old green ash tree sick?!

10 years ago

Have a 40+ yr. old green ash I got as a seedling. Great shade tree (does produce messy ?sterile seeds early in summer) that now has borers. Found holes on the trunk & bean using those ACE pellets to bore/pound in in the spring as the sap goes up. Then switched to a Bayer product that is poured around the base. So far minimal dead branches but now its 'time' is near! I have always thought the black droppings on the patio under some of the branches were bird droppings but now think it is something else... the borers? County Extention Office here says the borers don't do that..... something else! Am quite sure i is not birds! Wonder what? When the City begins to plant a lot of a one variety of shade tree all over, in time they most always get diseases: green ash, bradford pear, etc. Now it is the pistashe & burr oak that has become popular... do I plant one of these or will they also go the way of the other varieties in a few years? Yet the very old 'chinese' (really the siberian elms here) elms first planted a ?100 yrs. ago, flourish w/o any supplemental water or care & the #XX*!! seeds fall like 'snow' here in the Fall! Are outlawed to plant here now but the seeds fall all over & then grow wild... will never see the end of them I bet!!

The local Chinese Pistache leaves now are a brilliant red... locally most of our shade trees in Fall are just yellow!

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Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
10 years ago
is there a question here??

get rid of the bug infested tree ...

and plant a replacement ...

all plants have the potential to suffer a plague ... so who knows if pist and burr oak will suffer ... in the next 50 to 100 years ....

if you want suggestions.. we will probably need a little more info on where you are in NM .... i surely have no insight.. may as well be mars as far as i am concerned...

good luck

ken

ps: if you want an ID of scat/droppings.. you will probably need to post a pic.. as most things drop black blobs... and there are some experts in the pest forum, if we dont recognize it
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
10 years ago
Don't feel alone. Out east Emerald Ash Borer is coming through amd killing nearly every Ash tree. I am doing a home prevention thing but its not like they have enough faith to give it a warranty lol.

Like Ken I am not sure what to tell ya to replant with. It no doubt will vary with your elevation or maybe even what side of a mountain you are on there in New Mexico.

But yeah, I feel variety is better than just copying what the city is planting also.

Good luck and post some landscape pics!
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vieja_gw
Original Author
10 years ago
So far I'm told the emerald ash borer is not in New Mexico... we have another kind of borer!
We live right at 5200 ft. elevation on the west side of the Sandias, zone 7 high desert w/8 in.rainfall in a normal year.. At our age though, hubby & I just want a tree to give some shade in our life span left!! Would plan to spend some $$ to get a bigger size to replant where the ash tree is after it is cut down.
Have you tried treating your borer infested ash tree? We were told each kind of borer requires different treatment also. Our old ash has survived so far with our treatments but know it is a losing battle.Have a pecan tree with borers also but it is ' too far gone'... will be cut down this fall also. A ?... no, guess I just wanted to know if anyone had a better treatment!

Thanks!
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
10 years ago
EAB treatments are a new thing. I am pre treating and we will see. Hopefully your dry climate keeps it out of Nee Mexico. The cost of treatment of a large tree is prohibitive so I tried to pick just my one favorite and ended up with two lol.

EAB is a plague on the scale of Dutch Elm Disease, a new thing which might drive some species of fraxinus to near extinction if not for botanical gardens and intervention.

"Regular" beetles our ash trees have evolved some defense against. While they kill this tree or that like much like humans and the flu, regular beetles are more a tree or a local problem where EAB looks like a continent wide killer.