In the last three days I've pulled up 830 ash seedlings. :-(

Why the nerdy interest in the actual number? Well, last year I started
pulling them up and after nearly a week wondered just how many I was
pulling up. Over the next few months (and without knowing what the first
week's number was) the total was just over 12000!

I think this year there will be more as the wind direction encouraged
more seeds to land in the garden.

And I used to think that sycamores were bad!

--

Jeff

On Sat, 21 Apr 2018 19:41:33 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:


Ash dieback obviously not reached you yet, then.

Or the emerald ash borer, currently killing a tree on the boundary
line I had my eye on for an antenna. So far, a number of saplings
amogst pine trees near the house are OK.

---
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On 21/04/18 19:50, R. Daneel Olivaw wrote:
On Sat, 21 Apr 2018 19:41:33 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:


Ash dieback obviously not reached you yet, then.

Dieback was reported in the area in 2014
(,http://chalaramap.fera.defra.gov.uk/.). A year or so ago the tree
surgeon who does occasional work for us said that the nearest infected
tree he had heard of was several miles away.

Or the emerald ash borer, currently killing a tree on the boundary
line I had my eye on for an antenna. So far, a number of saplings
amogst pine trees near the house are OK.

As far as I am aware, emerald ash borer has yet to reach the UK.

The ash tree providing all the seed is at the north boundary of our
garden. It is about 18m high, and is a very attractive tree, even when
leafless in winter. I estimate that it produces around 2 million seeds a
year.

--

Jeff

On 22/04/18 07:49, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sat, 21 Apr 2018 22:15:58 +0100, Jeff Layman

The ash tree providing all the seed is at the north boundary of our
garden. It is about 18m high, and is a very attractive tree, even when
leafless in winter. I estimate that it produces around 2 million seeds a
year.

My late mother's garden, soon to be my garden in a few weeks time,
suffers from myrtle seedlings, from a neighbour's hedge. The neighbour
is two-doors away, but the birds eat the berries and spread the seeds
everywhere, which germinate readily. Even so, nothing like your ash!

Just spent the afternoon pulling up 1500 seedlings. That would be bad
enough, but only 1200 were from unweeded beds. The other 300 were from
beds cleared on Friday!

The problem is that you can't leave them to get past the cotyledon
stage. Once the true leaves appear the root gets really long. and if you
pull the stem it often just breaks and from that new leaves form. That
doesn't appear to happen with the cotyledon stage.

--

Jeff

On 22/04/2018 16:58, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 22/04/18 07:49, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sat, 21 Apr 2018 22:15:58 +0100, Jeff Layman

The ash tree providing all the seed is at the north boundary of our
garden. It is about 18m high, and is a very attractive tree, even when
leafless in winter. I estimate that it produces around 2 million seeds a
year.

My late mother's garden, soon to be my garden in a few weeks time,
suffers from myrtle seedlings, from a neighbour's hedge. The neighbour
is two-doors away, but the birds eat the berries and spread the seeds
everywhere, which germinate readily. Even so, nothing like your ash!

Just spent the afternoon pulling up 1500 seedlings. That would be bad
enough, but only 1200 were from unweeded beds. The other 300 were from
beds cleared on Friday!

The problem is that you can't leave them to get past the cotyledon
stage. Once the true leaves appear the root gets really long. and if you
pull the stem it often just breaks and from that new leaves form. That
doesn't appear to happen with the cotyledon stage.

A bit of a digression but still about Ash. when I was a child there was
an old saw:
Ash before Oak we will have a soak. Oak before Ash we will have a splash.
For the first time in my memory, here anyway in North Staffordshire the
Ash is in leaf before the Oak. Lets hope is id nonsense.

On 23/04/2018 08:41, Broadback wrote:
On 22/04/2018 16:58, Jeff Layman wrote:

The problem is that you can't leave them to get past the cotyledon
stage. Once the true leaves appear the root gets really long. and if
you pull the stem it often just breaks and from that new leaves form.
That doesn't appear to happen with the cotyledon stage.

A bit of a digression but still about Ash. when I was a child there was
an old saw:
Ash before Oak we will have a soak. Oak before Ash we will have a splash.

For the first time in my memory, here anyway in North Staffordshire the
Ash is in leaf before the Oak. Lets hope is id nonsense.

There is an element of truth in these old sayings - oak comes into leaf
primarily on rising spring temperatures whilst the ash allegedly goes by
increasing day length (which is pretty much the same time every year).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/natureuk/...a-splash.shtml

It used to be more finely balanced in the past. BTW still haven't seen
any swallows or house martins - they are late this year 14/4 is normal.

This year spring has been unusually cold where I live so daffodils
lasted well but the oaks are only now showing signs of coming into life.
Last weeks couple of warm days got them properly woken up.

My beech hedge is still dormant with the old golden brown leaves on.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown