Sick American Elm

[northernlad]

Hi,
I am hoping you all can help diagnose some problems I have with my Elm tree.
I live in Northwest Washington. I inherited this tree when I bought my house. Last winter was unbelievably windy, cold and snowy for these parts. Despite my fears, my tree made it through unscathed. The winds have started up again this year and I am afraid again that I will wake up with a giant limb in my bed.
I had an arborist out this last March and his only concern was the size of the canopy and the fact that it has been improperly topped in the past.
I have included some pictures of the tree and spots that concern me.
Any ideas?

Thanks.


This is a picture for size perspective:

Old Topped Areas:

Halfway down the street:

Last Winter Canopy. Note how it towers over the corner of my house on the left:

Moldy Leaves:

Mossy Green Streaks:

Rusty Rotten Spot (there are about 4 all around the tree) drips onto my lawn and kills it:

Dead Grass under Rusty Rotten Spot:

 

[tree md]

Dutch Elm Disease

Use the search feature and search for Dutch Elm Disease or DED. You should find lots of answers there. American Elms are dieing in droves. In the past two weeks (without looking at my book) I would guess I have trimmed 10 to 12 Elms and removed 4.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Hey tree doc, do you treat them to prevent DED?

 

[tree md]

Mike, The only prevention I have heard of is prompt removal of diseased trees and burn or chip the trees to kill the beetles that spread the fungus. I have been reading about treating them with tracing as long as the fungus has not reached the root flare but I have to admit, I'm not a certified arborist, just a tree man that hates to see the old elms dieing off. I told three of my customers that insisted that I try and save their Elms that I would read up on what course we can take for a treatment program. As I understand it, you need to use a sterilized blade when trimming Elms. What is the best way to sterilize my handsaw blade?

Man, I can barely post tonight... busy server...

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Northernlad, I had a nice reply that got erased do to this slow assed server, so here's a recap:
Not an American Elm, Siberian Elm, no DED.
Slime flux dripping acid, no problem.
Winter picture, Awesome.
Big tree, little lot. Fast growing tree, weak wooded.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Mike, The only prevention I have heard of is prompt removal of diseased trees and burn or chip the trees to kill the beetles that spread the fungus. I have been reading about treating them with tracing as long as the fungus has not reached the root flare but I have to admit, I'm not a certified arborist, just a tree man that hates to see the old elms dieing off. I told three of my customers that insisted that I try and save their Elms that I would read up on what course we can take for a treatment program. As I understand it, you need to use a sterilized blade when trimming Elms. What is the best way to sterilize my handsaw blade?

Man, I can barely post tonight... busy server...

Click on Rainbow tree care above, follow links to DED. Injection gives 3 years protection.

Rubbing alcohol works great, and won't wreck ropes like bleach. Small jar with paint brush works for me.

 

[treeseer]

Crown clean pruning and thin/reduce ends that sprawl over targets.

Quite an asset. I don't see any big problems from here.

 

[tree md]

Thanks Mike, rubbing alcohol is what I have been using. I have read a little on the Rainbow site. How effective is the Arbotect in your experience? The National Forrest service says that sometimes different fungicides and different injection methods work better for different situations as I read it.

Also, as I understand it, The fungus can only grow in the trees current years water water conducting tissue. Does this buy the Elms (and me) some time through the winter?

 

[northernlad]

Thanks for the info.
I know it does not have DED. It shows no symptoms of that, but all the other little things had me worried.
What should I do about the Slime flux/Wetwood problem. I have seen info about disinfecting it with a bleach solution.

There are some dead branches, etc, should I just trim those away and leave the good stuff? I was thinking about cleaning up the underside of the canopy. By that I mean removing branches that hang low and put extra downward stress on the tree.

Do I really have little to worry about overall?

 

[treeseer]

What should I do about the Slime flux/Wetwood problem. I have seen info about disinfecting it with a bleach solution.

Crown cleaning removes the dead tissue around the bacterial infection, and should lessen the dripping. The weeping spot could be cleaned further with a brush and water spray from a hose. I've recommended using bleach or hydrogen peroxide on wood exposed by frothy flux, a different kind of infection. This only goes on the wood not the bark as it is phytotoxic. In your case i do not think it will be needed.

There are some dead branches, etc, should I just trim those away and leave the good stuff?

Yes. the lower stuff can be trimmed if you want but that would uglify the tree imo for little benefit. It is the higher growth on the sprawling ends that should be thinned or reduced, the amount depending on the attachments and the degree of decay at those old topping wounds.

Nothing to worry about? You have an old tree with issues that need to be examined by a competent climbing arborist. It would also be good to see pictures of the base of the tree.

 

[northernlad]

What pictures of the base would you like?

 

[treeseer]

What pictures of the base would you like?

like the first pic with the dog but the other side.

 

[northernlad]

Will try and get that in the nex t day or two.
Thanks

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Thanks Mike, rubbing alcohol is what I have been using. I have read a little on the Rainbow site. How effective is the Arbotect in your experience? The National Forrest service says that sometimes different fungicides and different injection methods work better for different situations as I read it.

Also, as I understand it, The fungus can only grow in the trees current years water water conducting tissue. Does this buy the Elms (and me) some time through the winter?

Once you see a flag, you have to get up there that day. The fungus moves fast, I don't remember the rate, but it's something like inches per day. Waiting a week or two could put the fungus all the way to the ground.

The injections are very effective, somewhere in the high 90%. Rainbow's macroinjection protocol is best. You want high dilution, high volume, high distribution, injection into the low part of the trunk flare, and that's what you get with Rainbow's method.
Injections won't stop DED from moving into the tree through root grafts. If you have a DED tree next to a healthy one, the DED has likely already moved into the healthy tree. Injections won't help.
If you are going to inject a tree, you need to make sure there aren't any other Elms within root grafting range (even little ones). If so, inject them too, remove them, or cut 6' deep trenches between them, like with Oak Wilt protocols.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Treeseer, do you agree it's a Siberian Elm?

 

[northernlad]

While I am far from a tree expert, all of the pictures and descriptions of a Siberian Elm are not my tree.

Here's the other side:

 

[tree md]

Mike, I talked to 1 of my customers yesterday about treating her Elm with the Arbotect. Going to try and contact my other 3 customers today and talk to them about getting on these trees this week. Thanks for the advise.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

While I am far from a tree expert, all of the pictures and descriptions of a Siberian Elm are not my tree.

Before proceeding with any work, or offering any advice, we need to identify the tree.

 

[Themadd1]

What are your thoughts on only pruning elms in the winter when everything is dormant? That has been my reasoning unless there are some severe signs of the disease, and at that point it is an uphill battle. We do the fungicide treatments and I have found them somewhat effective. Usually only keeps the trees health for a little longer. To bad there is no cure, these trees look great until they start dropping limbs.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

What are your thoughts on only pruning elms in the winter when everything is dormant? That has been my reasoning unless there are some severe signs of the disease, and at that point it is an uphill battle. We do the fungicide treatments and I have found them somewhat effective. Usually only keeps the trees health for a little longer. To bad there is no cure, these trees look great until they start dropping limbs.

What are you using and what is the application method?

Treating trees once they are symptomatic is a lost cause, unless combined with successful tracing.

Pruning dormant is best so as not to attract beatles.