Diseased trees

Hi Permies,

Has anyone had luck helping diseased trees heal themselves with permaculture?

I've just moved into a new house with two large trees in the backyard, quite close to the house, that are apparently diseased and should be removed. We don't have the cash to have it done this year, so my thought was to lay down woodchip mulch and start to build the soil (which I want to do anyway) and do any other low cost care that we can for these trees.

One tree is a sycamore, the other an ash, and they both have at least bacterial wetwood and probably a fungal infection, although different tree companies had different diagnoses.

The picture is of the ash. I'll take one of the sycamore tomorrow, and maybe some close ups of each.

Any words of wisdom for me?

Cory, welcome to permies.

so my thought was to lay down woodchip mulch and start to build the soil (which I want to do anyway) and do any other low cost care that we can for these trees.

This sounds that you are taking the right approach.

If they were my trees based on the picture of the ash, I would not take them down.

Work on building soil health and helping the tree.

These might help:

http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/the-plant-doctor-bacterial-wetwood-and-alcoholic-flux

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/bacterial-wetwood-2-910/

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads

https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil

That is a nasty looking scar on the bark of that ash, and it is really close to the property. It's not a question of if it will come down, but when. I'm not going to hazard any guesses on a tree that I can't inspect in person, but it sounds like you are on track getting professionals to assess it. Be aware though that not all who work with trees are qualified to assess for safety, and some are too ready to condemn trees as dangerous to drum up work. We have a trusted tree surgeon we work with who does delicate reductions for us on ancient trees that are in decline.

It isn't at all clear from your photos, but is that ash suffering from ash dieback disease? If so then it will need to come down at some point. We have over a dozen ash trees that are limping along with it. We have no hopes for them recovering, but are not in a hurry to take them down either. The tree surgeons around here have a lot of experience working with them, and hate climbing them. Dieback weakens the heartwood and they are prone to shattering when under load. It is safer and generally cheaper to take them down before they get to that stage.

One option is what might be termed a "managed decline", often used on noteworthy ancient trees in the landscape. They have the crown reduced - sometime gradually over a number of years, some times drastically depending on conditions - and the the main trunk is left with a much smaller crown to maintain. This can drastically prolong the life of these trees, and as the trunk declines provides excellent habitat. I'm not sure either ash or sycamore would be good candidates for this, as they don't look particularly note worthy to start with.

I dont know where your located but here on the edge of the smokies all the ash trees have died in just the past 1/2 dozen years or so and most have fallen and rotted.
so far from what I understand the bug that caused death is out of control, emerald borer maybe its called.

Thank you both for replying to my post. I don't believe ash dieback disease was mentioned, but the sycamore has the tips of branches dying back.

Here are some photos of the sycamore which I believe is in the worse condition of the two. One company said anthranosis, another said no, not anthranosis but vesicular fungal infection, which I can't even find reference to online.

I know it's hard to diagnose with a picture, but does anyone have any insight? It's hard to know who to believe of the professionals providing estimates when they all seem to disagree and all are quoting at least 3k per tree per to remove.

I need to decide between two scenarios.

1.) Have the trees removed now and defer other projects to pay for it.

2.) Wait a year and in the mean time add mulch, build soil, and hope that winter snows don't bring down any branches onto our house.

Thanks so much!