Beech the next ash?

[Dieselhead]

Seems like all the leafs on beech trees are turning brown in CT. Some sort of disease going around. It will be interesting to see if they rebound or will become extinct in the northeast like ash trees have.

 

[peakbagger]

They are already in rough shape in much of new england with a different disease. I have 40 acres of diseased beech in northern NH. Some of them are blight resistant so there is chance they may survive longer than Ash trees where the mortality rate is near 100%.

 

[Prof]

Same here in PA. The problem is the young beech are still fast and aggressive growers, making it hard for other trees to get a start.

 

[peakbagger]

The solution is sadly cut and squirt with low concentration triclopyr (garlon) Penn state has a bulletin on it. On small trees they are completely cut while on the bigger ones, the tree is either girdled first or there is ax cut every 3" of the circumference then the herbicide is applied to the wound. Triclopyr at low concentration stays in the root system its applied to and doesnt spread into the soil while Roundup tends to kill everything. It breaks down quick. It need to be mixed and diluted with diesel before application. Sadly most of my beech is not readily accessible so it will rot in the woods.

 

[Solarguy3500]

I'm noticing it here in Western MA this year. Pretty much all the beech on my property and around the area have the brown shriveled leaves.



We had a cold night that went down into the 20s this spring, so I was wondering if it was from that cold but I guess not if it's happening in other states as appears to be the case.

 

[KDubU]

That is not good, beech trees are one of my favourite trees.

 

[ericm979]

The solution is sadly cut and squirt with low concentration triclopyr (garlon) Penn state has a bulletin on it. On small trees they are completely cut while on the bigger ones, the tree is either girdled first or there is ax cut every 3" of the circumference then the herbicide is applied to the wound. Triclopyr at low concentration stays in the root system its applied to and doesnt spread into the soil while Roundup tends to kill everything. It breaks down quick. It need to be mixed and diluted with diesel before application. Sadly most of my beech is not readily accessible so it will rot in the woods.

I guess the idea here is to kill the trees early so they spread the pathogen less? Are you sure that works?

I use 25% triclopyr in diesel to kill poison oak vines where the leaves are far up in a tree, and on stumps of trees that I do not want to come back, like Eucalyptus. I got the idea from a university of California ag bulliten. The garlon you buy in stores is already diluted for foliar application, to 1-2%. But you can find 66% stuff on line. The diesel kills most sprayers. I got a oil resistant one a few years ago and its still working but probably not for much longer.

We have a problem here in NorCal with Sudden Oak Death syndrome. It kills tan oaks and live oaks. It started only a couple decades ago. It can be spread from dead tree parts just as much as from live ones. So I can't chip the branches from a SODS-killed tree, they have to go on a pile in a place with no target species near by.

All of these tree diseases wiping out previously stable native species are a sign that we humans are screwing up the environment.

 

[peakbagger]

The problem is beech clones itself by growing off the root systems of the diseased and dead trees which means they grow back faster than other species. What grows back is usually diseased so the net result is unproductive wood land. By killing off the beech roots it lets other more desirable species regenerate. Once they get enough of a canopy, they can out compete the beech. The alternative is to just clear cut and brush hog it for a decade or so to knock out the beech regeneration.

 

[yinpin]

I cut some down beech last week in Maryland and upon splitting found a lot of flathead hardwood bore larva in the splits. I am not sure how long the tree has been down but it was present in just about every round I split.

 

[Garbanzo62]

I just go a load from a friend that is cutting down a bunch of beech that have whatever blight is hitting them.

 

[ericm979]

In my area we have sudden oak death syndrome. It's a fungus that kills tan oaks and live oaks.

They're discouraging people from moving the wood around so it does not spread more. When I was giving wood away before I had a stove, I would not give out SODs-killed wood.