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Talkback: Ash tree dieback
I think it is so sad about these lovely trees and that the powers that be could have done something a long time ago. Had they done so, we would not be in this mess now. How long though are they going to keep the importation of Ash trees ban in place, not long enough is my guess.
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Seems daft to import them in the first place. Hundreds, maybe thousands get weeded out of my garden every year.
In the sticks near Peterborough
I'm absolutely devastated - the ash has been a huge part of my life - I spent my childhood in a place called Ashfield - we chose this house largely because of the mature ash trees in the garden - from the looks of things we're right in line for the disease to affect us soon
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Unfortunately, with an airborne fungus, it was always a matter of time. All that we can hope is that some trees are resistant.
We live about 10 miles from Wragby, Lincolnshire a place where the fungus has been found. It is an very wooded area, and on our way to Lincoln, a distance of about 2 miles, we estimated that 7 out of 10 trees are Ash.It will be catastophic if the virus spreads to our area, as it will to any part of the country, there would be very few native trees left.
I think the trouble now with diseases,plant or human,is there is to much mobility of people and also bringing into the country of so man imported goods from aboard .There can never be enough checks and once here, when is it spotted?,often when its too late.I know some are air born and that cant be stopped but with the movement of people and goods its becoming a big problem to eradicate and control the spread of the disease.
Some latest news
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ash-dieback-government-plans-crisis-talks-101356005.html
I am particularly concerned about one of our ash trees as there were two or three small branches with leaves that shrivelled and died earlier this year.
We had an arboriculturist do some work on both trees 12 months ago and he remarked that one of the trees was less healthy than the other, and had a bit of dieback, but he was referring to the 'ordnary' ash dieback which has been endemic in the UK for some time.
Now the leaves have fallen there is no way I can identify which branches were affected, and they're too high up for me to check for lesions, so there's nothing I can do until next year.
If only the government had taken this seriously earlier and publicised it I would have been able to have the suspect branches checked out this year, rather than next
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Mountain ash apparently are not affected-ants climbing a tree are a sign of aphid attack-that might be your problem.
I have been reading about this fungus sadly, it is in Kent too. I have found this uplifting article though:
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/yourtown/wallingford/10044752.The_elite_trees_that_could_save_the_ash/