nepia

Mick; father-in-law has a former street dog of indeterminate age but also believed to be around 11. She has slowed up due to arthritis so he bought some food-fed extract of green-lipped mussel. F-i-l says if he hadn't seen the almost overnight improvement with his own eyes he wouldn't have believed it; reckons it took 2-3 years off her

Did mercifully few Carnivals in my former life. The only memorable one was '86; stood for 8 hours in stair rods of rain 10 yards from one of the big sound systems. I'm sure it had a permanent effect on me. Pardon?

Is there a generous circle of clear ground around the bases? There needs to be as turf absorbs almost infinite amounts of rain

Yes, could do that Mick; a perfectly viable option on reflection. I was probably thinking too much Tulip and not enough apple; you wouldn't get away with such a thing for long with a Tulip

I'd say that the spreading rot would remain confined to the dead heartwood if allowed to continue and I've encountered apples entirely hollow from the ground up for 3m yet still thriving. Presumably at some point the pocket would fill with water and remain full in which case the rot would slow due to reduced oxygen present at the wood/water interface. But in your circumstances I'd drill a drainage hole at an upwards angle into the base of the rot pocket. I did it some years ago with a Tulip tree at home and the union survived for another fifteen years or so until a storm did for it by using the twenty foot long regrowth as levers on it. You will be aware of the difference in durability of apple and Tulip; steel vs butter! The hole I drilled was 20mm in a 300mm stem (approx).

Yes but the word 'sigma' doesn't make sense in the sentence with the other three symbols. Sigma pie?

Jeepers creepers; I'll bet your chest felt like King Kong was pummelling it from inside

I'll dab my toes in as usual but I shan't ling-er; that would be sailfish so I'll fin-ish it here

I get three of the four; can't see the relevance of the third character

There is a pair ( I think) of very old and much propped specimens at Leeds Castle but I've never come across any that big in my work. I think my best effort was a 9" stem in Coulsdon

The hornbeam genus Carpinus is indeed in the birch family, Betulaceae

My (large) garden experience of ponticum is that for every stem large enough to get an Ecoplug or two into there are 20 stems too small. The plant doesn't conveniently grow from a central trunk with all other growth emanating from that; the root and stem system is more of a shallow tangled mat. On a woodland scale I'd expect to need to rip up the entire mat. In hot dry weather you may get away with it being stacked and left to desiccate but in winter it would certainly root and grow again. So ideally you need to burn it or shred it but I get that on a commercial footing those options may not always be viable

VID-20240722-WA0000.mp4

That's a relief! All the best 🤞

Very sorry to hear Mark; what a kicker. What does your future hold do you think? Jon

I wouldn't touch it with anything sharp; leave it. The roots and stem will strengthen themselves as long as the staking allows a little movement; flexing is crucial to strengthening. That is a seriously wispy specimen though; presumably you got it on the reduced?!

What should happen - and has to me - is that you inform your insurers who treat the matter as a claim at the time. Come renewal time you get hit with a higher premium because of that claim (unless your policy allows for a claim with no hurt to your premium as some do). When, after many moons, your insurers are satisfied that nobody - that's you and the other party - is actually making a claim against them - they'll reimburse all the extra cost. Too good to be true? Well I'm no fan of the insurance industry - it's morally bankrupt - but it has happened to me.

There is a member (that doesn't seem to post any more) who was interested in large pop stems for just that purpose! He is Southampton way I seem to remember Have just seen another thread with the guy's moniker - gensetsteve

We have had an exceptional many months of rain that has been the end of many plants so there may not be such a 'problem' with the laurels other than the weather. If you want to persist with what you have I agree with the suggestion of mulching. Otherwise perhaps replace them with something else - Lawsons Cypress maybe.

His family are billionaires (is that right?) and he doesn't come across as a megalomaniac; I don't get why he took the job in the first place. I guess he's tried it and is saying to himself '**** this for a game of soldiers - I'm off' but is too proud to resign so needs voting out. He's done that very, very well.

That's professional level stuff; is that what you do? It's brilliant

Well if leaves are looking darker than before I'd guess the thing's breathing a huge sigh of relief at being out of the nutrient-starved bucket and is about to burst into growth. I'd be worried if leaves were turning brown and dropping but it sounds like the reverse is true. I hope I'm right here as it would make a nice change from the usual vein of similar threads where the explanation to the poster's question is 'it's probably dying'! You seem to have done everything right; just look at that luuurvely mulch 😊

Lazy boi's Swedish candle!

Sorry to hear Eggs. Never had it myself thank goodness but seen it in others and the effects are obvious. I can only suggest as some of the above which are known to work often though probably not always: hard exercise definitely as it releases endorphins which are feelgood chemicals produced by your body. As an aside to that I used to run non-competitively but still pretty hard - 8 miles in 45-50 minutes for example. After cooling down and having a shower I felt on top of the world; my mind was buzzing in a good way and my body felt purged - refreshed. Diet also is a factor: alcohol; yeurgh! I can't say I know how you feel but I think you're going to have to take a deep breath and say **** it; I'm going dry for a bit, avoiding processed crap food and doing some hard exercise. Doesn't need to be running; anything that makes you sweat hard and leaves you puffing will do. Good step btw opening up about it; that has to help. All the best to you; it can't be nice Jon