Glyphosate affected yew tree

[TotallyJules]

Can anyone help? One of our customers asked the lads to treat the stump of a yew we had just removed. We only carry glyphosate and so it was applied. 3 months later, customer is complaining of an adjacent yew dying back badly. My questions are:

a) second yew is about 5m from removed yew (both roughly 450mm dbh), how likely is this due to grafted roots and translocation of the glyphosate?

 

b) as I suspect the answer to a) is "very likely", is there anything that can be done for the affected yew to sustain it with the hope that it might on some new cambium and survive.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Cheers

[Ben Ballard]

we had same thing happen to a beech when treated stumps near to it, i put it down to root grafts ,3 years later the beech seems ok but had to remove a few limbs that didnt do so well.

[Tnarg25]

when i worked for the local council a few years back the same thing happened, i was charge hand of the tree squad and had a line from the tree officer to remove yews in a church yard that he had marked and treat the stumps with roundup, adjacent yews started to die off grafted root systems were to blame spoke to the tree officer about it a month or so later and that was his theory

i dont think there is much you can do

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

I think its going to be a goner. Compensate your client and most importantly learn from your mistake.

[daveindales]

It's happened once before to me. There had been a previous post on here about this problem. Sorry, but there's not a lot you can do.

[likeitorlumpit]

Compensate!

Thats gonna cost

Didn't the customer instruct the lad:001_tt2:

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

Compensate!

Thats gonna cost

Didn't the customer instruct the lad:001_tt2:

 

Did the customer ask them to use glyphosate?

[18 stoner]

I have said it for years, and will say it again.

 

Glyphosate should not be applied to stumps!

 

Although it is commonly used and has now become the "prefered" method for stump treatment for most, it is a "foliar acting" systemic herbicide.

 

Different species of trees need different doseages to be effective, however, there is no specific list so often the stuff is poured on neat, or a stronger mix used "to make sure", and if you follow any form of instruction, the concentration is much stronger than its origional design(foliar acting).

 

As a result, when used on the species types that take up the glyphosate easily, these stumps are massively overdosed, hence some translocation accross to other neighbouring trees.

[treequip]

3 months later???

 

I had the same thing happen on sycamore but it happend within hours, glyphosate is pretty fast acting.

 

Has the tree been sick for three months?

[josharb87]

Could root pruning be an option to prevent further poison transfer? (a trench dug between the stump and live tree)