Where are all the horse chestnuts?
This year there are almost no chestnuts on either of the trees in my garden. Plenty of berries on Rowan and Hawthorn - might even say a bumper crop. So why no chestnuts? Is this happening throughout Britain? Will the trees be next in getting banned because
of Health and Safety perceptions?
Comments
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Plenty here in Dumfries, Rowans and Hawthorns are also loaded with berries. There was a professor from Newcastle university on the local news who's investigating an infestation by the caterpillars of moths that are causing damage to the Horse Chesnut trees.
Perhaps the trees around OPs have been affected.0 -
Plenty around here too, including the one which fell on my head this morning as I walked through our local churchyard!
There are sweet chestnuts, but they don't reach anything like the size they used to do when we were young -- when we picked masses of them, and used to spend long evenings around the fire roasting them. Now they are tiny things with no flesh once the skin
is removed.Now the hazel nuts are a different matter - huge things, which are twice as big as they used to be when I was young. I picked a few up today on a walk down the lane into the town.
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When walking the fields with Alfie, I've noticed them in abundance. Agree, sweet chestnuts, though prolific are very small, not worth pricking your fingers to get at them......
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There was a professor from Newcastle university on the local news who's investigating an infestation by the caterpillars of moths that are causing damage to the Horse Chesnut trees. Perhaps the trees around OPs have been affected.
Most of the trees round these parts are infected, it doesn't effect the tree itself but result in less and smaller conkers. Still plenty about though.
peedee
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A citizen science study, involving more than 3,500 people, has revealed the spread and establishment of the horse chestnut leaf-miner in the UK.
It also suggests that a native species of wasp that preys on the tiny insect will not be able to curb its impact.
Caterpillars of the non-native moth tunnel through leaves of infested trees, causing them to turn autumnal brown, even in the middle of summer.
The arrival of the leaf-miner moth and a disease called "bleeding canker", which can kill an infected horse chestnut, meant that local authorities were reluctant to plant them.
"This does suggest that the long-term prognosis for these beautiful trees is not actually that good and they will become rarer and rarer," Dr Pocock, of the Univerity of Hull, suggested.
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The Local Authorities are not the major planter of Chestnut - it is squirrels!
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A citizen science study, involving more than 3,500 people, has revealed the spread and establishment of the horse chestnut leaf-miner in the UK.
It also suggests that a native species of wasp that preys on the tiny insect will not be able to curb its impact.
Caterpillars of the non-native moth tunnel through leaves of infested trees, causing them to turn autumnal brown, even in the middle of summer.
The arrival of the leaf-miner moth and a disease called "bleeding canker", which can kill an infected horse chestnut, meant that local authorities were reluctant to plant them.
"This does suggest that the long-term prognosis for these beautiful trees is not actually that good and they will become rarer and rarer," Dr Pocock, of the Univerity of Hull, suggested.
saw an article, I think on a wildlife programme, which said a fairly successful way keep the leaf infestation in check was to collect the leaves and burn them. Prevents the pupating leaf miner moths from hatching. The trees will recover if not reinfested on a subsequent year
around us, some trees infected, some not, but the conkers aren't prolific
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Hope your trees are healthy, some chestnuts aren't unfortunately.
