What's wrong with this Ash?

[kieran connell]

We have several trees on the farm looking almost identical. Would you expect bark canker to effect the wood as well? I ask as when we had to cut some of them back the grain was very wiggly making it almost impossible to split.

 

i think the wood could eventually be affected by repeated, yearly attacks from the pathogen and bark splitting causing cracking, maybe?

[daltontrees]

i think the wood could eventually be affected by repeated, yearly attacks from the pathogen and bark splitting causing cracking, maybe?

 

Might be as simple as the bacteria killing small areas of cambium, preventing those areas developing new xylem and therefore wood that year. Tree must compensate somehow by putting on extra wood elsewhere in the same plane.

[daltontrees]

god darn it, im going to be out of a job round here soon!

I doubt that!

I just thought it would be useful if anyone wants to look into it a bit more. Incidentally, it used to be thought a pathovar of Pseudomonas syringeae but has been elevated to its own species now. It is easy to see how it could be thought the same species, its action is generally the same as the closely related Bleeding Canker of Horse Chestnut (P. s pv. aesculi) and Bleeding Canker of Cherry (P. syringeae pv. morsprunorum).

[arbogrunt]

Chalara is on its way to you Felix!...its spreading very rapidly in Essex