Chalara fraxinea - Generic thread

[sandspider]

7 minutes ago, Mark Wileman said:

Picture of an Ash on my boundary, a lot of crown dieback compared to nearby trees.

 

I'm going to give it another couple of weeks to see if it decides to start growing then give it a climbing inspection.

 

If this is dieback, will doing a reduction back to main areas of epicormic prolong it's life/stop the spread of infection to other trees?

I've got one that looks just like that over my drive. I was hoping it would thicken up, but not so far- and other ash in the area have. I fear it'll have to come down, but hopefully not for a while...

[devon TWiG]

In theory if all Ash trees have died and been removed ( within a very large area / nationally / europe wide  ) will the disease / fungi  survive for any length of time ?    could an area then be safe to be restocked ? 

[westphalian]

I would imagine fungal spores last for a few decades. Looked for evidence for this and not able to find much. Around 25 years??

[Gary Prentice]

8 hours ago, westphalian said:

I would imagine fungal spores last for a few decades. Looked for evidence for this and not able to find much. Around 25 years??

Might be dreaming, but I think ergot spores were found on cereal seeds (which were still viable themselves) in Egyptian tombs.

 

Closer to home, there's spores within trees that remain dormant throughout the life of the tree just waiting to become active when the conditions are right.

[Gary Prentice]

8 hours ago, devon TWiG said:

In theory if all Ash trees have died and been removed ( within a very large area / nationally / europe wide  ) will the disease / fungi  survive for any length of time ?    could an area then be safe to be restocked ? 

With globalization the probability of preventing continuing importation of Chalara (and other pathogens) is so feasible,  the likelihood of that is remote, let alone the time that spores remain viable anyway. The re-stocking of ash will/should come about about by saplings from the very small number of tolerant trees that survive the initial introduction. Luckily, ash is prolific in its seed production.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Gary Prentice

[westphalian]

Might be dreaming, but I think ergot spores were found on cereal seeds (which were still viable themselves) in Egyptian tombs.
 
Closer to home, there's spores within trees that remain dormant throughout the life of the tree just waiting to become active when the conditions are right.

Yes but the spores need to be desiccated, kept dry and then find favourable conditions. Even with global warming no chance of that in Blighty

[Gary Prentice]

Do they need to be dessicated? How do the dormant ones within trees work? 

[westphalian]

They need to be desiccated to survive long periods. I’m no expert though, my PhD was in lichen reproduction. Hardly touched on mycological DNA sequencing

 

[devon TWiG]

I had not thought about how long spores may remain viable , thanks for the answers / opinions , it was just a random thought !!

[averagearborist]

Here is a recent journal entry that explores responses to H. fraxinea. It looks at the medium and long term impact on species composition resulting from ash dieback.

https://academic.oup.com/forestry/advance-article/doi/10.1093/forestry/cpy040/5161158