Ash dieback fungus

[WoodED]

It does ... And will evolve to beat it but it takes time ... Aparently Chinese horse chestnut is immune to the whole bleeding canker gig as it was present in china thousands of years ago.. I do know of a few large elm woods that seem to be thriving above the normal crappy hedge row die back you see or so I hope ! I'm only going in what I have been told and my observations on that so feel free to shoot it down..

As for the ash it is an absolute tradgidy ... I live in a village called Ashwell , ash around the well and that is all that grows here apart from elm .. Would be devistating and makes me feel really depressed thinking of the out come to how my childhood country side would change to with out the ash In it..

 

we almost daily take out horse chestnuts here in milton keynes with bleeding canker.. its a shame as there were so many planted 20 odd years ago. id love to learn abit more about pests and dieases. is there such thing as a day coarse on the itroduction to pests and deiseses?

[Stereo]

Sorry to go back to elm but are you saying that as it suckers then the tree doesn't evolve (as in distribute new seed for new trees). Surely elm must spread somehow. Not challenging, just trying to understand. Controlling ded has not worked so now we must just wait until the species can beat it through evolution. As it thrives as a hedgerow tree then I thought there was some hope this might happen in the future.

[kev7937]

Sorry to go back to elm but are you saying that as it suckers then the tree doesn't evolve (as in distribute new seed for new trees). Surely elm must spread somehow. Not challenging, just trying to understand. Controlling ded has not worked so now we must just wait until the species can beat it through evolution. As it thrives as a hedgerow tree then I thought there was some hope this might happen in the future.

 

 

That's as I understand it, it doesn't grow from seed.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

This Chalara is here, its not going to be restricted by the actions of man, we would be wise to only fell the dead ones and allow those that have some natural resistance to survive rather than cull them all in a sterilization process which is futile.

 

Another british icon that will be confined to rarity

[openspaceman]

Sorry to go back to elm but are you saying that as it suckers then the tree doesn't evolve (as in distribute new seed for new trees). Surely elm must spread somehow. Not challenging, just trying to understand. Controlling ded has not worked so now we must just wait until the species can beat it through evolution. As it thrives as a hedgerow tree then I thought there was some hope this might happen in the future.

 

Yes, the english elm (procera) was reckoned to be a hybrid that didn't set viable seed. Probably selected because of the straight stems it produced. Thus it's DNA didn't change and it spread by man and vegetative suckering.

 

It was the combination of the yeast like fungus (Ceratocystis ulmi then but since renamed OPH??? novo ulmi), the vector ( scolytus beetle) and the high dependance of the tree on the current year's vessels to carry water to the crown that cause the tree to kill itself as it reacted to the fungus with tyloses filling the vessels.

 

If you remove one of these, the ability of the beetle to lay eggs in the phloem because it is too narrow, as in a <25 year old tree, then the stem doesn't get re infected. Whether coppicing all susceptible elms would eventually kill off the fungus I don't know but I think it is a viable way of continuing an english elm population.

 

This chalara fraxinea appears to be a wind born fungus so not much holding it in a naive ash population, some ash may have resistant dna and these would eventually re colonise.

 

Elms were a big portion of the hedgerow trees in Surrey, a lot had died from a less virulent form of the disease in 1927 but large individual isolated trees were common in my teens plus the may 60 cms dbh 15 m tall regrowth from the earlier infection.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Andy Collins

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Yes, the english elm (procera) was reckoned to be a hybrid that didn't set viable seed. Probably selected because of the straight stems it produced. Thus it's DNA didn't change and it spread by man and vegetative suckering.

 

It was the combination of the yeast like fungus (Ceratocystis ulmi then but since renamed OPH??? novo ulmi), the vector ( scolytus beetle) and the high dependance of the tree on the current year's vessels to carry water to the crown that cause the tree to kill itself as it reacted to the fungus with tyloses filling the vessels.

 

If you remove one of these, the ability of the beetle to lay eggs in the phloem because it is too narrow, as in a <25 year old tree, then the stem doesn't get re infected. Whether coppicing all susceptible elms would eventually kill off the fungus I don't know but I think it is a viable way of continuing an english elm population.

 

This chalara fraxinea appears to be a wind born virus so not much holding it in a naive ash population, some ash may have resistant dna and these would eventually re colonise.

 

Elms were a big portion of the hedgerow trees in Surrey, a lot had died from a less virulent form of the disease in 1927 but large individual isolated trees were common in my teens plus the may 60 cms dbh 15 m tall regrowth from the earlier infection.

 

I would like to try and find an endophyte that we could innoculate the elm scrubs with that can outstrip the mycelium of novostoma

 

if wecould breed it with P ostreatus and form a super hybrid capable of producing the nematode paralyzing toxin ostratin we would be onto a winner

[Andy Collins]

Hmmm Im not so sure if we should continuously interfere with nature in such a way? Not saying we haven't interfered before, but to create a super hybrid could lead to other unforeseen issues?

[teepeeat]

Tend to go with Andy on this.

 

We have played around too much without understanding fully what we are getting into, resulting in man made problems further down the road. Its tempting to jump in and have a go at sorting problems out, but what we should be doing is sitting back, watching and learning.

 

I suspect elms are working the problem as we speak.

What we need to accept is that nature's time scale does not necessarily tie in with ours. Nature takes in a much longer view of things where as we rush around wanting everything to happen instantaneously.

 

More haste, less speed

Slow brewed, extra matured ya-da ya-da

 

No sure who said it first, but something along the lines of 'the more I learn the less I realise I know.

Human beings need to wind their necks in and show some humility and respect

Curiosity is a fine attribute, but it is also dangerously tempting!

[openspaceman]

This chalara fraxinea appears to be a wind born virus so not much holding it in a naive ash population, some ash may have resistant dna and these would eventually re colonise.

.

 

I meant fungus not virus

 

Is there an "edit own posts" feature I've missed?

[Andy Collins]

Edit your own posts inside 10mins

I've altered your post to read as you said.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Andy Collins