Is Elm making a comeback or is it just a fairytale?

[agg221]

In East Anglia there's a lot of Plot elm, which sets fertile seed. It also hybridizes with the English elm and produces fertile hybrids. This creates a broader gene pool.

 

There appear to be varying degrees of resistance - some trees can get to a decent size - 100ft, 2ft dia, then succumb. There's a row near me of about seven trees, all around 2ft6-3ft dia. One of them got it in 2010, and has come back strongly. Two more got it this year. It will be interesting to see what happens next year. If they all come back, I think it's a fair certainty that this particular population is highly resistant. I know of half a dozen more very large trees in this area that are doing similarly well, surrounded by dead hedgerow trees of about 25ft.

 

The real challenge is that to demonstrate this level of resistance simply through survival you are waiting 50+ years. There are a lot of other things that result in trees not making it to that age in a non-rural location. Once trees get very large, so you can be confident that they are truly resistant, they are into old age anyway so other causes of death become likely.

 

The challenge is in encouraging the spread of genetic diversity, derived from resistant populations. You can propagate elm vegetatively from cuttings, which at least helps build up the resistant population by planting them widely. Assuming these are also fertile you then enhance the overall population through breeding of resistant populations.

 

There are a couple of reasonable sized elms where I work (18" dia) which are highly likely to be felled next year as part of a building regeneration scheme. This is the type of thing which is more likely to take out resistant populations than anything else - rather akin to the panic felling of large numbers of ash trees. I am hoping that the trees can be left up until June and I can then propagate like mad to preserve this particular genetic strain. I might end up with a house full of cuttings at this rate!

 

Alec

[David Goss]

Good man Alec

[cooper]

I am hoping that the trees can be left up until June and I can then propagate like mad to preserve this particular genetic strain. I might end up with a house full of cuttings at this rate!

 

Alec

 

 

Don't have to wait until June Alec, you can take cutting now and put them in sharp sand they should start to make root in the spring, I know this because I did it with some elm cuttings last year from a 30" diameter tree which is hanging on in an isolated little wood. Took about 30 cuttings most of which made a nice root system this year.

[Willowboy]

Do the beetles wait for height or is it maturity?

 

Dredging my memory of lectures 20 years ago, I think the beetles find trees of a suitable height, where they feed in the leaf axils on twigs in the crown, infecting the phloem with the fungal spores picked up from the dead wood in which they hatched.

The infection then progresses up the branches and eventually into the trunk aided by the trees own nutrient transportation system, leaving dead branches and a 'stag-headed' look to the crown.

Debarking any felled infected timber will deprive beetles of egg-laying sites.

[hedgesparrow]

interesting thread on elm i have a few at top of my place and not big at present and look after them as such a nice tree to see. how do you take cuttings from them do you just cut some of the small branches off and put them in rooting compound then grow on and what is the best medium to plant in. i assume when 9ocm or above they then can be planted into the ground. and do you need permission from the forestry commission's to plant them as of ded and now ash die back.

[cooper]

interesting thread on elm i have a few at top of my place and not big at present and look after them as such a nice tree to see. how do you take cuttings from them do you just cut some of the small branches off and put them in rooting compound then grow on and what is the best medium to plant in. i assume when 9ocm or above they then can be planted into the ground. and do you need permission from the forestry commission's to plant them as of ded and now ash die back.

 

I clipped off some of the new twiggy growth ends it had made that year, then I clipped them back to a straight twig about 8-10 inch long. (Remember which end is the bottom or you will plant upside down ) With a sharp knife trim off the cutting just below a leaf node (small bump on the twig) and plant 3 around the outside of a 4 inch pot. Peat mixed 50/50 with coarse sand is a good medium. If you clip some willow into 2 inch pieces and put a few handfull into a container then just cover with water. If placed somewhere warm they will start to root and infuse the water with their natural rooting compound use this in the spring to water the cuttings. Keep them out of the direct sun as the leaves start to open, there wont be enough root as yet to support the leaves so nip off the lower ones leaving two or three at the top. Re-pot in the autumn plant out the following year, and away they go.

[Chris Arb]

30 feet or 10 metres is quoted on courses as height attained prior to DED

[Chris Arb]

When I worked in Suffolk last year I saw Mature Elms ie 50ft+ from Sudbury to Woodbridge near Ipswich. Try Chris Harris of Greenacre Tree Care Services for more info

[Compo]

Smooth-leaved and English Elm are different species. We have a lot of Wych Elm (U. glabra) in our woodland, regenerating from stumps or as root suckers. It grows well until it reaches a decent size and then succumbs as the female Bark Beetle is attracted to it. The tree tends to die from the top down and can be maintained if you want to put the work in. Burns well enough too.

[fergusonforestry]

 

Dutch elm disease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

 

 

im on that page