Port Orford, Root Rot

[denise]

My first posting and I need help! We live in the Pacific Northwest,
Portland, OR. We have a Port Orford Cedar, nearly 60ft+ tall. Some areas
of it are dying, discoloring to the point of being orange in color. A younger
Port Orford, which appears to be an offspring of the mother-tree is completely dead. We love this tree, it is so beautiful and definately a climbing tree with wonderful and graceful limbs. The base of the trunk is quite large, almost 48" total. I have had three arborists come and look at it, with three different diagnosises and remedies.

-One arbortist identified the disease as "Phytophthora Root Rot" and said
it could live from 3-5 years more. Some fertilization may help it in the
short term. Very expensive estimate to eventually take it down. This arborist took a small slice off of a twig and noted the striations in color,
also looked at the roots.

-The second arborist said the tree would be completely dead by the end
of the summer. Did not do any testing of the tree. Nearly half the cost of the first estimate.

-The third arborist said that the tree does not have the Phytophthora Root Rot. He said the dead areas are due to winter damage, even though he did not walk around the entire tree to notice that the discoloration is in areas
which are not normally affected by winter damage. He said the tree needs
crown cleaning and feed/fungiside treatment. Did not notice the offspring
tree but when I pointed it out he said it was not the same kind of Port
Orford, rather its existence is a result of "bird droppings" but DOES have Phytophthora. The arborist said that the large tree was a "hybrid Port Orford".

My question is: is there such a thing as a hybrid Port Orford? Should I take
the gamble and pay for all of the treatments and the tree still dies? Should
I just let the tree take its own course, and in the meantime plant some others nearby to get a head start in covering up the large gap (and lack
of home privacy)? If this tree does have the dreaded incurable disease,
what are some trees I could plant that will not be killed by it?

Many thank-yous! Sorry for the long post.....

 

[rbtree]

Denise, sad to say, your trees are most likely goners. Port orfords are very susceptible to phytophthera, and that is 99.9% for sure what has affected them. We had little or no damagingly cold weather last winter, besides, I've not known these trees to be affected by weather. But scads of them have died and are continuing to do so, here in the PNW.

There are hundreds of hybrid chamaecyparis lawsonia, all get the disease though, AFAIK.

I was just at Scott Baker's office last night, for a meeting discussing the treatments that they are doing that help trees. One of them is known as AGRI-FOS, a systemic fungicide, that is used for Phytophthora and Pythium. Caveat is, that to be effective, it needs to be applied before there is much in the way of visible symptoms. I've also heard of a couple other fungicides called Subdue, and Banrot, but they are harsher, and may not work.

You can contact Scott at www.treesolutions.net, so you could discuss this with him, maybe send photos as well. He is Seattle based, however.

Other cypress not often susceptible are alaska yellow cedar, which I really like, and western red cedar. Al true firs are fine, I like the concolor fir, all cedrus are good....Dawn redwood is another favorite, for their fall color, and soft foliage, as all of is new growth, since they are deciduous. I also like the rare abies pinsapo, spanish fir, but they are slower growing.

 

[rbtree]

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/nr/fid/fidls/poc.htm

Here's a good link for ya...to learn more, google port orford cedar, and chamaecyparis lawsonia