OT: Horse chestnut trees

[Roger Hayter]

This may be because of the evil plot by EU members to make their communist/fascist/evil foreign empire on the nearest continental land mass to us. Devious, these foreigners.

[Vir Campestris]

You can sleep safely. But collect all the fallen leaves this autumn, and burn them. The bugs overwinter in the leaves.

I do this and ours looks _lots_ better than most. Though it is a youngster, scarcely 30ft tall.

Andy

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That could be difficult as it's not in my garden. ;-)

That's more the size of the ones on the common the council want to remove.

[bert]

In article , Tim Streater writes

ees-under-threat.html

[Tim Streater]

Please put around your long URL next time.

So this problem is bacterial as I thought. Nothing about the leaves though.

[Chris Hogg]

Interesting comment. I presume that stops the URL from wrapping. You learn something every day!

DP hasn't yet said whether he knows the tree in question actually has this bleeding canker disease, i.e. whether there are bleeding lesions on the trunk, or whether the leaves are just going brown because we're moving into Autumn. The leaves on trees around here, mostly sycamore, are going brown, simply for that reason.

Symptoms of bleeding canker here

"Over several years - and particularly if a tree has multiple bleeding cankers - the areas of dead phloem and cambium underneath the bleeding patches may coalesce and extend until they start to encircle the entire trunk or branch. When this happens crown symptoms become visible, typically consisting of yellowing of foliage, premature leaf drop and eventually crown death."

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Chris Hogg writes

A horse Chestnut here has an annual infestation of Moth larvae. Starts off fine in the spring but by summer the leaves are covered in brown blotches. Still produces conkers:-)

>

[newshound]

Thank goodness they stopped Japanese Knotweed.

[bert]

In article , Chris Hogg writes

And HCs are amongst the first.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Do me a favour. I've been around long enough to know leaves on some trees go brown in the autumn. In this case, they have had brown patches on them not long after appearing in the spring. Very unsightly.

It's not in my garden so don't have access to the trunk.

[Chris Hogg]

Brown patches on the leaves are not characteristic of bleeding canker. It could be almost anything. A leaf fungus disease, insect damage to the leaf bud or simply physical damage due to wind or frost at the wrong time. See

The bleeding lesions are obvious without having to get up close. If the tree is too far away to see them, then it's too far away to cause you a problem if it falls over.

You're making a mountain out of a molehill about this.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Every year for the last many? Looking pretty well the same as the leaves on those on the common?

There is a gazebo in next door's garden which obscures a view of the trunk. And just love the way you know better than me if it might hit this house if it fell down. Is there no end to the power of crystal balls on here?

Well don't bother replying, then.

[Vir Campestris]

Can you not ask if you can look from next door's garden?

BTW I didn't know about the canker. Ours has leaf miner.

Andy

[Dave Plowman (News)]

When I say next door, it's more correctly at the end of my garden. In another street. And I wouldn't know what to look for anyway. Just know the leaves look horrid all year. It's bad enough having such a massive tree so close without it looking a mess too. ;-)

'Twas on the London BBC TV news today - Wandsworth have gone ahead and cut down those chestnuts. To be replaced by semi-mature limes. They showed footage of a tree which was rotten inside. But I've no idea if this was due to the disease.

[Martin Brown]

If it is the dreaded canker then the tree is quite likely doomed. Don't fall for the garlic juice quack remedy that is supposed to save them (I'm not kidding a neighbouring parish council were taken in).

Chestnut trees with canker rot are something of a liability since they have huge spread and large chunks can snap off very suddenly in the wind. It was a big problem in Brussels when I lived there with the trees either side of major roads (people were killed by falling branches).

The tree if badly affected will show cracked trunk with black oily oozes and never really have green leaves for long on the affected parts. A tree that is borderline will have parts like that and parts looking normal but lose its leaves sooner than a healthy tree.

There is one in my village that will have to come down soon (it would of course be the one with a seat built around the base).

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The trees in question on the common seemed to have their leaves go brown very soon after they appeared. But I never examined them closely.

The one at the end of my garden has the leaves all withered and brown now. All the other trees close to it - including a mature sycamore and plain tree - are both still fully green.