Pine weevil nematodes
Tree Keeper
Posts: 3
I live on a new estate and recently discovered that our lovely 40' pine tree was buried in clay subsoil to a depth of more than 30 cm. Over the last three years or so since construction, adventitious roots have grown up into the soil and we also have girdling roots. As the tree has a TPO, this requires permission from the District Council and a tree surgeon to cut the harmful roots. However, we also found pine weevil larvae (I think) in a small piece of bark that fell away and have dark soft patches of rot all around the base of the tree. It's easy to tell the original ground level (a golf course) because there is a distinct layer of rotted down pine cones and the soil changes. Can I treat successfully with nematodes, when should they be applied and how often and are there commercially available nematodes that could do the trick. I have never used chemicals before in my garden but I think that ant spray would do the job if we can't find an organic solution. Would spraying with ant insecticide (cyclomethrin) or using nematodes constitute 'work on a tree' or would we be able to just get on with this ourselves?
Posts
Dark soft patches of rot all round the base will see the end of that tree I fear. The bark is the growing part of a tree, if that's rotten, life ceases
In the sticks near Peterborough
We had a tree surgeon who came down for a favour to look at it for us. He said it doesn't look like it's in immediate distress...you may be right though. We need to contact our insurers as we have failed to get anywhere with NHBC (don't do gardens), housing association (shared ownership but we are responsible), District Council (will only prosecute if it's in the public interest and that would take ages anyway), and have about tuppence ha'penny we found down the back of the sofa after rent and mortgage are paid. Don't know what the premiums are for us, but I fear it's a bit more than 'back of the sofa' money.
We are now in our third year of trying to fix this garden and have lost all the turf reseeded twice in a row. Nothing grows in our sub-sub soil. I will add this year's sorry update to this, but this was the story last summer. It's a disaster zone now. http://www.oakdalelinks.org.uk/garden-rescue.html