I am serving on a Ph.D. committee for a student working in Entomology and Plant Pathology who is defending his dissertation tomorrow morning. I’m taking a break from trying to plow through the longest dissertation in history: A 465 page tome on the use of trunk injection in tree fruit crops. A lot to wade through but a fascinating topic. Trunk injection, of course, is not a new topic. Some of the earliest references to injecting compounds into trees date back to Leonardo daVinci, who also suggested the ‘pipe model’ theory of tree architecture; the notion that total cross-sectional area of a tree is constant as you move up to higher and higher levels of branching.… Continue reading this article “The ins and outs of trunk injection”
Category: What About the Trees
Brace yourself
The photo below (graciously sent to me by former MSU Extension Educator Jennie Stanger) graphically illustrates the importance of removing ALL staking and supporting materials from trees once they are established.
Just a matter of time (Photo: Jennie Stanger)
In this case the stakes were removed but the strapping material was left around the tree. Since this is a spruce, Jennie supposes no one wanted the prickly job of wading into the center of the tree to take off the strap. … Continue reading this article “Brace yourself”
The heartbreak of ‘Carrot-top’ syndrome
The perk of participating in a blog is you get a platform to vent on your pet peeves. Recently I’ve seen several classic examples of ‘Carrot-top’ syndrome. No, I’m not talking about the red-headed comic; though he tends to annoy me too.
Annoying Carrot-top #1.
The ‘Carrot-top’ I’m referring to occurs when white pine trees are sheared as Christmas trees but then planted as landscape trees. The typical result is that the side and lower branches remain suppressed while the terminals go crazy. … Continue reading this article “The heartbreak of ‘Carrot-top’ syndrome”
Going off half-cocked
The good news about being a landscape extension specialist is you get to comment on a variety of landscape tree problems. The bad news? You get to comment on a variety of landscape tree problems. In an average week I probably get 10-15 tree-related calls or e-mails from homeowners, landscapers, growers, extension educators, lawyers, newspapers, and on and on. Sometimes the problem is routine and obvious like tar spot on maples; “I have these spots that look like tar on my maple leaves…” Sometimes the problem looks routine and turns into something else entirely different like the Imprelis herbicide debacle. … Continue reading this article “Going off half-cocked”
You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps
Recently I spent a week in Oregon working on a Christmas tree genetics project along with my colleagues Chal Landgren( Oregon State University), Gary Chastagner ( Washington State University), and John Frampton (North Carolina State University). The objective of the project is to identify superior seed sources of Turkish fir and Trojan fir for use as Christmas trees around the United States. We refer to the project as the Cooperative Fir Genetic Evaluation or CoFirGE – remember, the most critical step in any experiment is coming up with a catchy acronym. … Continue reading this article “You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps”
What’s a view without trees?
A while back I wrote about a Seattle-area neighbor dispute over a tree partially blocking their view. Sadly, the tree lost out in this case, which was decided a few weeks ago.
Now a second tree vs. view dispute was reported this week. You’ll have to read the story to see how many things are inaccurate/indefensible/infuriating about the “trimming” of this 90 foot western red cedar (a native species). My personal favorite: “the tree violated neighborhood bylaws ensuring no house’s view would be blocked.”… Continue reading this article “What’s a view without trees?”
Selection and Protection: Preventing the heartbreak of splayage
We’ve had considerable discussion over on the FaceBook site concerning snow damage to columnar arborvitae. This is a common phenomenon resulting in a condition Holly has dubbed ‘splayage’.
The question, of course, is what to do about it? My standard response to addressing most problems related to winter injury is there are two options: selection and protection.
Selection means putting the right plant in the right place. For columnar arbs this means not planting them in areas prone to wet heavy snow. … Continue reading this article “Selection and Protection: Preventing the heartbreak of splayage”
Happy New Year
As trite as it sounds, I try to slow down and enjoy the simple things around the holidays. We are starting to get some more seasonal weather, which means cold temperatures and occasional snow flurries. Once we get our first real snow cover I pull out my birdfeeder from beneath the shop-bench in the garage, fill it up and set it in a beech tree outside our kitchen window. No one in our family is a birder but it’s interesting to see how nearly everyone takes time to linger over their morning coffee or tea to watch the steady parade of chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, and jays at the feeder. … Continue reading this article “Happy New Year”
What would YOU do?
Once in a while we end up flicking around the dial on Friday evenings and land on a show called “What would you do?” It’s a hidden camera-type set up where viewers get to see the reaction of everyday folks faced with awkward or contentious situations like an overbearing customer berating a waitress over a minor mistake in their bill. The scenarios are played out by actors but the people responding are not. Personally I find the premise of the show slightly annoying because it smacks of entrapment but it seems to lure in the rest of my family.… Continue reading this article “What would YOU do?”
Finding agreeable things not sought for
As a graduate student at the University of Georgia many years ago I took a course in research methods. One of the discussions that stuck in my mind all these years centered on the word ‘Serendipity’. The classic definition of the word is “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.” As scientists we rely heavily on the scientific method as a systematic method of inquiry to make new discoveries. But we also need to need to keep our eyes and minds open to serendipitous discoveries along the way as well. … Continue reading this article “Finding agreeable things not sought for”