Elm trees

[Steve Maskery]

This made happy reading for the start of the day
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50519036
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[MikeG.]

There are quite a number of mature elms around here. There are also plenty of "Wych elm". A local nursery has been involved in the campaign to breed up new stock of the resistant varieties, and planting has been going on for a year or two.

 

[NickM]

That is good to read.

I'd be keen to plant a couple even if it's a gamble. I'll do some more research.

Having said that, if the Dutch elm disease doesn't get them, I fear the honey fungus will. We're losing a fruit tree a year at the moment...

 

[NickM]

That is good to read.

I'd be keen to plant a couple even if it's a gamble. I'll do some more research.

Having said that, if the Dutch elm disease doesn't get them, I fear the honey fungus will. We're losing a fruit tree a year at the moment...

 

[AJB Temple]

I will plant a few if I can get hold of stock.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

I remember there were people at Chelsea flower show two or three years ago selling saplings that they said were selected from 'immune' stock.

I have a small thicket of elm in a bit of overgrown hedgerow - I'm hoping that the beetles can't find it (apparently they can't fly very far) and/or it's a resistant strain, although driving from Petersfield to Basingstoke the other day I saw many dead ones of a similar size to mine.

PS I think that our elms were hit particularly badly because there is/was so little genetic diversity amongst our stock.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I read that Hillier nurseries were breeding resistant strains.

 

[NickM]

I have a small thicket of elm in a bit of overgrown hedgerow - I'm hoping that the beetles can't find it (apparently they can't fly very far) and/or it's a resistant strain, although driving from Petersfield to Basingstoke the other day I saw many dead ones of a similar size to mine.

We have elm that grow in a hedge row. Unfortunately they get to a certain size/maturity and die. I hope yours don't do that, but I fear they will. (Also near Basingstoke funnily enough...)

 

[Phil Pascoe]

They're not vulnerable to the beetle until they get to certain size.

 

[nabs]

funnily enough the only largish elm I knew off at the last place I lived was in an overgrown hedgerow outside the front of my old house (in fact it is possibly the only one I have ever knowingly seen as an adult - I was born in 1970 so by the time I grew up nearly all the mature ones were gone).

According to my elderly neighbour it had reached about 20 foot a couple times in the past only to die off and then regrow from the roots. Apparently the entire street was once lined with elms and this was the last survivor after the outbreak of dutch elm disease.

 

[Honest John]

I saw this on the news this morning. Brilliant ! And no mention (yet) of Brexot having anything to do with it.

 

[Steve Maskery]

IIRC Dame Judy Dench has planted a few.

 

[Deadeye]

We have elm that grow in a hedge row. Unfortunately they get to a certain size/maturity and die. I hope yours don't do that, but I fear they will. (Also near Basingstoke funnily enough...)

I was told by a nice chap at Kew that this is because the beetle gets in when the bark first furrows and splits as the tree ages. I hope a resistant variety is found, but it's way too early to tell just yet.

 

[Keith 66]

Down here in south essex all the mature elms died back in the 60's, we had a few stands of wych elm? that survived until about 5 years ago over Hadleigh country park but they too succumbed.
The trees do survive in a way as they sucker from the roots readily & keep growing this way for a long time, but once they get to about 20 years the bark fissures & the beetles get in.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

I have a small thicket of elm in a bit of overgrown hedgerow - I'm hoping that the beetles can't find it (apparently they can't fly very far) and/or it's a resistant strain, although driving from Petersfield to Basingstoke the other day I saw many dead ones of a similar size to mine.

What I meant to add was that one of ours is significantly larger than the dead ones I've seen on my travels, and I haven't seen any other elms alive or dead near home, so I'm keeping fingers crossed as I think our largest one is large enough to succumb - if a beetle can get to it and it doesn't have natural immunity.
We have elm that grow in a hedge row. Unfortunately they get to a certain size/maturity and die. I hope yours don't do that, but I fear they will. (Also near Basingstoke funnily enough...)