Wisteria trunk being eaten?
SW (Sydney, USDA 10b)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
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woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
5 years agoSW (Sydney, USDA 10b) thanked woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., CanadaSW (Sydney, USDA 10b)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
Tree being eaten
Comments (13)Disease/damage/insects aside, that is one of the worst looking specimens of a Kanzan cherry I've ever seen. I hope you didn't pay much for it cuz it's pretty much worthless! These are not especially expensive trees - a 6 footer here runs around $65. Get rid of it and try again with a taller, more tree-like and better looking/healthy specimen. And keep any lawn grass or weeds well away from the trunk - a 3' diameter circle around the trunk properly mulched will help to avoid any mechanical damage, assist with moisture retention and allow good visualization to monitor for insects. That healthy looking new growth coming from the base IS rootstock growth - both ornamental and fruiting cherries are typically grafted to Prunus avium rootstock....See MoreTomatoes being eaten whole!
Comments (28)Rats ugghh.Two years ago I put in two 3'sq tomato raised beds at my parents house in Orange county. The first year we cleared and dug the clay, built the boxes, amended with pricy organics, planted heirlooms that grew huge, out of the texas cages and out over the box, and as they ripened each tomato would get about 1/3 eaten. (Why can't the pests just eat one whole one and leave two?) I put 5' posts at the corners of the boxes, and the enclosed the plants completey with heavy duty plastic bird netting. This took at least a day of sweat and swearing! After a few days we found that the rats just gnawed right through and continued to help themselves. Last year I only planted two Patio red tomatoes, not as tasty but very compact and produce well. The plants hardly grew larger than the texas cages, and as the tomatos started to redden I bought AVIARY wire, smaller than chicken wire, and wrapped it around the cages, making a closed cone top, and a door in the wire to access the plants. Also making sure that the wire screen is deep into the ground to prevent burrowing. This worked really well and we were able to harvest all the tomatoes ourselves! This year I have some patios and some celebritys in the boxes, I put them in late so no fruit yet. I plan to build a larger frame and enclose it all in aviary wire. The stuff is expensive, and I don't even want to calculate the price per tomato of this whole process. But it is a labor of love because my mother enjoys fresh tomatoes so very much. I believe that everyone should grow at least some of their own vegies, like victory gardens. My grandfather did this close to what is now LAX, and though he had some unwanted pests, and I remember he would trap and kill them,nothing like what the problem is for us now. But in urban areas like Orange county the possums,coons,squirels, voles gophers and lovely rats can wipe out all your work in a night. There are also lots of coyotes around, enough that it is not safe to let the cats out, when I was a kid and our cats roamed the roof and garden day and night, and that probably discouraged rats! It is frustrating. It has only gotten worse as the last of the open spaces get built on, which nixes the theory that this things are wild and only venture to our yards and trash cans for supplimentary feeding. These are all totally urban animals, surviving with no "natural" habitat....See Morewisteria runners
Comments (10)I very much doubt that what you plan will contain the roots.... We have both a Chinese wisteria (planted in 2001) and a Japanese wisteria (planted in 2007). Both are grown as 'trees'/'shrubs'. Both bloomed in spring for the first time at 5 years in the garden (e.g. the Japanese one bloomed for the first time last spring; the Chinese one also does a secondary summer bloom if you keep it pruned and it started doing the summer bloom in its second year in the garden but took five years to do the first big spring bloom.). Pruning is a regular chore throughout the summer but is not difficult and, for us, the reward (i.e. a fabulous display of flowers) is worth it. If you are prepared to do the work, it's not that difficult - although pruning growth on top of a pergola would be a PITA! (which is why we grow them as trees so we can control the height....) I prepared a maintenance manual for our graden a few years ago. Here are the instructions I wrote for pruning the wisterias - maybe they'll be useful for you: - All new curly/whippy new growth should be pinched back/pruned off to 6â or so from its point of origin. This can be virtually a daily task in spring and early summer when they are growing fast. A long-arm pruner tool makes it easy to reach the top of the tree. Do not let the trees get taller than can be reached with the long-arm pruner. The pruners can be purchased at Lee Valley Tools at the local store or through their on-line store. - Watch for root suckers and remove them as soon as you see them. Most will appear near the base of the trees but they can appear anywhere in a 15-20â - or more - radius of the trees. When you mow the grass, inspect the areas near the trees for root suckers. Ideally you want to remove the suckers by tearing them off the underlying root to remove the bud-wood from the root. If itâÂÂs too difficult to dig down, cut off the sucker close to the ground. More suckers will likely arise from the same location when the sucker is cut off rather than torn off the root. - Do not allow any of the root suckers to grow into the main tree or form another tree. The Chinese wisteria in particular is a grafted plant so the root suckers are likely a wild form which may never flower or take decades to mature enough to do so. - When the tree is bare of leaves, remove any seed pods you see (itâÂÂs almost impossible to find them on the Chinese wisteria until the leaves drop in the fall.) You do not want to have to deal with removing seedlings! The seedpods will explode and fling seeds around the garden on the first warm day of spring unless they are removed! No not neglect this chore! - If the trees get too big or you want to shape them, prune them in very early spring before they leaf out or flower. Properly cared for, the wisterias are spectacular; neglected, they are a nightmare!...See MoreWisteria has tiny snail-like shell nodules along its main trunks
Comments (1)It sounds like scale insect, which Wisteria can suffer from. The RHS have a page of advice that might help you. Here is a link that might be useful: Scale insect...See Morewoodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
5 years agoSW (Sydney, USDA 10b) thanked woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., CanadaSW (Sydney, USDA 10b)
5 years agoSW (Sydney, USDA 10b)
5 years agowoodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
5 years agoSW (Sydney, USDA 10b)
5 years agowoodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoSW (Sydney, USDA 10b) thanked woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., CanadaSW (Sydney, USDA 10b)
2 years agoEthan Tan
last year
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woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada