Chestnut Blight

[TREETX]

I was in the biergarten at 7am this morning!!!

Unfortunately removing a chestnut tree dead from blight.


I am just now starting my research on this disease. Know of any good resources or better yet, ways to fight the disease. Standard protocol, etc.

http://www.forestpests.org/southern/Diseases/chsntblt.htm

It would be really bad here. Chestnut is the typical tree for biergartens so there are many Chestnuts in high use areas. I think normally the´summers are too wet and cold here for it to take over. Recent summers have been hot and dry making a party for beetles on picea and now I guess fungi on chestnuts.

As always, any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.


I was suprised to read that it attacks post oaks

 

[TREETX]

In all the forums on tree care, not one on dealing with pathogens

Nuts?

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by TREETX
I was suprised to read that it attacks post oaks

Most of the post oaks on Duke's east campus have big cankers. Never could ID them before because never saw it sporulate. Now I'm going to take a second :Eye:
Last month I ID'd Cryphonectria in a live oak in Richmond VA. It;s in there pretty good; I prescribed cambistat, soilbuilding, and more pruning of dead and dying wood. Low odds (my guess) on killing the pest; don't know if the client will buy the treatment.
I too would like to hear about a magic pill for this stuff, beyond the usual "keep the tree in high vigor" advice which of course is excellent but does not kill the pest until the tree can compartmentalize all of it.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

My understanding is that it is so agressive there has been nothing that can be done.

The pathogen has a saprophytic stage in red oak, so it is now endemic to the area now.

I'll contact a freind who works on a chestnut blight study in WI. Maybe he can have one of the whitecoats contact you.

Guy, I was at a talk in Feb by an expert in bark cankers. He sad that many of the more effective ones will go into the xylem and back to the cambium, thus breaking the CODIT bariers. Often never producing any fruiting bodies.

I no longer have the speaker list from the WAA winter conferance, Maybe Mike M. does? You could contact the fellow and maybe he would have an idea for better sample collecting to isolate the pathogen..

 

[LLTStumpie]

Hey TREETX Im not sure if this is whart you are looking for but take a look here at William Powells website him and Charles Manynard have been doing research on Chesnuts for a quite some time. Chesnut Link