Horse Chestnut

[Sciadopitys]

I looked at a horse chestnut earlier in the week, it had 3 major limbs that had split bark all the way along almost to the tips, and one of them had snapped out at the top and fell onto a public footpath. There is a little bit of brown gunk oozing out of the trunk at about head height, but nothing major at this stage. Bleeding canker i presume?

 

The tree overhangs a public footpath and powerlines, is reducing the weight of the infected limbs a sufficient cause of action? Or should limbs be removed completey or tree removed to elimanate this risk entirely? Removing the 3 limbs would ruin the shape of the tree, and would cause the tree severe stress. I want to just reduce the branches and maybe take one off, but i would first like to know how bleeding canker affects strucutal integrity.

 

Sorry for my ignorance, i have very little knowledge of bleeding canker and similar problems!

[arnoldbuchsassinger]

Bleeding canker, Phytophthora cactorum and p.citricola, fungus grows through tree killing the phloem and cambium, the exudate bleeding out does not contain the fungus. Your best control is to cut out all dead wood, sterilise your swas afterwards or you will move it around with ya. Get a digi photo of the tree and the limbs which look fine, then take a photo at other end of summer, give you an indication of rate of transfer. it will probably be the demise of the tree. If you have severe bark necrosis then you may be at the point where little else can help, quite often the tree becomes victim of other pathogenic attack due to tree being stressed, enzymes produced as a response to stressed are detected in and around the soil by other dormant pathogens. As for structural integrity, me reading up right now, right now judgement call on VTA'ing the tree .i have a tree in fairly poor state in Hessle, that fella is coming down in the next couple of weeks, just awaiting council say so

[Marc]

Pictures, get some!! Without seei'ng the tree its impossible to tell, I did a Horse Chesnut last year that had one of it main limbs removed due to well something apparently, left the tree unbalanced and remaining limbs more open to wind forces they hadn't adapted to. And the large pruning wound that was left is just and entry point for other pathogeons and decay which will weaken the other remaining limbs.

 

From your descriptions it sounds like a fell on safety grounds, no point wasting money on futile efforts to make the tree safe, if the bark is already spliting open this will be an entry point for others pathogeons and Horse Chesnut is not the greatest at compartmentalising and is quick to decay.

[Stephen Blair]

its with us up here aswell mate, bark falling off and trees dying.terrible. i have taken a lot down in the last 6 years and it is getting worse. arnold you have a great way of explaining things and certainly have a lot of knowledge, you have explained it spot on for my way of thinking. earlier on i was standing in my living room making windmill circles and i totaly understood what you meant on the other thread of johns.keep it coming:001_smile:

[Sciadopitys]

I will get some pics. How the hell do i put pics on my posts guys?

[Stephen Blair]

I will get some pics. How the hell do i put pics on my posts guys?

if you are replying look down the page and you will see 'manage attachments'if you arent replying press go advanced beside submit posts

click on manage attachments. a wee page will pop up giving you 5 bits with browser on the end. press on 1 of them it will let you into your computer. if your pics are in my pictures go there find your pic and click on it, it will put it on the browser line, then do as many as you want till its full. then click upload pics. job done. took me a few attempts mate:001_smile:

[arnoldbuchsassinger]

Bleeding canker does affect the cambium and phloem, obviosly this is live tissue, if you read MAttheck, there is a few hints about integrity, have a good look throughout the tree, it starts in one place and then pops up up all over. If there are issues with rights of way, pedestrians, mums and buggies, well dads and buggies for that, think about implications, the tree may start limb dropping. NOthing guaranteed but if you have rucked up and seen it and put an opinion on it, you have a sense of duty, responsibility and saftey for public, etc

[Nimby]

Bleeding canker, Phytophthora cactorum and p.citricola, fungus grows through tree killing the phloem and cambium, the exudate bleeding out does not contain the fungus. Your best control is to cut out all dead wood, sterilise your swas afterwards or you will move it around with ya. Get a digi photo of the tree and the limbs which look fine, then take a photo at other end of summer, give you an indication of rate of transfer. it will probably be the demise of the tree. If you have severe bark necrosis then you may be at the point where little else can help, quite often the tree becomes victim of other pathogenic attack due to tree being stressed, enzymes produced as a response to stressed are detected in and around the soil by other dormant pathogens. As for structural integrity, me reading up right now, right now judgement call on VTA'ing the tree .i have a tree in fairly poor state in Hessle, that fella is coming down in the next couple of weeks, just awaiting council say so

 

Eh!

 

Phytophthora has been found not to be the problem. It is a bacterial canker thought to be Pseudomonas.

[Marcus B-T]

My dear amigos, it can be either the bacteria or the fungus that causes the canker but from the description I wonder if something else actually killed the tree?

[gibbon]

I read but cant remember where that Horse Chestnut timber is prone to cracking apart and splitting as it dries.

 

The implications with bleeding cancer were implied that when the infection is getting close to girdling a limb, the increase of dysfunctional tissue causes drying of the woody tissue. This drying of the limb can increase the chance limb failing in an infected tree.

 

This would seem to be at odds with a lot of other species where the early stages of die back would reduce the loading of the limb and reduce the likely hood of failure.

 

I can remember where I read this information, but I can certainly think of a couple of infected HC near to my yard which have been dropping limbs during late summer last year.

 

Anyone else heard of this?