Disease help required

[Mike A]

Hello all

 

First post here, looking for some advice.

 

I am the grounds manager at two schools - during my routine ground inspections, I find this today (pics attached).

 

I have been concerned about this group of trees in particular for a little while now, as one of my ex employees decided to spray 'something' around the bases of the trees last year - he claimed it was Glyphosate, though I have a sneaking suspicion that it was red diesel.

 

Could anyone identify what the problem is, and advise me as to what possible options I have to restore the health of these trees, if any.

 

Many thanks

 

Mike

[Tree Man Tom]

First 3 pictures look like natural bark flaking, nothing wrong with that. Last 2 pictures looks like some of your school pupils have had ago at making pretty patterns by peeling off the bark! Nothing you can do really, they may recover. Do you have any pictures of the crown?

[Mike A]

Hi Tom - thanks for your input.

 

I have no pictures of the crown at this time, as I only noticed this late on this afternoon.

 

There is evidence of some sort of vandalism on some of the trees, scratching names etc. Our pupils are on summer holidays (posh school!!), and this seems to have happened over this weekend just gone, so I suspect that some local youth's have been at them.

 

Would you know if there is anything that I can do to help the tree in the last two pics recover from this damage?

[RobArb]

Not really, it's a case of hoping whether the tree can recover from it's loss of cambium layer

[David Goss]

it doesnt look good:thumbdown:

if the damage goes all the way round then the chances are everything above it will die. Keep an eye on it and if the leaves all go brown and dry then its time to get it down quick before bits start falling off it unfortunately. this is called ring barking and sometimes trees can recover from it but i wouldnt hold much hope. Being in school grounds then its best to come down i would say before something falls off it and hits a pupil.

[Mike A]

The damage forms a complete ring around the tree, unfortunately - why people do this type of thing, I will never know. Phone call to the police in the morning.

 

Oh well, I will keep a look out for the signs that you speak of, and have it removed if I have to. I have 7 weeks before term starts, so we have no kids on site until then (or shouldn't have anyway), so that should at least give me a chance to monitor any changes in it's condition before committing to getting the saw out.

 

Thank you all, for all help... much appreciated.

 

Mike

[RobRainford]

No point in calling police tbh, just get straight onto the council and relevant people to get the ring barked tree down. The first is just mature sycamore bark, it flakes in it's old age, kinda like skin

[Mike A]

Rob

 

We have been having other issues with vandalism at this site lately, which we are working closely with the police with, to get sorted out, hence why I will be contacting them. We are on the Isle of Man - our ways of dealing with this type of thing differ from the mainland ways.

[elicokiz]

Hi Mike we have had similar damage at uni; larger trees survived, suppose because they had larger food reserves in their root system? I have seen bridge grafting used to save valuable trees in the past, this can work well to allow food to be transfered across the damaged section of trunk but can look unsightly...depends on how much the owner wants to retain the tree???

 

Dave

[likeitorlumpit]

why do you think he put red diesel round the tree- I would suspect if he did that then it was him trying to kill the tree- can you smell diesel or if you pour water round the tree is it repelled by the oil?

Strikes me someone doesn't want this tree here