RCX, Root Crown Examination, gradually

[treeseer]

 

Tree condemned by people in clean clothes with shiny tomographs and drills and formulae. The hands-on approach led to a different conclusion.

[David Humphries]

Interesting well presented video, Guy.

 

Have you carried out the cauterising many times?

 

Has there ever been any anecdotal evidence of associated fungal activity where the burning has occured.

 

I often see the likes of Bjerkendra on burnt oaks which I imagine is partly due to dead material but also perhaps the change in bark chemistry?

 

Would a moving of the first line of car parking away from the outer periphery of RPA & an amelioration of the root zone be a worthwhile consideration with this post oak?

 

 

 

.

[treeseer]

Have you carried out the cauterising many times?

&yes typically now on lesions. just a quick double pass for dry cankers, and just enough to stop the sizzling on the juicy bits. seen it done in orchards in NZ, and WI and MI and FL in the US.

note in the easytofind lit below they talk about scorching the wood, but as you note this damage can predispose to infection. at the most i watch the wood darken but not shrivel or crack. it depends on how degraded the tissue is--careful tracing essential ahead of torching, so the flame can keep moving.

 

Has there ever been any anecdotal evidence of associated fungal activity where the burning has occured.

&one patch of oyster fungus.

 

I often see the likes of Bjerkendra on burnt oaks which I imagine is partly due to dead material but also perhaps the change in bark chemistry?

&Wood chemistry too. bad to boil the juice out of wood generally, but when some/much of that juice is infected/infectious it's a hard call. i try to err on the side of missing some; there is usually a followup eruption or two to deal with anyway.

 

Would a moving of the first line of car parking away from the outer periphery of RPA & an amelioration of the root zone be a worthwhile consideration with this post oak?

& Cars are way beyond dripline, and one is afoul of town planners etc if one takes parking away; my god man this is america; cars are mobile sanctuaries and objects of worship!

soil amelioration (my favorite word as it derives as my surname) is focused on the symptomatic sides of the rootzone; toward the sidewalk mainly. Companion plants are being reviewed now; a mix of grasses and perennial flowers maybe ground orchids and asarum.

 

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/mgtemp/classes/plant_disease/EB1013.pdf

 

Burning cankers to cauterize them

is a method which comes from New

Zealand. Tree fruit owners use a

propane torch to cauterize cankers on

the trunk and larger branches. They

direct flames on the canker until the

underlying tissue begins to crackle

and char (5 to 20 seconds). *Ed note--Yikes!* Treatment

must extend to the outer canker

margins, where active bacterial

infection occurs. Treated cankers are

inspected in 15 to 20 days. Cankers

should be heated again if the

disease continues to show activity

beyond the burnt area. Cauterizing

should take

place in early spring, before bloom,

when the bacteria are active, and

the cankers are enlarging. Cankers

observed in the fall should be

cauterized immediately to prevent

spread of the disease during cool,

rainy fall and winter weather.

Several months following treatment,

charred tissue will slough off, leaving

a well-formed callus.

 

and from http://www.extension.uidaho.edu/nursery/Landscape%20problems/Bacterial%20Canker%20of%20Stone%20Fruit%20Trees.pdf

 

There is no complete control by

any single method for bacterial canker and gummosis of stone fruit trees but

there are many useful practices that can help reduce the risk of infestation. ...

Cankers can be controlled by cauterization with a hand help propane burner in

early to mid spring. Hold the flame up to the canker for fifteen to twenty seconds

until the bark and underlying tissue begins to crackle and crinkle.

*That's more like it, still leaving juice in the wood.*

If it is

necessary you can repeat this method in 2-3 weeks (Agrios, 445). ...

Works cited

Agrios, G.N. (1997). Plant Pathology. 4th Ed., Academic Press, San Diego, CA

 

As for the assessment, its too big to attach. i can email it if you want, public info.

Edited August 8, 2012 by treeseer

[sloth]

Hi Guy, interesting post indeed. Is there/will there be a follow up video?

If you don't mind, I'd appreciate a copy of the assessment ([email protected])

Thank you...

[treeseer]

pm me; email bounced. re followup maybe; what more is there to show?

[sloth]

Hi, email should read [email protected] sorry about that.

Re follow up, maybe checking up on the frothy flux in a few weeks/months?