Horse Chestnut tree blight. ( Conker Trees Dying
)
Yesterday whilst talking to Judy ( The Green Party Lady ) and another allotmenteer ( name I forgot, lovely lady with blond hair and a bike) who spoke of the conker's falling early in Redlees Park. All 3 of us remarked at the odd colour of the Horse chestnuts that we could see near the A316 close to the weeping willows.
Apparently our Horse Chestnut trees are being ravaged by drought, pest attack and disease according to The Independent newspaper today.
A spokesman for the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew said "I think you could compare this to Dutch elm disease," said the head of the arboretum at the Royal Botanic Gardens. "The last thing we would want is another epidemic that wiped out a common British tree species."
The tree is being affected in three ways.
The three previous winters’ have been extremely dry, thereby weakening the trees natural defences.
Bleeding Canker of Horse Chestnut. Over the last few years reports of this in Horse Chestnuts has increased markedly. Younger trees are easily infected due to their relatively thin trunks.
Attack by a pest, the leaf miner moth, whose larvae eats the leaves. The outbreak of this has increased dramatically in the last 3 years. It has started spreading outwards from the south east of the country.
According to the Forestry Commission, the trees which are already infected, with large open cankers, about half will die. There are as many as half a million Horse Chestnut trees in this country.
This will cause branches to drop off as this occurs, causing some concern, as many of these trees overhang roads, parks and other public places that may need to be closed until suitably qualified Tree Surgeons can safely remove the danger.
Although the highest number of dead trees have been reported in the South of England, already about 10% of trees appear to be infected.
All local schoolboys may have to dig out their old playstations or xboxes as alternative entertainment for this and the coming autumns.
Any further sightings of dead conkers can be reported here.
Yesterday whilst talking to Judy ( The Green Party Lady ) and another allotmenteer ( name I forgot, lovely lady with blond hair and a bike) who spoke of the conker's falling early in Redlees Park. All 3 of us remarked at the odd colour of the Horse chestnuts that we could see near the A316 close to the weeping willows.
Apparently our Horse Chestnut trees are being ravaged by drought, pest attack and disease according to The Independent newspaper today.
A spokesman for the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew said "I think you could compare this to Dutch elm disease," said the head of the arboretum at the Royal Botanic Gardens. "The last thing we would want is another epidemic that wiped out a common British tree species."
The tree is being affected in three ways.
The three previous winters’ have been extremely dry, thereby weakening the trees natural defences.
Bleeding Canker of Horse Chestnut. Over the last few years reports of this in Horse Chestnuts has increased markedly. Younger trees are easily infected due to their relatively thin trunks.
Attack by a pest, the leaf miner moth, whose larvae eats the leaves. The outbreak of this has increased dramatically in the last 3 years. It has started spreading outwards from the south east of the country.
According to the Forestry Commission, the trees which are already infected, with large open cankers, about half will die. There are as many as half a million Horse Chestnut trees in this country.
This will cause branches to drop off as this occurs, causing some concern, as many of these trees overhang roads, parks and other public places that may need to be closed until suitably qualified Tree Surgeons can safely remove the danger.
Although the highest number of dead trees have been reported in the South of England, already about 10% of trees appear to be infected.
All local schoolboys may have to dig out their old playstations or xboxes as alternative entertainment for this and the coming autumns.
Any further sightings of dead conkers can be reported here.