Thread: Shimpaku
View Single Post
Old 22-Mar-2002   #2
TreeBay
Tips:5¢ Advice:Free
TreeBay's a bonsaiTALK supporter! Click Here to find out how you can be one too!
 
TreeBay's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug-2001
Location: Silicon Valley
Country: USA
Posts: 9,742
Send a message via AIM to TreeBay Click Here to Skype TreeBay
May be a problem with borers?

Hi John,

Rather than the deadwood causing further damage to the tree, I think it is more likely that the deadwood feature was added to deal with an existing problem.

You may want to inspect the trunk carefully to make sure that you don't have any evidence of borers. *Boring insects are the larval stages of certain beetles. *They live just beneath the bark and chew on the soft tissues of the cambium and phloem. *In the process they can totally interrupt the flow of sap.

If you have a tree that has one or several branches turn entirely brown over a week or two with no evidence of any trauma to the rest of the tree, it is probably a borer infestation.

Quite a few junipers are affected by a problem with borers that can be treated with lindane or isotox. *The problem is finding them.

If you start with a recently-dead limb and peel the bark around it (as if you were creating a deadwood feature) you may discover a channel in the wood. *The borers live in tunnels or tubes in the bark near the surface. *There may be some 1/8 diameter exit holes visible at areas on the trunk. *These would be logical places to inject the lindane or isotox.

It is possible that an overzealous artist might create a deadwood feature that caused subsequent die back along or near the existing shari, but those branches would most likely be above the added deadwood feature. *Branches between the dead branch and the roots should not be affected.

Perhaps you can post a picture.
__________________
Want to be a seller on bonsaiAUCTIONS? Get authorized today!
bonsaiTALK: Over 100,005.36 Megabytes Served this Month!
TreeBay is offline   Reply With Quote