Ash tree

You might be fighting an up hill battle Mr. Moe.
There is an epidemic of ash beetles. I think they are emerald ash borers. They are going around here in GA and the Carolinas and heading up new England way if they aren't already there. I don't think there is anything to be done about it. Similar to pine borers that wiped out my neighboring woods in the NC mountains about 15 years ago. I went to he the local forestry office for some maps and thought to ask about it. I was told by a ranger the best thing to do was just cut the tree down to stop the spread. He asked what part of the county I was in and I told him. He said something to effect that "yeah, you all have it bad there".
E.

He looked the tree over and there isn't any problems with the health of the tree, just that it is too long causing it to be top heavy and have a tendency to break with snow and high winds.

So he "cleaned" it up and was really, really proud of it.

My neighbor couldn't stop laughing when he saw it, he said, "you can't give me grief about my yard anymore".

Seems early in the year for major trimming.

This is what I would have expected if I hired a tree trimmer to cut a tree back.

BigE has a point. Ohio has lost almost all Ash trees and there are online maps showing the extent of infestation. I've got at least a half dozen behind the house that need to be taken down before winter. Understand there are ways to treat the ground and tree roots now that MAY help protect the tree.

I'd hate to see that happen to Ash trees. The American chestnut was wiped out decades ago. I think there are a couple hundred left in the world. A friend of mine in NC had a huge stock pile of chestnut fence rails and they were like gold. His Daddy's old farm house was sold off and he got me to haul off all the fence rails. It took about a half-dozen trips in my big truck for that operation.

What a fun day. It rained on us all day and the ground got bad nasty slippery and my truck slid down into a small creek. Curtis jumped out but I stuck with it. We finally got someone to pull me out. Both trucks were in 4wd but it didn't help all that much. After about an hour we finally got us both out. They got stuck as well. We were all covered up in mud and muck. Leave it to a bunch of us beer-drinkin mountain country-a$$ boys to make a good time out of bad one.:-D

He didn't go that far, so hopefully it will be nice by next spring.

I would bet it will come back fine.

We have had some Locust and Walnut trees cut back like in the photo I showed and they look great 3 or 4 years later.

The alternative to large limbs breaking off is that the whole tree will up-root.

Better to have it thinned out than have damage to a fence/house/car, ect.

I would check the link to the map Dallas has posted.

In the past three years we have removed three 20"+ white ash trees from our subdivision lot. We really miss them. If the borer is in your area you will be cutting down the tree in a year or two.

I have a six inch white ash left which I have kept alive for three years with some pretty expensive Bayer chemicals, but I will keep it up as long as it works.

There was an article in the WSJ last week about the local Red Bellied Woodpeckers and the Nuthatches finally discovering a new menu item and gearing up to dine on the ash borer. Better late than never.

Not to be pessimistic, but I would not spend a penny on trimming an ash tree. As BigE has said, there is no saving them. Around here you can look into the woods and spot all the ash trees by the poor looking bark on them before you even look up at the leaves. They have been running advertising for years to tell people to not move fire wood. Even had inspections at the Mackinaw Bridge, but it is getting bad fast. 🙁

We have the emerald ash borers here in northern Kentucky and you can clearly see the path of devastation. The price of ash wood products has not gone down yet but I expect that there is a lot of logs available cheaply. I hope to get some big trees down before they start to rot and have a mill come in and saw up enough for a barn. No sense letting it all go to waste.

My aunt has an old American Chestnut that survived the wipeout on her farm in NC. I'll try to get a picture when I am there next time.

>At least I'll have a lot less leaves to pick up in a few months. He says that next year it will fill in a bunch. I donno.....

We mow our leaves when they hit the ground, cut to the outside, for mulch. I'm NEVER raking a yard again, and I do mean EVER.

My parents weren't sold on it and wouldn't let me try, until I did it one day after school with the mulching mower in about 9th grade. Never had to rake again. 🙂

That works ok in my yard if I catch it in time. If not I bag when I mow, then when it gets too much it's the rake and leaf bags. Last year it was 35 bags full. This year is for sure going to be at least half that now that I've cut down three trees and almost all the leaves on the biggest tree were hauled away yesterday.

The apple tree is a mess this year; every week its the rake and a big heavy bag of apples to the waste bins.

I have a love hate relationship with that tree. The worst thing about it is it won't drop its leaves until about Christmas, usually after a big snow and they all fall the same day on top of 5" or snow and they stay there until spring.

> That works ok in my yard if I catch it in time. If not I bag when I mow, then when it gets too much it's the rake and leaf bags. Last year it was 35 bags full. This year is for sure going to be at least half that now that I've cut down three trees and almost all the leaves on the biggest tree were hauled away yesterday.
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> The apple tree is a mess this year; every week its the rake and a big heavy bag of apples to the waste bins.
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> I have a love hate relationship with that tree. The worst thing about it is it won't drop its leaves until about Christmas, usually after a big snow and they all fall the same day on top of 5" or snow and they stay there until spring.

You're looking at this all wrong. Just get a bigger mower, like a bush-hog and then mow. The apples won't be a problem. 🙂

Over thirty years ago my father found an American Chestnut and managed to start several from nuts. Kept them in pots for several years then planted them outside. He is gone now and the property was sold. I checked recent aerial maps and the grove of six trees still appears to be there. Have been told that American Chestnuts are beginning to come back in some areas.

Another tree that was nearly wiped out was the American Elm. The USDA has been researching these at a facility near my home tracking and developing trees resistant to "Dutch Elm Disease." I have at least two American Elms (maybe more in a small wood lot) on my property. Contacted the research project and verified what they are. Was told not to get my hopes up and contact them again when the trees are at least 20 years old. Approaching that point now and still appear to be in good shape. May be time to contact the researchers again.

> Over thirty years ago my father found an American Chestnut and managed to start several from nuts. Kept them in pots for several years then planted them outside. He is gone now and the property was sold. I checked recent aerial maps and the grove of six trees still appears to be there. Have been told that American Chestnuts are beginning to come back in some areas.
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> Another tree that was nearly wiped out was the American Elm. The USDA has been researching these at a facility near my home tracking and developing trees resistant to "Dutch Elm Disease." I have at least two American Elms (maybe more in a small wood lot) on my property. Contacted the research project and verified what they are. Was told not to get my hopes up and contact them again when the trees are at least 20 years old. Approaching that point now and still appear to be in good shape. May be time to contact the researchers again.

I have hundred's of American Elms on our properties. They constantly sprout, grow vigorously until they are about 5-6 inch diameter and then they die and get cut up into firewood.

He needs some of these wild hogs that are ruining our pastures. Maybe we can send him a few dozen-

Elm tree

> I have hundred's of American Elms on our properties. They constantly sprout, grow vigorously until they are about 5-6 inch diameter and then they die and get cut up into firewood.

Sorry to hear that. Both of my elms are over 30 feet tall and show none of the symptoms mentioned in the link I posted.

Find someone with a few hogs, they may come and pick up your apples for free.

I have a friend that uses fallen fruit and old vegetables from the grocery store and restaurants to feed his hogs through the fall. He only has to buy a couple sacks of grain before butcher time.

We have bears around here that convert that stuff to a sort of apple sauce.