[Glencairn]

I any fellow woodland owners have found themselves with gaps in their woodland due to ash dieback there are subsidised trees available from the woodland trust available:

https://shop.woodlandtrust.org.uk/targeting-tree-disease-pack

[Fleecewife]

This winter we intend to try coppicing or pollarding any diseased ash in the hedges.  At the moment they are just in the fairly early stages of dieback with not all affected but some quite bad but not dead.  I am hoping that the coppiced ash will grow back enough to be hedge plants although I doubt they will ever grow back into tall trees.  I haven't been able to find any information to see if anyone else has tried it.  It will be my experiment to see if it could be an alternative to felling or just leaving the dead tree standing for wildlife.
When we planted our hedges we made sure there were alternative potential tall trees at intervals so if all the ash die back then there will be something else such as an oak, beech or pine be allowed to grow to fill the gap.

[Penninehillbilly]

We had an area of woodland planted in 2010, I think all the ash has now died. Ive been going to ask if there is any help with replanting, but just has a grant allowed for a lot if hedging, so no time for Ash for a couple of years.
I have a larger tree near the sheds, in 2020 it was looking miserable, we cut it back into healthy wood, so far this year it's looking good, but long term, considering how many have died round here, I'm not hopeful  .
I can't help wondering if the bought in trees brought it to the area, by a local planting group who had lots of land offered for planting up, as well as ours.

[Fleecewife]

Ash dieback came into Britain on imported trees.  I was on the receiving end of a nasty attack from them when I mentioned the name of one of the companies involved on these pages, which is why I never buy trees from them and don't recommend their services (they must have searched social media to find anyone telling their story, then pursued me).


When I bought trees for a new area we were planting up last autumn and enquired about ash, I was told there was none available anywhere and wouldn't be for a long time to come.  There is research being done on resistant varieties; I thought some of ours might be resistant, but I think they are just slower to succumb - of course that could be a sign of resistance.  But the lack of new or resistant stock is why I'm trying the coppicing idea to see if that will keep the trees going. With coppicing, except for the stool, there will always be young wood and no old to harbour disease.  We'll see 

[Glencairn]

One year on the woodland trust have their subsidised trees available again.

I've continued felling my ash trees infected with dieback.

What surprised me was the speed of which this disease has rendered some of the timber useless even for firewood.

I need to speak to a local woodworker to have some of the good timber turned on a lathe.

Ever the optimist I have been planting new seedlings brought on at home, even if only 20% survive.

[Steph Hen]

Some of our trees have succumbed, some aren’t showing much progression.
A forester said he’d observed very old but healthy trees shrugging it off after a few years. Whereas he said it seemed to progress faster in actively growing trees. Coppicing may not help if this is true, but at least you’ll get a timber crop.

I see lots of unhealthy trees at the sides of roads and fields but then these are probably quite stressed trees anyway - half their root zone under tarmac or ploughed, run off winter salt, etc., so maybe it’s to be expected?

I’ve seen wood and plantations of ash also knocked out, but don’t know if these were from stock from locally adapted trees or some that saw continental Europe as seedlings.

I know some enthusiasts who recon survival is more to do with soil microbiome than genetics of the tree. If the soil is healthy and has all the microbes ash likes, the tree(s) will be fine. If the microbial life in the soil isn’t optimal the die back will take hold in the tree. I’ve not looked into this, but it could explain some of the observations -newish plantations seem to suffer -really old trees seem ok -trees next to roads not so great.

So if you want to try something, find old ash trees which look healthy, collect a bag of soil/leaf litter from their base and mix with the soil at the base of your trees. Cover with leaf litter from your tree as uv light will probably not be the friend of the soil microbes you’re hoping for.

I’m going to leave it

[Anke]

Some of our trees have succumbed, some aren’t showing much progression.
A forester said he’d observed very old but healthy trees shrugging it off after a few years. Whereas he said it seemed to progress faster in actively growing trees. Coppicing may not help if this is true, but at least you’ll get a timber crop.

I see lots of unhealthy trees at the sides of roads and fields but then these are probably quite stressed trees anyway - half their root zone under tarmac or ploughed, run off winter salt, etc., so maybe it’s to be expected?

I’ve seen wood and plantations of ash also knocked out, but don’t know if these were from stock from locally adapted trees or some that saw continental Europe as seedlings.

I know some enthusiasts who recon survival is more to do with soil microbiome than genetics of the tree. If the soil is healthy and has all the microbes ash likes, the tree(s) will be fine. If the microbial life in the soil isn’t optimal the die back will take hold in the tree. I’ve not looked into this, but it could explain some of the observations -newish plantations seem to suffer -really old trees seem ok -trees next to roads not so great.

So if you want to try something, find old ash trees which look healthy, collect a bag of soil/leaf litter from their base and mix with the soil at the base of your trees. Cover with leaf litter from your tree as uv light will probably not be the friend of the soil microbes you’re hoping for.

I’m going to leave it

Very interesting thoughts! I haven't actively looked for older trees and see how they are doing, but will do so (though it is now a bit late in the year as leaves are coming down now).


We have left any of ours (all self-sown from old trees around) and find that some are doing better than others. So far I have also left the dead trees up.

[Fleecewife]

Unexpectedly, some of our young ash trees which looked bad in 2021 have done better this year.
Our oldest tree, which came crashing down the year we moved here but has since regrown with multiple trunks, is the only one looking bad this year.  It may be significant or not that it is right next to the road.


I love the idea of collecting mulch from beneath healthy looking old ash trees to innocculate the mulch around younger trees.  There were a couple of very ancient, beautiful ashes on the farm across the road.  No longer as those were the ones the owner systematically smashed down with his digger bucket in an effort to get planning permission for houses where the trees had stood.  He didn't get the permission but now those wonderful trees are gone forever 


We haven't done the coppicing trial because our trees are looking happy in the main although one is 95% dead - perhaps we'll coppice that this winter.  It will be an interesting test of the actively growing versus older tree theory. It is also a bit crowded so probably stressed.


As an aside, does anyone have any ripe acorns from native Scottish Oaks please?
Two of the little oak trees I got from you [member=28951]Steph Hen[/member] are doing wonderfully (also the Sweet Chestnut  ).  We have another area we intend to let regenerate with some more well-spaced trees and I would like to try germinating acorns myself for that. As we cut back on sheep, so we can let more areas naturalise.  We have some areas of rough grass which are primarily for Yellow Hammers but they are also very popular with Buzzards, Corvids and Owls.  There is a young Aldrin (Gled/Buzzard) which perches on a gate post which I can see from my window. She catches so many voles from the rough grass near the post - she sort of falls on them from on high and gulps them down whole; if she misses she has a bit of a stampy footie     Our small farm is named for Buzzards so it's wonderful they are still here.