Planting Elms

barnaman

Farm used to have a lot of elms on it until the 1980s. I think they were Field Elms as they were massive and planted. Also were Wych Elms. I think Wych may survive in the hedges and a forester told me they get so high 10 feet? and then get Dutch Elm.

Would like to plant some Elms anyone try it and have any success? I see replanting being attempted in UK and trying to use disease reistant types

http://treesdirect.co.uk/great-british-elm-experiment/

timfromtang

I like the idea of planting the elms, Future forests in west Cork have bareroot elms of various types for sale, some they claim disease resistance for.
We have some surviving elm here, a few wytch elms in hedgerows have root suckers that are now 18cm dia at breast height and still have not sucumbed to the infection.
tim

Oldtree

we have some elm here too in the hedgerows, I know of 3 spots locally. I collected a 3 inch sucker 13 years ago, in a forest with nothing but mature spruce around, I minded it for a year or two and it is growing away well as a centepiece in the garden.

imo while it is lovely to grow the elm, it will be just a matter of time before the beetle numbers build up again, and re-spread the disease. It has been show that DED has been around a few times before in the past, so as the trees return so will the beetle.

Experiements were also carried out here to try and find immune elms made up from survivors, and an interesting point I gleaned from that was that they kept the hedges of elm at below 1.5m high as the beetles flight path was 1.7m not sure what the outcome was.

topography seems to have protected some elms in the UK and I've tried surrounding the elm with other trees so hopefully the beetle will have trouble smelling mine from a distance

barnaman

Tim that is a great Nursery, never seen such a big selection. Bought all our trees from Dundrum and SAP and not near as large a choice. Also that nursery seems reasonable.

Only shame is not sell Field Elms just Wych and 2 chinese hybrids. Going to make a shopping list!