burning oak diseased oak wood !!!!

[just_a_tree_guy]

i was told today that if you burn oak that had oak wilt diease you will spread the disease to other oak trees . has anyone else ever heard this ??? thanks for your input !!!

 

[treehumper]

Burning or even heating to high temps without combustion is usually a way of killing fungus, disease and bugs.

Never heard of it spreading the disease.

 

[just_a_tree_guy]

i have never heard this before either but a guy from bartlett tree told me this the other day . he was very adamite about it . didnt seem like he was joking . that is what they also told the client . the client has been throwing the wood over a hillside for fear of this !!

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Study the pathogen. Oak wilt, and a lot of other pathogens, have very narrow growth parameters. Heat, water or temperature excesses or reduction will kill them.

Every plant pathologist that I've ever talked to said the burning kills the pathogen.

Ask this 'guy from bartlett' to provide some documentation or 'proof' of what he's saying.

 

[treehumper]

Throwing the over a hillside wood serve better to spread it than burning!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_wilt

Specifically, read the sections under Disease cycle and Management,

"When an oak has died from oak wilt, trees should be debarked, split or chipped then burned or covered with plastic sheeting to effect composting. Heat from composting should destroy or severely enervate the fungus. Logs from trees infected with oak wilt should never be moved to unaffected areas, even for firewood."

 

[oldoakman]

Something got messed up in the translation. The issue is not with the pathogen directly, it is with the insect vector. When DED was rampant we would caution about firewood since the bark beetle that was the vector needed sound bark on dead (i.e. firewood) to reproduce. When the new brood would emerge, they would carry DED spores to healthy trees when they would feed. Same thing with Oak Wilt. the fungus is related to the DED fungus and it is vectored by bark beetles. Who was the Bartlett guy? I know a few in that area.

 

[just_a_tree_guy]

thanks for the replies . sorry oakman i dont know the guys name . but what you guys have said makes sense to me !!