My friend has some mistletoe in some cottonwood trees. she is sure that the trees are sick because they have a fungus (mistletoe) in them so probably needs to come down.
I am looking for ideas on mistletoe removal (cut it back) or mitigation - I know it is hard to remove completely.
Also, should we even worry about it being there?
The trick is they are maybe 80 to 100 ft tall ?? On the bright side, I would get some cottonwood to run through the saw!
Neighbor spied some in one of my Maples and asked me if she could have some one time, I removed it with a shotgun. She was happy with the results. Just a suggestion. :D
Quote from: Erik A on December 30, 2020, 10:09:06 PMAlso, should we even worry about it being there?
If you are a Christmas tree grower you will be affected by it in fir. Remove the infected limb as soon as it is spotted and destroy. Otherwise, it just hits fir limbs, the infected part of the limb lives for up to 11 years, dies and that is it. The actual mistletoe pathogen, has in most cases, spread it's progeny long ago and died by the time you find the symptoms. I find it all the time in my wild fir, the trees are fine. I found two giant ones this fall when cutting fir firewood trees. These were old 20" trees, that's about the limit of fir size up here.
The 11 years was an average age I and class mates found when doing a small study a few years ago for our pathology class in University.
Quote from: Southside on December 30, 2020, 11:03:01 PM
Neighbor spied some in one of my Maples and asked me if she could have some one time, I removed it with a shotgun. She was happy with the results. Just a suggestion. :D
Went out on the farm as a kid to get some and used a 22 rifle. Was good practice too! But may be a bit slow for production. ;D
Yea - but not a fan of shooting a .22 up into the air.
Understand. This was in the 60's early 70's maybe and rural forested area in Va. Honestly, with having hunted a lot of squirrel there I don't think I thought about it.
I am sure I never missed? ;D
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant spread by birds eating the fruit and depositing the seeds on susceptible branches or seed showering down from an infected tree to one underneath. Mistletoe can be harmful and cause damage and death over time but trees can also live with it for decades with no apparent harm. The best method of removal is cut off the entire infected branch, if the trunk is infected there may be no getting rid of it as I've seen it resprout from growing points hidden in bark cracks. I've never seen it in cottonwood but that's not to say it can't happen. Some mistletoes are species specific, others more generalists. Even in heavily infected stands some trees just don't seem to support it.
Finally got the pic moved from the phone to computer!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/63484/IMG_1729a.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1611976883)
Well that's something I've never seen - mistletoe on cottonwood. By the looks of it you would be best to leave it as is or cut the trees down. Cottonwood is not a long lived tree. If left, seed fall from the mistletoe will likely infect young trees growing nearby.