oak wilt "sick tree treatment"

M

mquinn

oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

Have you seen this? What do you think about it?

"Keep trees in a stress free condition so their immune systems can resist insect pests and diseases. For example, it has been noticed by many farmers and ranchers that oak wilt doesn’t bother some trees, especially those that have properly exposed root flares, and those where the natural habitat under trees has been maintained. The Sick Tree Treatment is not just good for oak wilt, but for any other tree problem as well. Here is the updated version and how it works:"
http://www.dirtdoctor.com/organic/garden/view_question/id/2205/

I'm particularly wondering about the root flare/natural habitat claim.
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

I think everything that he says has merit, except for "immune system" I think this is too much of an analogy. There are stress reactions in a tree, and the healthier they are the better they can tolerate/resist infections. There are some papers on natural resistance to OW in Q.virginian and Q.fusiformis

http://www.google.com/search?q=oak+wilt+...lient=firefox-a

This is the problem with anecdotal evidence in a sales pitch, they do not provide any other hypothesis for the results observed.

The other parts of his treatment have sound backing in research: I've been preaching against high N for years, there are many studies out there on that, improving bulk density and organic component is always good. Teas applied to the soil have shown to garner good results in improved micro-bio; though foliar applications have shown poor replicability. Smiley and others have shown the benefit to basal excavation of buried trees, the Bartlett study i read was on pines.

I don't think this is a good prophylactic treatment for OW in a high risk area, especially reds (there is an other problem with the dirt doctor, he speaks to genus when the problem is with species). I've hear that Ceratocys f. has a saprophytic life cycle in other trees, so it will always be endemic to an area.
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

I disagree with his claim about oaks with properly exposed root flairs and in natural habitats being more resistant to OW. I think that susceptible would be a more appropriate word than resistant. I worked for two summers for the county on their OW suppression program. I saw plenty of infection sites in undisturbed natural/forested areas. Granted, most infection sites I looked at were in disturbed/maintained landscapes, but I saw plenty in forested areas.

From my knowledge new infection sites are created when there is some sort of damage to a tree or an open wound is created, and the fungus is transferd by insect to the open wound. Trees in natural/forested areas have more protection from high winds because of all of the other surrounding trees, so there is going to be alot fewer broken limbs and tree failures in those settings, which would lead to fewer infection sites.

In maintained landscapes trees are more exposed to damaging winds and exposed to higher frequency of human damage. I dont think that this causes these trees to be more or less resistant, just more susceptible to OW.
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

yeah, it just seemed to me to be a strange thing to make a point about flares and natural habitat, because those things seem like tree health factors in general, and a healthy tree would naturally be more "resistant" or "susceptible", depending on which end of the argument you come in, and wondered if anybody else had heard such pronouncements. i'm not involved with trees much any more, other than to enjoy them. i have been trying to cut the dead out of 2 sorely neglected 25' crape myrtles with a pole saw and a ladder - and even if it weren't a thousand and ten degrees down here with a relative humidity of six hundred and one, an old lady whose daily exercise amounts to packing desktop computers around really shouldn't be doing that.

@guy: i was looking up the product that my fellow texan had suggested for the oaks after hurricane ike, which is how i ended up back here (and no, i don't know how to get a-holt of him any more - haven't for years - other than he shows up on these forums once in a while - or at least he used to.) then, looking up info on that product trying to figure out what to do for these sad crape myrtles is how i ran across that oak wilt article. it turns out that the one nursery we have on the island carries the stuff: medina soil conditioner. so i applied it. hope it helps. it's gonna take me a loooooong time to get the dead out at the rate i'm managing. and even then, i won't be able to get it out of the very tops. i might try to enlist help from my 6'3" son when he comes down next. how's nc? hot?
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

[ QUOTE ]
, an old lady whose daily exercise amounts to packing desktop computers around really shouldn't be doing that.



[/ QUOTE ]

Meesh'el is an old lady? Does that make me an old man now??? I don't wanna grow up!
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

[ QUOTE ]
michele can you get a holt of your fellow texan?

if anyone knows...

[/ QUOTE ]

Not a fellow Texan anymore...a move to OK made him harder to get 'holt' of. I visited with him the weekend before the last load was packed.
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

@jp: if i remember correctly - and heaven knows i don't often - i have about 10 years on you.
@tom: are you still in texas?
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

I have dealt with oak wilt since it was definitively identified as such in central TX (over 25 years). There are many, many, MANY variables here. To date, NO, repeat, NO "natural" or "organic" treatment has been shown to do SQUAT. There was someone that was promoting an "organic" oak wilt "cure" here some years back. He then switched to calling it a "treatment", and then an "alternative" to fungicides, and then a "supplement" to them. He is no longer in business. His treatment was never shown to do produce results (there's that double blind scientific study angle again, darn it!)

Yes, there have always been trees that have not succumbed to OW. We have called them "escape trees" for lack of a better term. They have been studied to find out why they survive when all of their surrounding companions die, and the reason could not be found. Here in centex the primary victims are live oaks, and they root graft over great distances, something that sets them apart from other areas where OW occurs. Their physiology is quite diff from other oaks also.

So, all we know for sure is that some fungicides, such as Alamo, a type of propaconizol, do work, for trees that are less that 30% defoliated. As much as I believe in and advocate organic solutions, they do not touch OW, just as they do not touch DED, a related disease. These organic or natural treatments are certainly beneficial to soil health, but paradoxically, it seems that the most vigorous, healthy looking live oaks seem to die the fastest from OW. I personally never advocate that my customers spend money on organic soil amendments for a tree that is known to have OW. Nor do I advocate such an amendment as a way to prevent it, because it does not.

Hope this helps.
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

@mossball: sorry, i kind of confused two separate issues here. the soil amendment was not for oak wilt infections; rather for hurricane flooded oaks. but thanks for the input. and on another point you bring up - i've heard that the healthier elms died faster, too. the explanation was that a tree with healthy, active vessels could transport the infection further faster.
 
Re: oak wilt \"sick tree treatment\"

Hi Michelle,

I don't think that is the case with elms. From what I saw for years in MN weather/water stress played a big part in how fast DED moved in trees. Could make a small difference but...once an elm is infected it is rare to be able to save it doing injections and therapeutic pruning.
 
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