Anyway to dodge elm disease?

[ScottF]

Remember reading this article when it came out (showing my age slightly, here) which prescribes tracing the discoloured wood down the stem from the infected branch by cutting windows into the bark then severing the xylem below the discolouration. There were colour images in the original article and the arborist in question was using a 192T to make very shallow cuts.

 

Apparently it worked, but I would imagine that, due to the speed of spread, you'd need to be watching your trees like a hawk to spot suspicious branch death.

 

http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/holen/article/1999feb27.pdf

 

Good luck.

[se7enthdevil]

here are some pics alec

i started a thread about this elm a while ago but no one seemed able to help

 

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/tree-identification-pictures/66406-what-elm.html

[Wolfie]

Apparently it worked, but I would imagine that, due to the speed of spread, you'd need to be watching your trees like a hawk to spot suspicious branch death.

 

 

 

http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/holen/article/1999feb27.pdf

 

 

 

Good luck.

 

 

Also very interesting.

 

So with multiple infection sites you could save the main tree, if caught early enough, by topping/pollarding the tree as long as the cuts are 10ft below the last stained wood.

 

 

 

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[sandspider]

I read somewhere (one of Roger Deakin's books I think) that the beetles that carry DED like to fly fairly low, so if you surround your elm tree with some tallish hedging or similar, the beetles will be discouraged by the barrier and go elsewhere. Worth a try! The elm wouldn't be resistant though, so you'd need to keep the barrier hedge / plants healthy and thick, and not so tall that they screen off the elm you want to see...

[agg221]

Steve, pretty sure your tree is Sapporo Autumn Gold which is U.pumila x U.davidiana var. japonica - back on the iPhone so I can't post links but if you look it up on Wikipedia you can see that the bark, leaf form, colour and gloss, and the overall tree form and habit all match. If it is then it must be an early planting which makes it interesting. It could be part of the original Elms Across Europe planting funded by Pitney Bowes, in which case they are looking to trace the surviving trees currently, and would be interested to hear about it.

 

Ed, I hadn't spotted these trees although I know about the pair of Huntingdon elms at Queens which are pretty impressive. Are the ones you know of treated? Any sign of disease in the main trees, and are the small ones near them which are infected obviously suckers?

 

Not sure the beetle flying height info is fully accurate. The preferred height is 6m, but there is a tree near me with a first infection point this year at around 100ft and a woodland grown tree which died a few years ago with no exposed crown below 60-70ft.

 

If you want to see a good example of maintaining elms by careful pruning then a drive through Abbot's Ripton inward Huntingdon is well worthwhile (and the pub does good food). The trees on the estate are even more impressive but it's only open once every 2yrs.

 

Alec

Edited September 16, 2014 by agg221

[ScottF]

Also very interesting.

 

So with multiple infection sites you could save the main tree, if caught early enough, by topping/pollarding the tree as long as the cuts are 10ft below the last

 

You don't actually sever the stem or limb- you just cut a shallow slash through the xylem into the static mass below the discolouration to prevent it spreading downwards. Of course it injures the tree but in this scenario would, at least temporarily, save it.

[Wolfie]

 

Ed, I hadn't spotted these trees although I know about the pair of Huntingdon elms at Queens which are pretty impressive. Are the ones you know of treated? Any sign of disease in the main trees, and are the small ones near them which are infected obviously suckers?

Alec

 

 

Not sure but i think the big one at CorpusC was treated. The dead ones are not suckers, they are a group of Elms 100yards or more away - one was a half decent size, the rest was your usual 25ft semi-mature victims.

 

 

 

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[Wolfie]

You don't actually sever the stem or limb- you just cut a shallow slash through the xylem into the static mass below the discolouration to prevent it spreading downwards. Of course it injures the tree but in this scenario would, at least temporarily, save it.

 

 

I realise this, but as it says in the article, it takes time practicing the technique to get up to speed performing it.

If it's tip died-back throughout the crown the client is almost certainly not going to pay for this on every branch, so i'm just thinking in that scenario you could offer that as an option to the client.

I'm not a fan of pollards but if it's save part of the tree or wait till dead and remove, i'd be willing to try the former.

 

 

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[Agi-Smash]

Never expected so many replies on this. All very interesting.

Mainly aimed at the rather knowledgeable alec now but all input welcome. Just suppose you had a field and you wanted to plant some elm, what particular variety would you plant and what program of maintenance would you give it or would you wait to see results on the latest batch of hybrids?

Is it sad liking an old traditional tree and wanting to preserve it or am i just trying to do my bit for the next generation

Dave

[agg221]

Just suppose you had a field and you wanted to plant some elm, what particular variety would you plant and what program of maintenance would you give it or would you wait to see results on the latest batch of hybrids?

Dave

 

Personally, I don't think it is viable to plant non-resistant elms. I think it is well worthwhile to maintain the small number of treated trees, but for a tree which could last several human generations, it is not realistic to plan for this.

 

This means planting something resistant, with enough resistance to be likely to survive.

 

A few years ago, I would have said Sapporo Autumn Gold was the only option, and it is still the only really proven option. With early input it can be run up into a well formed tree which should last well, but it still isn't native elm.

 

A year ago I would have said Morfeo but although it is very good it is still hybrid, and it's tricky to obtain.

 

For me, the Spanish results change everything. Firstly, it is highly likely that they will become available in the UK in a few years. Secondly, they suggest that some UK trees may be resistant, rather than just lucky. Hence if I wanted a tree now, I would propagate something large with an upright growth habit and see what happened.

 

Alec