Walnut blight, what can be done to save important trees?

[Just Me]

 Wasn't sure where to best post this.

I just restored a 130 year old Italinate farmhouse for a fellow in Jackson Mi. He dropped 200K on the restoration and about the time we were done I read about the walnut blight and passed the information on to him. The yard is almost all old walnut trees, and it is what makes the place look as it does. Huge old walnuts, three feet or so at the stump. Without them the place would be barren.

So..... He asked if I would look into it and what could be done to keep his trees alive. Any real information on this front would be appreciated. I have read alot about it but have not seen any solutions. I have another customer that is keeping his birch trees alive with these little things taped into the tree that look like old machinery oilers filled with something that makes the trees taste bad to the parasites. Anything like that?

Thanks, Larry

[Autocar]

I am not sure but I believe the walnut blight is south of the Ohio river , and I believe I wread on this forum theres a ban on walnut logs coming from the south into Ohio

[Just Me]

 Ya, I can see the ohio river stopping it........ :D

It will be here, and the time to come up with solutions is before it does, not after.

[JimTwoSticks]

There is a disease called "walnut blight" but I'm assuming you are talking about "thousand cankers disease".
To date I don't think anyone has shown a particular treatment to be effective against this disease. However, based on treatments for other diseases a trunk injection of insecticide/fungicide (both a beetle and a fungus are involved) as well as fertilizer applications may decrease damage to high value trees. Again, I'm not sure anyone has data on this yet though I would bet they are working on it.

As with most diseases and insects that have not spread from coast to coast one of the best ways to protect high value trees in your area is exclusion. In this case not moving walnut with attached bark

Good luck

[SwampDonkey]

Don't suggest this method to the walnut owner, but for years people drilled a 1/2" hole into the sapwood of elms here and poured in turpentine to ward off dutch elm disease. My grandfather did it for a few years in the 70's and early 80's in his yard tree. Kept a PVC water pipe in the hole so it wouldn't seal off. Then as time went bye the turpentine treatment idea faded with it. It remained a healthy tree in those years while other wild trees died off to the point that most trees were saplings and then by pole stage they'd die. His brother was also doing the treatments. It's funny after doing this for years and the trees doing well that it was decided to stop adding turpentine. About 1993 the tree at grandfather's showed the signs and it was removed. His brother's was removed around 2006, but it was still healthy looking to me. There was fear it would fall on the old house as by this time the old folks had been gone for awhile and the only time the cousins see the place is a couple weeks in the summer.

[Just Me]

 It would seem to me that being as walnuts are such a huge food staple that there would be considerable research into this by companys [Diamond]that sell them, and paid grants to universitys.

If anyone hears anything of worth post it if you would.

[beenthere]

I didn't know walnuts (English or CA) were such a huge food staple.  A good cash crop, yes.

I'm assuming that this walnut blight is not for the Black walnut.  Maybe not so.

   OK, found there is a Black walnut blight.
http://www.gardenguides.com/96651-black-walnut-blight.html

And west coast universities are getting funds to study it and recommend treatments.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, I've read from different forum threads that it was west of the Mississippi. The walnut meats we get up here are not black walnut in the stores. They have a slight bitterness to them. But the ones we buy in the US don't have that bitterness. I like pecans myself and they seem to be more expensive. $8 a pound or so.

[JimTwoSticks]

Donk, not sure any store carries exclusively black walnut meats - though you can find them for sale. The husk of J. nigra is pretty thick and doesn't lend itself to cracking like J. regia (english walnut) the "mass production" walnut.
It's necessary to be clear when talking about these two diseases. Walnut blight caused by Xanthomonas juglandis has been studied for many years whereas "thousand cankers" is relatively new and used to be confined west of the mississippi river and outside of the native range of black walnut. However, last year it was found in TN.
Researchers are still working out the finer details of this insect/disease complex and you can bet treatments are being looked at....mainly since it's a high value tree and the large tree care companies can make a buck

[tractorfarmer]

The best advice I have is to diversify. If the property has all walnut trees and there is a problem it will spread easily to the others and nothing will remain. Plant different types of trees so in the future if the walnut trees all die there will still be something left.

I think the new walnut tree problems were idenitifed in Bucks County, PA and caused by a parasite. I'm not sure. But they were very concerned because it did cause the infected trees to die. They have restrictions on moving any part of the trees.

[tractorfarmer]

http://www.agriculture.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_75292_10297_0_43/AgWebsite/ProgramDetail.aspx?name=Thousand-Cankers-Disease&navid=12&parentnavid=0&palid=137&;

[bowman316]

This blight sounds like AIDS for trees.  No cure, the best you can do is try and extend your life a few more years. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, and the butternut has a canker to.

[Okrafarmer]

Elm, ash, oak, walnut dying off-- soon we'll just be left with sweetgum.  :-\

[SwampDonkey]

All from the glorious pipe dreamers of a global economy. Which at the moment doesn't seem to be doing too good financially.

[bowman316]

Yea, those Gum trees seem to be popping up everywhere.  They make the most god awful firewood, trying to split one is like trying to split normal wood sideways. 

[5quarter]

There's another way to split firewood?   ;) ;D

[Okrafarmer]

Yea, those Gum trees seem to be popping up everywhere.  They make the most awful firewood, trying to split one is like trying to split normal wood sideways.

Didn't anybody tell you, you are supposed to put sweetgum on its side to split it!

[bowman316]

wait a minute, i just got what you guys were thinking.  by sideways i meant against the grain, like the same direction that you cross cut it.  not standing it up on the cut end, and splitting it that way. 

sweet gum splits as if you took an oak log, and had the cut ends perpendicular to the splitting head. 

[Okrafarmer]

The best way to make sweetgum into firewood is to cut it before it's big enough to need to be split. Whack them bad boys off when they're 4".  8)