agg221

Thanks for that, potentially very useful. In answer to Jules' question - 'we have all seen' may be true for those in the industry, but may not be true of those tasked with designing planting schemes. The guidance is overly long for the uninformed to read, but the pictures are clear and options for management of air, water, planting medium and traffic are well set out, so it may result in the adoption of some good practice which would otherwise have been overlooked. The biggest omission in my view is that the tree selection criteria section doesn't actually follow this through to a list of planting options which meet these criteria - a single table showing the top 16 planted species doesn't indicate the merit, or otherwise, of these 16 - common does not necessarily equal best. Alec

Ideally it wouldn't have lost that many leaves yet, but it did make good extension growth this year - suggests it could have been happy to start with and then been stressed, which would be consistent with mole damage to the roots. Moles aren't interested in the roots - they are carnivorous so are looking for worms. Damage to the roots is coincidental. Did the leaves go any funny colours before they fell? There could also be some signs of scab, which can cause early leaf drop. If so, pick up the fallen leaves and reckon on spraying with a fungicide next year if you feel so inclined. Alec

Spruce will give very good strength values, but doesn't have resistance to fungi or insects (in this respect it is similar to beech). I don't have any strength values for beech but can probably get some. For farm buildings - don't overlook poplar. Far better than most people give it credit for (there are surviving poplar cruck blades from the 15th century), but very difficult to get 'official' values. It isn't naturally resistant to insect attack, but absorbs treatments very well. Alec

I also would not use beech. Although it is no more or less durable than rapidly grown spruce, which is what the modern construction industry relies on, it is a very short grain timber, and is also heavy. This means that you need to increase the section to achieve the same strength, and it is heavier already. Good for hard wearing, clean surfaces such as kitchens. Not used as much as it should be for flooring my view. Alec

Quite a few. Depends on what the building is (function, span, building control involved) as to what is practical. Alec

Sorry for the delay - the paper wasn't published when you asked, but it is now: http://www.sisef.it/iforest/pdf/?id=ifor1224-008 Alec

Thanks All for the thoughts, and apologies for the delayed response - computer is dead and I miss things on the iPhone, so I am periodically catching up using my wife's computer. Not definitive, but I think the prize goes to Graham. Haven't used it much as I've been brushcutting rather than strimming, using the other machine, but a test run had it firing up and revving out fine, all symptoms gone. Next time I'm using it, if it starts doing it when worked for a long time then I will try loosening the fuel cap off and if it picks up immediately, answer is definitive. Alec

If you can post up a picture of the cut area, side on to the cut, as that will help give a definite answer as to whether you made the cut at the right point. In general, when you cut bits off a tree it usually reacts by growing vigorously to try to recover. With something like this, the best bet is to rub the shoots out when they start to form. If you can still rub them out (by bending them downwards, so that they pull out at the base, rather than snapping partway up) then do so. If not, cut them right off as short as you can. There will probably be another crop or two to deal with, and then a few more occasionally on an ongoing basis, but it's a 2min job to look it over every now and again and take anything like this off. The tree looks to be fine otherwise, so I wouldn't see the need to replace it if you are happy to do the above. Alec

Hi, if you've got the saw number, does that mean the Teles model plate is still present? If so, it should have a model number and date stamped into it. It could be something like SW4, SWB or SW7. Is it a one-man or a two-man saw? It should be possible to work it out from this. Alec

Is that to put your popcorn in? Very nice Alec

Poisonous, yes, but only if you eat it... There are lots of plants which are similarly poisonous - yew, laburnum etc. There are also a fair few with more enticing fruit such as deadly and woody nightshade, or arum. It's an attractive plant in the right setting, so unless there are small children around who are not trained not to eat strange things, I would leave it alone and enjoy it. Alec

Some things will root well if you take cuttings now as root development takes place over winter. Others will take better if you take cuttings in late winter and give them bottom heat. You want something free draining to keep air and water around as the roots grow - you can get things to root in water but usually the very easy plants in full growth. I would go for perlite/sand, perlite/peat or sand/peat - again, some will take better in one of these, some in another one, so a bit of experimentation needed. The main thing is to keep the roots growing while the top is dormant, so a sheltered, north facing aspect is best. I would grow them on for a year before planting out. You can give them care and attention then, making sure they have enough water, the right nutrients etc. and develop a good, strong root system. If you are planning on using rabbit guards then they will also be big enough to grow out of the top better by then. Out of interest, why cuttings rather than seed? For most broadleaves, seed is a lot easier unless there are some very specific characteristics you are trying to preserve. Alec

If you look at Chainsawbars ? chainsaw chains, chainsaw bars and chainsaw accessories you can enter your saw and it comes up with quite a few options for length and make of bar, and style of chain so you should be able to get what you want. Alec

Something similar to this already exists: Arbory Trust - Burial Ground Alec

True enough - English Elm, or as it should probably now be known Ulmus minor var. Procera is definitely not, but U.glabra almost certainly is and U.minor may well be. Since they hybridise naturally, elms of the Dutch elm type would be likely to be too, although not the specific Dutch elm x.hollandica as that is a cross between English Elm and Wych Elm. Anyway, tall, imposing elms have been around for a while... Alec

