merrip beech???

spotted the dreaded M on this copper beech about 3 years ago ....not supprising as it had a new house practically built on it ... but since spotting it and i have checked every 6 months no fungal fruiting bodys since and crown die back that is typical with merripilus seems to have stabalised.... so after sitting on what would happen next we decided a crown reduction to remove crown die back and wind sail ....have we taken enough off??? apart from a reduction i cant think of much more we can do and i dont want to do a heavy reduction incase we stress it more..im convinced that happens with merip as well and causes more die back... here is some pics of what we did today....lets hope its enough! any way if it all goes wrong and the tree ends up in next doors living room i blame you dave ......

before and afters.

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Looks good Matty, yeah i think you have taken enough off, mutch more and it will spoil the natural shape. if its that knackered fell it simples.

yep told them its a big posibilitie any fruiting fungi call me asap! would be a shame though but building work like that seems 10 years down the line in most cases i have seen before it gets bad enough to fell......

the prognosis for this one doesnt look good.

Nice reduction matty. Sorry, can't help that much on the merrip front. But. Futher monitoring and a call to you is the best idea, wether it has further dieback or fruiting bodies.

cheers rich... im still not convinced about the felling, im sure like the rest of us we have felled mature magnificent beech that as soon as infected they go down...like i said this flowered three years ago and not since wich was why i was reluctant to pass a death sentance..... maybe a bad call but im interested to watch what happens next and as long as it monitered closely i dont see any problems.

If the leaf starts looking clorotic and thinning it has to go.

It looked ok when in leaf just all the dead sticking out the top! and no flowering meripilus has been present since first spotted it just seem to have disapeared??? and that was only a small cluster at the base between butteress roots.

If it is still present surely there would be sighns??

I know when i have come across badly infected trees you can just smell it!

sounds stable, would the client stump up for Andrew to go down do a root investigation on this one? would clear up doubt and clarify the stability concern

cheers rich... im still not convinced about the felling, im sure like the rest of us we have felled mature magnificent beech that as soon as infected they go down...like i said this flowered three years ago and not since wich was why i was reluctant to pass a death sentance..... maybe a bad call but im interested to watch what happens next and as long as it monitered closely i dont see any problems.

I applaud your approach and mind-set Matty!