Anyway to dodge elm disease?

[Agi-Smash]

Having grown up on a farm in cornwall, there used to be a lot of elm about until they all caught dutch elm disease and died. Family have tried since and they get to about ten inch diameter and all die off. I quite like them for no other reason than i think they look nice and fancy growing one.

Is there any resistant variety or and things i can do to reduce the chances of them all dying again.

Many thanks

[agg221]

Simple answer.

 

No, you can't do anything sensible to stop these ones dying - the disease is endemic and they have no resistance.

 

Yes there are resistant varieties available and the number is increasing, however be careful as not everything out there which claims disease resistance has actually been tested. Give it 2-3yrs and it should be practical. When I have a computer rather than an iPhone I'll put up some links.

 

Alec

[openspaceman]

Having grown up on a farm in cornwall, there used to be a lot of elm about until they all caught dutch elm disease and died. Family have tried since and they get to about ten inch diameter and all die off. I quite like them for no other reason than i think they look nice and fancy growing one.

Is there any resistant variety or and things i can do to reduce the chances of them all dying again.

Many thanks

 

coppice them regularly

[se7enthdevil]

there is an elm tree near me that seems to have survived d.e.d. perfectly well and it may be a white elm "Ulmus laevis" but can't be 100% sure. i've just read that they are a bit resistant.

[Johny Walker]

weve just removed a perfectley healthy elm,pure shame ,but the chave in the council house wanted it trimming , the l/a said remove it , its there tree

[agg221]

there is an elm tree near me that seems to have survived d.e.d. perfectly well and it may be a white elm "Ulmus laevis" but can't be 100% sure. i've just read that they are a bit resistant.

 

Steve, please could you give a location for it, I think I drove past it. I'll look it up on street view and see if I can ID it.

 

Alec

[se7enthdevil]

hope it's got milled rather than logging it up....

[Johny Walker]

hope it's got milled rather than logging it up....

 

logged up to get it out im afraid ,

[Agi-Smash]

Alec, that would be good thank you.

Since my uncle has tried and failed i have taken it as a challenge to grow one to a decent size.

Elm, to me, is such a traditonal english tree that i cant let it die out.

[Dan Curtis]

I think there's a Japanese Elm that's more resistant than most. Councils went into planting them big time for a while. Then they found out it has a tendency to have serious structural issues, compression forks and associated failures. Bit like Norway maple, but more so.

 

An older guy I worked for who's been in the industry since the 70's reckons that you can prolong an Elm's life by pruning out any wilting foliage as soon as you see it. I've not seen this myself, but I've seen mature living Elms that he's worked on. Not sure how you go about pruning out galleries and overwintering beetles though!