Might be worth her having a look at sewshaw.co.uk - specifically the 'how it works' and 'pricing' pages. Different market but may be a relevant approach. Alec

I think it is important to draw the distinction between 'supposed resistance' and 'tested resistance'. If you look at the back to back inoculation studies incorporating known field resistant and known field susceptible strains, you have a reasonable relative scale which, if repeated at different times in different locations gives good confidence in true field resistance. Longer term, larger scale Dutch studies were reported last year and support this data. This is entirely different from 'I found this surviving elm tree so it must be resistant and now I've propagated it and want to charge you hundreds of pounds for it', where the claim of resistance is dubious and unproven at best. Price - new introductions are always expensive. If they take off, price will come down as supply goes up. Once Plant Breeders' Rights expire, price will drop to free market rates. Sapporo Autumn Gold is now under a fiver. The Chinese Elm is indeed a good tree, but it it doesn't have the size and form of the real thing, hence the interest in restoring the landscape:001_smile: Alec

If you can put up pictures of the bark, leaves and base of the trunk it might be possible to work out which one it is, although I would guess Wych Elm from your location and its survival (and the fact that they are in a wood). Notably the Spanish selections are pure U.minor, so far as the team are aware (I asked the leader of the project if they were hybrid and he says that morphologically, no they are not). I would imagine Arbtalk will know as soon as anywhere else once they become available. Alec

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

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

It is the tree I spotted on my way home from yours, but I took such a random route I couldn't find it again! Can't tell what it is from the form, although it could be Sapporo Autumn Gold. Some close-up pictures of leaves would help, or I'll have another look next time I'm passing. Alec

OK, resistance. First question, what is resistance? This initially seems obvious - the tree doesn't die of DED. In practice, it isn't, as it depends on why the tree doesn't die. True resistance is when a tree which is infected with DED doesn't die. It may do several things instead. At best, nothing happens, alternatively there may be some wilting from which the tree recovers, or the infected shoot dies back a bit, or a whole branch dies, or the tree dies. This forms a continuous scale of resistance, of which the first three are probably tolerable. There is also a question of dosage. In resistance trials, young trees are infected with a massive dose of DED, many times what they would ever get in the field, so practical field resistance may be much greater. The alternative to resistance is that the beetles are not attracted to the tree. When DED first hit, it was initially thought that Wych Elm (U.glabra) was resistant as the trees didn't die, but it turned out that the trees were just less attractive to the beetles, so they ate the English Elm until it died and then turned their attention to the Wych Elm, which proved equally unresistant. U.laevis is an extreme of this, in that it is so unattractive to beetles that they leave it alone, even though it dies rapidly if deliberately infected in inoculation trials. Another factor is shape. Beetles like upward facing, young, vigorous shoots. They don't like short, stubby shoots on old trees and they don't like weeping branches as the point where the stalk joins the branch, where they feed, is at the wrong angle. This means that old, slow growing, weeping trees get left alone. However, if you propagate from these trees, the young, vigorous form is now attractive to the beetle, gets attacked and dies. So what can be done about it? There have been breeding programmes running for decades, mainly in The Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain. These started by crossing U.minor with various Asian species with inherent genetic resistance. Several generations later of crossing produced some trees which retained genetic resistance and bred back in the European characteristics. Probably the best of these come from the Italian programme, the most promising being the variety Morfeo. This was briefly released in the UK, before concerns over resistance to phytoplasma (Elm Yellows). The Dutch/French programme has produced a few rather less resistant, but still useful varieties, which may or may not survive in field plantings. The Spanish took a different approach and screened over 10,000 native trees, identifying seven with inherent genetic resistance. These are interesting as they are true U.minor with resistance. You can find details (and pictures) here: http://www.sisef.it/iforest/pdf/?id=ifor1224-008 Note, this was only published this August, immediately after the varieties were patented. This is very encouraging as patenting is the precursor to commercial release, which will hopefully come in the next few years. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get things together to repeat the Spanish programme here in the UK, as there are some promising elm clones here, which have not been tested. One of the most interesting is in my current avatar. Alec

OK, borrowed my wife's computer. Several things have come up in the meantime, which I'll try to address in no particular order. English Elm, and other suckering types, don't coppice very well, Wych Elm does. Yes, you can prolong the life of a tree if you prune out infected branches. The tree shuts down progressively as the fungus spreads, so you can stop it by cutting ahead. Propagating from a healthy tree is only any good if the tree is resistant. There are lots of healthy trees, very few resistant ones (unless they are large, in which case they might be - see below). Princeton elm is resistant to the American strain of DED, not the European one, as has been rather embarrassingly demonstrated in the avenue planted by Prince Charles at Highgrove. U.laevis is not resistant - it's just that the beetles don't like it (see below). Some of the Asian species are resistant, as are some of the hybrids, particularly Sapporo Autumn Gold, which is fully field resistant, but takes some care to grow a good habit. It is worth planting, although it doesn't end up looking like the classic 'English Elm). Elms will live up to 800yrs, although normally not much more than 300 or so. I'll cover resistance in another post. Alec

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

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