Marcus B-T

A bit after the lord mayors show on this one but just assessing the effects of snow loading on a site with mixed population including large number of scots pine. Only the scots pine were significantly (statistically) affected. Degree of exposure a major factor, also branch angles and known defects with a significant interaction between them.

I'm running a course on Monday, Cambridgeshire that addresses these kinds of issues, Cheshire Woodlands, Julian Forbes Laird, Rodney Heliwell, Andrew Cowan all attending. would be able to fit you in if you wanted to come, might save you a great deal of time and effort. Give me a ring if interested 07870 280235 Marcus

A rubber mallet is fine, but if you want to know if a tree is in a process of recovery or decline then you need to know how much of that wood is physiologically functional.

There are a number of issues with this: one is the loading, ice storms have an even bigger effect with this. And then there is the freezing thawing effects. Once saw a huge branch come of an oak before my eyes as a result of freeze and thaw, the sound was like a bomb going off. There is a beech site that we work on that has regluar (well as regular as they get in this country) ice storms and these cause weak branches to come off even without leaves. Baiscally it isn't so much species as the angle of the branch, the strength of the branch and the weight applied; but of course some species are more likely to be susseptible to these conditions due to their form. Age will also be a factor.

The list price of hireing a thermal imaging camera from Ashtead Technology has been halved to just over £100 a day. or just over £400 for a week. Regards further info from [email protected]

Yes, completely the wrong end of the stick as usual. Having said that my friend Sandie does that kind of thing and it is very interesting and lucrative (she does quite a bit with the stables in NewMarket). Should also have added if anyone down that way wants to have a look at it in action they can come along on the 13th, its free for the demo but you need to book to get into the zoo.

If you have slides you want to digitize you can get a film and slide scanner from MAPLINS for about £60 CHeers Marcus

We have two places still available on our two day thermal imaging training course at Paignton Zoo: 12th and 13th Feb cost £750 + VAT, e-mail [email protected]

It is an honest if embarrasing coincidence. Your posting han't appeared at the time just waiting for the missus to get back from the pub, my night to watch the kids. Nothing but rubbish on the box so thought I'd trawl the net. Saw the gubbins on this tree and got a bit narked. This is happening a great deal lately must be the looming depression of yet another birthday on the horizon. On a more positive note there is going to be a great deal about what to do with old oak trees at the bash down at Windsor on the 5th Feb, I am talking briefly but if your fed up with me there is a good line up. Andrew Cowan has all the details. Well missus is back from the pub early so Good Night Ladies

I've heard enough and the lack of something interesting on the TV and nice bottle of Lugana wine have forced me to reply. Why is anyone talking about doing anything all we know is it has a fungus growing at the base. My plant path lecturer said something very important to me when I was a wee nipper of 19, don't open your mouth until you've had a good look.

When it comes to testing there is'nt too much of a problem you just need a licence and as you said if you have a restrcuted area or can demonstrate there is little danger to the public that's fine but at some point to sell it as a plant protection product, you need to prove it works and that is not easy You have to show a statistcally significant effect etc, which on trees is a big ask, particularly since some of the effects of the canker are well hidden and there are other mitigating effects like climate and the condition of the trees.

Tell me about it, I used to work for the dark side as the person responsible for product development for trees and vines and Rhone Poulenc Agrochemicals. Anyone that has something that would be deemed a plant protection product has some serious hoops to get through. The first being proving it is actually of benefit. I was a bit concerned about the comments in Hort Week online. There seemed to be a suggestion that they would not have to do this, but this is only allowed if it is not a chemical control, i.e. if it is a physical control like heat of presure. SO if it is not a chemical control then how does somekind of infusion work? All a bit confusing

Like your picture would also like to come and look at this tree with the old TI sometime. The trees I refere to in the pdf are not the Ustulina trees they are the ones refered to in thread 44 by Yorkshireman of Decay Detection Equipment. Can't believe I'm now quoting this stuff like references in a bibliography!!!!!

