Safe To Sow An Elm Tree Or Two?

mikefoxo

I would like to plant a few trees around the farm, thinking I'll mix it up a bit and sow some different varieties. Just wondering should I sow Elm. Is Dutch Elm Disease still a threat in Ireland today?

ravima

I have elms that are well over 100 years old and no sign of disease. Plant away I say, its a few trees around the farm. Even in the unlikely event that they die, you've only lost a couple of trees, not acres of them.

an elm tree is planted for future generations to admire, appreciate and use. You will have the satisfaction (if you can project into the future), of having someone perhaps a 100 years from now, saying wasn't mikefoxo a great fella for planting those elms!

Oldtree

I have one in the back garden for the last 10 years or so that I found in forest under Sitka (it was 3 inches tall) and rescued it. Its doing fine so far but only time will tell if the beetle will find it. I know of a number of others in the locality too no old ones though.

gk5000

http://www.treecouncil.ie/irishtrees/wychelm.html

I think Wych elm is not as susceptible as English elm.

Justjens

Most elm stock are now disease resistant AFAIK, planted one over twenty years ago and it's still going strong, although it had a close shave from a beech on 12th Feb :eek:

Oldtree

Studies are still ongoing to prove DED resistant. One I am aware of here, they were only allowing the test subjects to grow to 1.5m which was under the flight path of the vector beetle @ 1.7m.

Once the elms were gone, in general, then there was no breeding ground for the beetle and then no further spread of DED. DED has happened in the distant past a few times so it may be that elms were missed by the beetle or elms managed to seal off sections of themselves before the DED reached all parts and regrow from there, or even dormant seeds. There are geographical reasons the DED was stopped from entering an area such as the topography around Brighton in the UK which has hills around it perhaps stopping the beetle in its tracks, preserving some of their very old elms there.

DED is not like ask dieback which can spread in the wind, it is spread on the beetles jaws as it digs into an elm and functioning wood sucks the spores from the jaws into the tree once the bark is breached.

So we may well see a resurgence of Elm until beetle numbers build up again. All elms succumb to a greater or lesser degree.

allbuiz

Oldtree wrote: »

Studies are still ongoing to prove DED resistant. One I am aware of here, they were only allowing the test subjects to grow to 1.5m which was under the flight path of the vector beetle @ 1.7m.

Once the elms were gone, in general, then there was no breeding ground for the beetle and then no further spread of DED. DED has happened in the distant past a few times so it may be that elms were missed by the beetle or elms managed to seal off sections of themselves before the DED reached all parts and regrow from there, or even dormant seeds. There are geographical reasons the DED was stopped from entering an area such as the topography around Brighton in the UK which has hills around it perhaps stopping the beetle in its tracks, preserving some of their very old elms there.

DED is not like ask dieback which can spread in the wind, it is spread on the beetles jaws as it digs into an elm and functioning wood sucks the spores from the jaws into the tree once the bark is breached.

So we may well see a resurgence of Elm until beetle numbers build up again. All elms succumb to a greater or lesser degree.

I'm back after a TWO week ban oldtree, are u sure that's correct?

Oldtree

allbuiz wrote: »

I'm back after a TWO week ban oldtree, are u sure that's correct?

Which bit would you like to discuss?

allbuiz

Oldtree wrote: »

Which bit would you like to discuss?

No sure ur always right

Rovi

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