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  • From: "loneroc" <loneroc@mwt.net>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Swiss Stone Pine Plague
  • Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 06:11:03 -0500

Howdy all,
 
Last year one of my 20-year-old, 15 foot tall Pinus cembra started to die in midsummer, a branch at a time.  The branches sort of dried up, starting in one area of the tree and 'spreading' to adjacent branches, keeping greyish-green needles shriveled on them until the needles browned a month or two later. The branches seemed to start dying on the south side of the tree.  I cut branches off the trunk as they died but went ahead and removed them all of them after there were only a few left on the lower north side of the trunk, leaving the bole standing as 'woodpecker fodder'.  Diversity is good you know--but I probably made a mistake in hindsight.  I figured the death was a fluke---but I was wrong.
 
Now the two adjacent trees have started the same process, though the initial branch death is confined to a few more randomly scattered branches.  I am not an expert in pine diseases, but I wonder if there is some sort of boring insect feeding away on my prize pines.  If I recall correctly Pinus cembra is not subject to White Pine Blister Rust--the symptoms are different and anyway one would suspect that my dozen White Pines would have succumbed first.  I noticed two 45-year-old Red Pines on my property looking pretty skanky the last few years with the loss of many smaller branches.  I figured at least one of them would succumb at some point but it's hanging on.  Since the branches are high up I haven't really noticed whether the branches whither before turning rusty but I wouldn't be surprised if the problem were the same.
 
The Swiss Stones are not stressed--they get water regularly here in my sand-trap.  If it were only a question of the pine nuts, it would be no loss, since the cones are always blanks.  But the trees are beautiful, and I need every bit of shelter I can get here in the desert (SW Wiscinsin, alkaline sand).  What's happening?  Am I too late to save them--especially if I don't know what's going on for sure?  I haven't yet stripped the rest of the bark off the dead bole to see whether I can spot the tell-tale tunnels of a borer--maybe there are patterns specific to a particular borer species?  I'm not sure what evidence will remain as the woodpeckers have actually stripped off quite a lot of the bark in the last year--maybe their rapid attraction to the dead tree means that there were bugs awaiting their immediate attention.?
 
If there are borers, I'd be willing to spray if it's not too late.  I have some Cygon left that I used to use on orchid scale before I started using Enstar, an insect hormone product.  I've got a 15-year-old bottle of Lindane in my garage that I assume that the previous owners used on their two Macs and two Cortlands (only one of the original trees is left after a -45F freeze).  The Cygon is a systemic--I don't know what the Lindane's mode of action is.  Maybe pesticides age like fine wine and the Lindane would now be purrrrrfect for any imaginable pest problem;-)?
 
I'd consider cutting them down to try and protect my last two symptomless Swiss Stones, but if there is a gigantic Red Pine resevoir here I'd be better off taking my chances on Mr. Darwin's solution to disease problems.
 
Help!
 
Steve Herje, SW Wisconsin USDA zone 3
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] rhubarb

Here is my favorite rhubarb website:
 
 
I love the stuff!
 
deb


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