Poison

[Sam Thompson]

Bit of an odd one. How would you tell if a tree was purposely poisoned? Friend of mine thinks that his next door neighbor has tried to kill his tree on purpose, and has asked for my opinion. Obviously deficiencies you will get with any unhealthy tree will be there, but is there anything specific to poison? I'm going to have a look tomorrow evening, so we shall see, but any other info would help.

 

 

 

atb,

 

 

Sam

[Lorry thompson]

I could only think of the obvious like you say mate like foliage suddenly dying off. Would you need to get soil tested?

[apexarb]

hi sam have had exactly the same request before couldnt determine exactly what was used but it was obviously malicious

 

look for localised foliage damage foreign objects in stem or disturbance around root collar or roots

 

terry

[RobRainford]

have a little dig and see if the roots have been damaged, this would also show the signs of disturbance, if glyphosate was used as a poison, most likely to be as its the easiest to get hold of, then you may have difficulty finding it in soil tests unless it was very shortly after it had been done.

[Sam Thompson]

Soil test would be the next step I think Lorry. I only really know of salt, copper and over fertilizer as ways to kill them. I suppose if you managed to get timberex, roundup or something through the cambium that would do.

 

 

I'll get some pictures up if there is anything of interest.

 

 

Digging is a good one Rob, cheers

Edited July 6, 2011 by Sam Thompson

[Lorry thompson]

Check for copper nails everyone thinks that kills them quickly (I was even asked today) may have put them in too for good measure

[big fell!]

Copper nails take a while for the tree to take in, copper sulphate powder mixed with neat glysophate is the quickest way of making a tree go bad. Check for holes drilled into the tree around soil level and covered over with dirt or bark.

Edited July 6, 2011 by big fell!
Typo

[Peter]

A while as in until the tree dies of old age, totally unaffected by the copper nails?

[scottythepinetree]

I've seen a diesel spill from a badly leaking bowser kill a row of trees before. Didn't take all that long, few weeks to a couple of months before the bark was flaking off them.

[likeitorlumpit]

ahh

Now I know:thumbup1:

Seriously though someone needs to delete this thread- surely it's giving the wrong sort of info out there