Glynn Percival Seminar

[Giles Hill]

I went to this free seminar at Barcham Trees and found it very interesting, he discussed amongst other things, trials and successes to do with the control of honey fungus and also guidleines on how to assess and measure root decay.

 

If anyones interested, he's coming back in October:

 

http://www.barcham.co.uk/node/394

[christreeroot]

Yes i got an invite but recived it to late to plan to go, shame really as it looked interesting and with us specialising in trees below ground would be nice to know other peoples thoughts....

 

Any info or talk batted about air spades...

[Thea]

This guy gave me my Arboriculture lectures while I was studying Horticulture at Reading uni. Gives a fantastic lecture - prob the main reason I decided to get into arb work! Now to see if can get myself a place...

[Giles Hill]

Any info or talk batted about air spades...

 

Air spades combined with mulches and soil improvers of various kinds seemed to be the answer to everything!

 

He did back up his points pretty convincingly...

 

A few things I remember off the top of my head:

 

1. He was suggesting that HF could be controlled quite effectively, by using the air spade to break up the ground (and the HF). The open conditions create conditions that are quickly colonised by mycorrhizal fungi (I think these were introduced) and the HF takes a while to recover and compete with the MF. Also the tree grows vigorously and is less prone to attack. (This made more sense when he explained it)

 

2. He basically said that HF can be controlled up until the point the rhizomorphs entered the root collar - after that the battle is lost.

 

3. They had done controlled experiments in enclosed beds that suggested HF takes a long tome to recover from the air spade treatment.

 

4. He reckoned the base of the tree up for a distance of up to I think it was 4 x the DBH was particularly important - it actually contains a lot of feeder roots and treatment of this relatively small area can have a lot of benefits.

 

5. He demonstrated how pesticides and 'nutrients' could be injected into trees and how in particular they can erradicate horse chestnut leaf minor for 2 years with one treatment - there was an obvoius concern that the minor would adapt, but it seems to be very effective from the pictures he showed - also using similar techniques to improve HC resistance to bleeding canker.

 

And then there was root barriers...

How trees manage to stand up when a service trench has been excavated next to the stem...

Failure analysis of root plates...

There was lots more, but I won't try write it all here!

 

I don't think he'd claim to have the answers to everything, but he seems to be working hard to get there and it was great to listen to his ideas and results.

[David Humphries]

This guy gave me my Arboriculture lectures while I was studying Horticulture at Reading uni. Gives a fantastic lecture - prob the main reason I decided to get into arb work! Now to see if can get myself a place...

 

 

Have seen Glynn talk a number of times, he is one seriously enthusiastic white coat, all be it a tad intense.

 

Haven't seen or read much on his main passion recently, that being chlorophyll fluorescence.

 

Wonder if his research on this is making the bucks yet ?