Ash Trees

[Mick F]

It's so very sad that ash trees could go the same way as elm. This latest disease has been brought here by imported trees.

Why the heck do we import ash?
They are almost a weed round here.
I actually love them, coz they make the best firewood of all, and I've felled a couple of dozen here over the years.

They grow easily, there are millions of them all over the place, growing everywhere. Ash seeds are shed by the adult trees by the quadrillion, and cover the place germinating easily. It seems that the news are saying there's 8million in Britain, but I don't think they've looked down here coz I reckon there's 8million in Cornwall.

I've just picked this one out from between the flagstones.
Anyone want one?

[gentlegreen]

There's certainly an amazing number of them on my commute.
The self-sown ones along the Bristol to Bath path are something of a hazard this time of year.

I went out one Sunday and swept that section last winter.

[kwackers]

I actually love them, coz they make the best firewood of all, and I've felled a couple of dozen here over the years.

Given the wood sells for upwards of £30 a cubic foot, presumably your trees aren't big enough to plank?

[Mick F]

Good question.
Never thought of that.

Remember this thread?
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=56333
Only just occurred to me. I wonder why the tree had died?

No matter, it's all been turned into hot water now.

[Deckie]

Looking at the photo's, I think it was ok as far as this disease goes. According to the forestry commission website the timber would have been grey rather than that "healthy" pink colour. They also show the spread of the disease, other than those identified as being imported & planted, all the diseased trees in the wild are in East Anglian so far. They have good info on what to look out for, but unfortunately it looks like they all require leaf growth to identify. We'll have to wait till next year to be sure. Loads to ash trees in our garden too, yes, they do grow like weeds!

[reohn2]

This is a wind born naturally occuring disease,spores can travel thousands of miles on the wind,the chance of arresting/stopping it are minimal,though our prevailing winds are South Westerly so we stood a chance,unless w imported diseased trees.......
The worse thing is that it's taken 20years to stop any direct infection from importation of trees from the continent .
What have the government and relevent authorities been doing for twenty years??????????
Also why do we need to import Ash trees from the continent in the first place,the UK is full of Ash trees,could they not be grown here from native stock?
It's not like they're a tricky species to grow is it?

Edied for grammar

[Vorpal]

Some information about spotting the disease (although the pamphlet is slightly dated)
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/pest-ale ... k-2012.pdf

The BBC Science section has a number of articles http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20128172

Also, they are able to confirm the disease, even in winter conditions (i.e. no leaves with fungal growth) by laboratory testing. So, if you suspect the disease has affected any tree near you, or spot the symptoms, please report it.

[Tacascarow]

Also why do we need to import Ash trees from the continent in the first place,the UK is full of Ash trees,could they not be grown here from native stock?
It's not like they're a tricky species to grow is it?

Pure economics.
Cheaper to ship them in from Eastern Europe because wages are lower there.

[kwackers]

It's not like they're a tricky species to grow is it?

Weren't a tricky species to grow.

[thirdcrank]

... presumably your trees aren't big enough to plank?

How big do they have to be? Put it another way: just how thick are two short planks?

[Lawrie9]

I used to be a tree nurseryman and we used to grow acres of them but that tree nursery is now a golf course and hence many more trees are having to be imported in containers and a lot of these imports are out of control or bringing in all sorts of pests and diseases.

[horizon]

I am only posting this in case anyone was expecting me to and wondering why I hadn't. So here goes:

Imported disease? Tosh. Ash trees were quite able to look after themselves. But, like with Dutch Elm Disease, trees die first in East Anglia. If I were a tree, I would die in East Anglia, the most artificially agricultural region of the UK. Everything else is killed off there, why not trees? When trees lose their woodland, their hedges, their birds, their insects, their creatures, their ecosystem, they might well die. We can now name the actual disease from which they die but we haven't mentioned the cause - the depletion of the natural environment of the ash tree and its soaking in every killer chemical legally available to farmers. The next futile measures will be "bio-security", i.e. wiping your feet in disinfectant, and destroying the healthy trees as though it were a repeat of Foot and Mouth. After the ash .. name your tree.

PS There are 80 - 90 million in the UK

[gbnz]

Also why do we need to import Ash trees from the continent in the first place,the UK is full of Ash trees,could they not be grown here from native stock?
It's not like they're a tricky species to grow is it?

Economics; all the specialist, continental, semi mature tree nurseries I've ever dealt with, have been based in Holland, Germany or Italy. Western European countries, the first two quite definately not known for "cheap labour". Rather like Germanys car industry, semi mature trees are something they are dominant in, though there's no reason Britain couldn't have done the same (And does do, with a few companies involved)

Though most of the 1-2 yr old transplants I've bought, have been British grown

Not that that being British grown, is of any relevance. Trees are bought on price and if Fraxinus excelsior 60-90's are available at £0.23 from Holland, they'd be preferable to Fraxinus excelsior from the UK at £0.25

[reohn2]

Not that that being British grown, is of any relevance. Trees are bought on price and if Fraxinus excelsior 60-90's are available at £0.23 from Holland, they'd be preferable to Fraxinus excelsior from the UK at £0.25

If you dropped 2p on ground these days some wouldn't bend down to pick it up,so not a big saving per "unit"

BTW I've still got about six F/Excel boards 3.6mx300mm stored in stick that I bought for around £12 a cube,perhaps I'd better hang onto them the price is likely to go through through the roof shortly

[Mick F]

Thank guys, turning out to be an interesting thread.
Tosh eh? Horizon?
I guessed it might be because of general ecology.

Elms haven't died round here, though they aren't ever going to grow into big trees. We have a clump of elm down by our gate that were growing quite well, and got their trunks up to nearly 8" diameter, then suddenly they died. I cut them down and burned them in our woodburner, but elm carries on!

It doesn't seed very well despite chucking out billions of seeds. It tends to regenerate via suckers. Consequently, our clump of elms are growing again. For how long, I don't know, but no doubt 6" diameter in perhaps 10years may all it can manage before "dying" again. Much like Dr Who.