[deepinthewoods]

our woodlands have been diagnosed with phytophtera in the larch plantation, has anyone any experience of this and possible outcomes? most has been felled but im unclear on the disposal requirements, id hate to see this resource wasted.
the major concern is for the rhodedendrom, cammellia and magnolia specimens of which we have many unique species, indeed one of the largest private collections in europe.

any info appreciated.

[little blue]

i don't know ... but imagine infected wood has to be burnt.
But whether this can be done "domestically" I don't know...

sorry, no help!

[robert waddell]

this is the same fungus that caused the potato famine in the eighteen hundreds larch beech oak and rhododendron are all affected
no idea on disposal but would imagine like the elm trees it would have to be burned

[C2]

Hi DeepintheWoods,

There's loads of information on the Forestry Commission website:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pramorum

as well as contacts there for people who could give advice.
The advice centres on not transporting phytopthera infected material, particularly needles and mud, which shoul be cleaned from your boots/ tyres/ anything before leaving the site. It gives a lot of advice for minimising the risk of spreading the infection when moving infected tree timber, so it looks as if this is not prohibited, but must be done carefully (outline in pytopthera controlled sites operating precautions paper).

Hope this is helpful.

C2

[DJ_Chook]

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pramorum

They also say "There is no evidence to suggest that P. ramorum's presence in a tree makes its timber unusable."

There is lots of bio-security advice with regards to movement, such as "taking the logs only to mills licensed to receive logs from infected forests;"

There's no reason why you should have to burn it on-site and lose the harvest. However it maybe cheaper to process where it is rather than moving it. Saw mills can sometimes pay less for infected or infested wood. I know that they certainly paid less for beetle infested sitka spruce a few years ago. How much of it is there, what size is it? To save the harvest you can peel & process it onsite and then send for tanalising. I've done this before with beetle infested young spruce, processed into stakes onsite, sawlogs into boards etc, then all sent for tanalising.

[deepinthewoods]

ah thanks, one issue ive had is that the market for larch is saturated, im thinking we'll hire a processor to plank it on site and store it, always fancied a log cabin!

[princesspiggy]

ohh id love a log cabin too...that would be great.

as we are talking trees, anyone know why sycamores (15 yrs old) tend to be "club rooted" ie base of trunk ties in rather than spreads out, and then they fall over without breaking?  just curious as we have a few like this.