could be anything. 

What do you think it is ?

[BillQ]

Locally there were a lot of trees planted for the Queen's jubilee, however it doesn't seem to have been done well as trees were planted with little thought other than; get them in the ground. 

Lots were planted on very steep ground near housing and close together and some have now fallen and damaged structures. 

 

My take on this is the ash that was planted were too close together making them spindly and some really struggling to get enough light and if you add in die back pathogens (is that the correct term?) then it isn't a surprise that they are dying fast similarly I see lots of roadside plantations on the A and motorway networks that are squished together and are spindly and stressed and dying back in droves. I suppose its similar to disease transmission in big cities compared to smaller rural areas???

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, BillQ said:

Locally there were a lot of trees planted for the Queen's jubilee, however it doesn't seem to have been done well as trees were planted with little thought other than; get them in the ground. 

Lots were planted on very steep ground near housing and close together and some have now fallen and damaged structures. 

 

My take on this is the ash that was planted were too close together making them spindly and some really struggling to get enough light and if you add in die back pathogens (is that the correct term?) then it isn't a surprise that they are dying fast similarly I see lots of roadside plantations on the A and motorway networks that are squished together and are spindly and stressed and dying back in droves. I suppose its similar to disease transmission in big cities compared to smaller rural areas???

I think a lot of the trees we see in woodlands and edge lines are self seeded and have a lot of genetic diversity whereas a lot of planted ash were grown from selected seed for better timber, often from abroad, and thus had less diversity and were particularly vulnerable.

 

Jo Clark at future trees is growing stocks from trees that have shown better resistance, they graft  the collected  scion onto another rootstock to enable an earlier seed crop.

 

She says no ash are totally resistant so as the spore load goes down those with better resistance can cope.

 

On our site we had ash, growing over a clump of yew, that appeared less affected and she put it down to the spores from leaves that had fallen not having been able to get through the yew to infect the new ash foliage.

[Muddy42]

just read this book about Elms.  I'd thoroughly recomend it for anyone interessted in trees:

Great British Elms: The remarkable story of an iconic tree and it’s return from the brink

I guess there are parallels - genetic diversity, development of resistance etc.

[Pete Mctree]

90% of ash trees around here are exhibiting signs of dieback.it seems that the more mature ones are showing resilience, but even those are beginning to show signs. 
like elms, it will probably be isolated pockets that survive 

[AHPP]

5 hours ago, Stubby said:

What do you think it is ?

I don’t know. My kitchen window looks at the side of a shed.