Horse Chestnut Problem...

[Husqvarna King]

I have been noticing that most of the Horse Chestnuts have had brown leaves since mid Summer...I appologise if this has been a previous thread, but a few customers have asked me if their trees are gonna die or if they are worth spending money pruning if they will die in the near future....what can i tell my customers....should they still have their trees pruned? Thanks

[Marc]

Its never worth spending money pruning unless there is a good reason to prune.

 

I hope our chesnuts won't die, i try and tell people to wait and see what the future brings.

[Giles Hill]

If you do a google search for 'horse chestnut leaf miner' and 'horse chestnut phytophthora', then you should get enough info to advise your customers.

 

It's the leaf miner that makes the leafs go brown.

 

 

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3013&highlight=leaf+miner

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2153

[Bundle 2]

Look up a copy of the most recent Hortweek...in which there is an article re this issue ( and innoculation perci )

Here is expressed the opinion that the damage is largely aesthetic...that the problem is not the catastrophe that it may be seen as in some quarters....even in conjunction with the bleedin' canker.....

Of course it depends on whose opinion you find yourself agreeing.....Andy Tipping (LTOA) thinks it may be worse...but also of relevance interestingly is the work TreesProject have done over the last few years re tree health inpections with thermal imaging!!

 

I think Marc pretty much gets it here....ultimately we can use our best resources to speculate and inform but I see no point in rushing to a conclusion that would see our landscape altered forever by denuding it of chestnuts ahead of time..... IMO, the jury is still out!!

[Gordon]

There are 2 main probs with the leaves as already pointed out , the leaf miner but also guignadia, a fungus. In the short term it is as said, not significant other than aesthetically but the significance of early leaf loss several years on the trot has already caused massive decline in several trees near me - and some of these with no signs of bleedin canker! i think the chestnut is going to disappear from the landscape in 20 years time but there is no need to hurry it along by diagnosing brown leaves as terminal.

 

The canker is another matter, also progressive - smaller trees succomb sooner as it ends up girdling the vascular system pretty quickly but big ol' trunks seem to be able to deal. Any way it is a slow death and not something that causes the trees to keel over suddenly - areas of the crown will begin to dieback noticeably so you get an early warning

[Bundle 2]

Hmmmm...

 

Yes, aesthetic, it can ruin a beautiful paysage by late july!!! What are the long term effects of HC, veteran, losing most of its leaves by mid august year after year. I was inspecting an old HC today, had very few leaves in august, warmish october,and now it has a spinkling of young leaves and flowers!! In October!!

 

This observation was posted by a member on here a while ago..as I thought it relevant I am posting it here...

[cerneARB]

i think HC will decline over the years. The Guniardia fungus which kills the leaves starves the tree of enregy production and it cant make enough sugars ready for next year, so it gets weaker every year that gos by,.....dont want to see them go their lovely trees.

 

new shoots in October..thats worrying:sad:.

[bob]

this is a horse chest nut problem me thinks:001_tongue:

horse chestnut tree.pdf

[Bundle 2]

this is a horse chest nut problem me thinks:001_tongue:

 

Oh my God....

[Bundle 2]

Oh my God....

 

Less a Horsechestnut problem than a chestnut horse problem!!