Last week one of the threads mentioned some grafted Beech I'd looked at in North Yorkshire. I've put together a PDF so you can see what we found unfortunately we didn't get a core sample out to show you but we did get the Haglof corer stuck! It had nothing to grip on after about 10 cm. I've looked at a few Grafted Beech some are excelent some are pretty shocking. Enjoy Marcus North Yorks Grafted Beech.pdf

The trees are on my radar for re-inspection.

First tree is in a park, has ustulina, reduced winter 2006 you can just see the new shoots on it and is still fine will get another shot sometime in spring so you can see it. Second one has ustulina, is next to a school playground, reduced winter 2005 still gowing stong. Again will try to get another photo in the spring. In both cases it was a hack it or loose it scenario

Sorry, my story of the magic tree was on another site. I have seen some trees with Ustulina that keep their leaves well into the winter I call them the magic trees. There is one at Wimpole but apparently I may have been caught out with this one since it might be a hybrid of Quercus caneriensis that retains leaves in winter so I'm trying to find out more about this tree.

Thought you might like to look at these First picture is a tree the first growing seaon after a good hacking (thats a technical term) the second a different tree two years after a good hacking. Cheers Marcus

Perfectly reasonable. Firstly I am not saying that all epicormic growth on Beech is caused by Ustulina. Secondly it may not be the only species it happens with. So. Beech aren't renowned for thier epicormic growth so it is probably more apparent on Beech. There is probably some kind of physiological change with Ustulina infections in Beech that triggers epicomic growth. This could be indirect and related to the physical nature of the vascular system or could be a circumstantial chemical signal. We already know about the magic tree, so a chemical signal is not beyond the realms of possibility. What evedence is there? Well, we have seen the advocation of heavy reduction of Beech on the basis of well the thing is going over/dying anyway so lets control that and see what happens. The trees with ustulina sprouted loads of epicormic or had epicormic we were unaware of, some even did it in dry years. We also see a great deal of epicormic growth on Beech with Ustulina but again it isn't always obvious at first glance.

Yes on Beech?????

Over the last 6 years I've looked at about 4000 Beech in some detail studying this. In a previous posting I pointed out the value of listening to people and finding out what the quandries are within the industry. On eof the things that struck me early on was that there are a great number of issues relating to Beech. Firstly what is tha nature of the tree/fungus interactions, when do they become unviable, what can be done to mitigate the effects. The first two where comparatively straight forward to study, it's just a matter of population dynamics and dysfunction/decay progression. The last bit was a little more tricky. Beech can be 'pruned' (I use this as a general term to cover a vast range of activities) but there are some big hurdles to get over. The first consideration is of course is the work necessary and I have found that because of statements like 'the widow maker' etc there is a certain nervousness about Beech. The hydraulic architecture of Beech is very complex and delicate. So number one hurdle is if it is a dry year probably best not to attempt any work, this goes for the following winter period as well and in extreme circumstances the following year. It seems to take Beech some time to get over a drought. In a similar vein there needs to be an understanding of where the hydraulic architecture is strong and where it is weak. Weak areas will respond poorly, strong areas will respond well. Reduction needs to mimic the trees natural process of decline which is very different from other trees and also different between Beech trees. Also there is often more epicormic growth on a Beech than is immediatly apparent. Beech are very delicate and local conditions probably determine if, when and how they should be tackled. I have seen examples of where heavy reduction has worked very well, but it was right for those trees and undoubtedly wouldn't work on all Beech trees. One curious thing is that I am coming to the conclusion that in some circumstances Ustulina can encourage epicormic growth???

Always happy to talk to/give support and help where I can on any subject including thermal imaging. Post a PM or get my details from http://www.trees-project.co.uk Cheers M B-T PS don't ask me to ident fungi I'm not a mycologist

The roots are from trees that were vandalised, about 10 trees snapped off, so we took the opportunity to do a full excavation carefully by hand and used it to develop a less invasive methodology to study a full sub sample of root systems that we could do full statistical analysis on. This will be reported on sometime this year.

Results from the first year of the Nailsea Research Trial are downloadable is you follow the link below. It is a world first in that it is a replicated blocked experiement set up in a town. Enjoy Marcus http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/Report_-_North_Somerset_Flannigans.283f2abc.5830.pdf