agg221

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

Agree entirely with Conrad. Check that your oiler is on max and is working properly, but assuming so, a 'quick fix' I have used is every time you rest the saw, dribble a bit of chain oil on the exposed bit of the nose (you'll need something a bit more subtle than the 5l oil bottle). If the first time you do it, it smokes, it is definitely too hot! It will keep the tension a lot better this way. Alec

Is that your inner woman trying to get out....?

I don't find they sucker, so it's only the regrowth that will need killing. If you can get back to them fairly easily, I found mine died after knocking the regrowth off a couple of times. If you want to go chemical, Garlon is pretty definitive at killing stumps if you can still get it. Alec

You're currently at the other end from us then, but if you keep on going then give me a shout when you get near Wixoe. Alec

Which bit? We are the riparian owners of a short stretch of the Stour, where it forms the Suffolk/Essex border and have been having a few informative discussions with the EA. Trunk rivers are the responsibility of the EA to keep clear (although if it's clear that the blockage arises from a tree which is the responsibility of the riparian owner then they will obliged to clear it), however they are not responsible within 1m of a bridge. This falls to the local authority which owns the structure. EA have of custom cleared some areas which are not their responsibility, however budget cuts mean they are now pushing this back. I've found this out due to the 'ford' at the end of our land which is poorly designed and jams up when branches etc come down after heavy rain. It is currently blocked - EA have historically cleared it, however they are now trying to hand it back. Suffolk highways said it wasn't theirs (after a three month delay), Essex highways agree it's their responsibility but with the increasing likelihood of heavy rain, we are the ones who are at risk of flooding while the discuss who is going to sort it out. In the past, I've just done it myself but there's a big lump of willow jammed in the pipes which is beyond me (and a team of four from the EA apparently). Just hope it gets resolved quickly Alec

What size were the trees before? What size did you cut them back to? My guess is that they were fair sized trees, not on dwarf stock, and they were virtually pollarded, in which case if you get them back in bearing in five years you are doing well. The main thing to remember is that the more upright the branches, the less they will fruit. You can affect this by pruning out very upright branches and tying down others - this should get it back slightly quicker. Continued use of tying down is likely to be necessary if you are trying to keep them artificially much smaller than they want to be (so says Gollum and having done it two years running, I am a convert). Alec

Just a thought, is it worth considering Helmdon as part of the overall plan? If the site is fairly flat and access good then extraction may be OK, there's a decent load and Helmdon are reasonably near and sometimes looking for good, clean poplar. Alec

Bolts are often hardened so they will dig in, either to the metal surface or the paintwork if it has been finished. A washer gives a smooth, matched surface to provide consistent torquing and avoid surface galling (or ripping your nice new paintwork apart). Alec

If you are prepared to get to grips with it, TIG is tremendously useful, although you do need to get argon to use it. It will do thin, and it doesn't add filler unless you want to, which means it will do an outstanding job on thin stuff. You do have to learn to co-ordinate what you are doing with each hand separately though, and do get an adjustable mask otherwise you'll never see what you're doing. Alec

In our experience, this has worked well. Our cat hunts, mainly mice which is useful, the odd rabbit which is fine and the occasional more exotic species - I don't recommend trying to evict an uninjured but very angry weasel from your bedroom as a good morning's entertainment. However, she started catching birds so we tried a bell and bird catching has virtually stopped. I think it's because mice are stupid enough not to notice, and they wander by while she sits still, rabbits are caught by speed but she has to climb to get the birds and they hear her coming. Alec

I think you can still get a 3/8" sprocket (look for one for an 051) but I wouldn't. This saw is all about unstoppable torque and the .404" chain makes the most of this, chewing out big lumps. It's also difficult to find bars with the right mount and a 3/8" nose sprocket, which means getting them made up as specials or using a hard nosed bar. My experience has been that low rev/high torque saws suffer less from the use of hard nosed bars than more modern ones do, so the cheaper option would be to go this route - there is a 38" hard nosed bar on ebay at the moment (I think it's advertised as for an 090 but it will fit) for £85. Alec

Notwithstanding the above comments, are the oak also around 2' dia? If so, are the oak and SC in decent clean lengths? If so, this is potentially into timber dimensions rather than firewood, and if there is a reasonable amount it may pay to sell it as such. Sycamore coppice is likely to only be firewood unless it's very overstood and clean. SC has minimal sapwood and will lie for years. If you are thinking timber then check it doesn't have spiral grain (obvious from the outside) and ring shake or star cracking as it's pushing that sort of size. Alec

On the Stihl side, if you can get your hands on both, I would compare the 260/261 and the 360/361. The latter is heavier, definitely, but will be much quicker through the larger stuff, particularly where it's hard, so it's a trade-off between the extra weight and the extra power. I would try the 260 with a 14" bar and the 360 with a 16" or 18" bar. Alec

I would say you are likely to end up with a more reliable, longer-lived vehicle if you go down the new chassis route. However, how are you going to get it done (DIY or pay someone), if the latter, do you have someone lined up that you trust? How long will they need it for (and what will you do while they have it)? Assuming you have a good route to doing it, if it suits your current and long-term projected needs, I would keep the known good vehicle over risking a new one. Alec

Barchams. It will be good, but not cheap. Alec