Myrtlecide She Wrote

Myrtlecide She Wrote

Feb 25, 2021 | News, Science

By Laura Miller, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Commercial Horticulture Agent

Massive trunks on nearly 40 year old crapemyrtles.

Despite the presence of both the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension in the building, a heinous crime has occurred in broad daylight in the parking lot of the Tarrant Plaza Building.  Crape murderers, armed with pruning saws and lots of excuses, have struck yet again, rendering one of our most lovely landscape plants, the crapemyrtle, one of our most ugly landscape plants.

In these days of open carry there is not much that can be done to prevent people from walking around town with pruning saws, but there are plenty of ways to counter the excuses.  Here’s a top five list of responses:

  1. “It is too big!” You have choices here. You can choose to replace it with one of the many varieties of crapemyrtle that won’t get too big.  There are dwarf varieties like “Pokomoke” that never grow taller than 3 feet.  There are intermediate varieties like “Acoma” that grow to be 5-10 feet tall.  There is a great choice for every sunny spot.  Crapemyrtle are so tough and drought tolerant because they have fabulous fibrous root systems. Those root systems also make them one of the easiest landscape plants to transplant.  You can move your crapemyrtle to a bigger, better location.  You can also cut your crapemyrtle all the way down to the ground.  It will grow back and all the evidence of poor landscape practices will be gone.  It will be kind of like having an ugly tattoo of your x-significant other removed.
  2. “It will bloom better!” This is just not true. It will bloom later, one to two months later depending upon the variety.  The flower panicles produced by topped trees may be larger, but  there will be significantly fewer of them.  You will have more flowers and have them sooner if you put away the pruners.

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  3. “But it looks scraggly, and by golly this year it is black!” Scraggliness is generally caused by suckers, or shoots that come up from the roots. Feel free to clip those off.  Now is a good time.  The most attractive crapemyrtles have 1-7 main trunks.  Those are trunks.  Trunks should not be cut.  The black stuff is sooty mold.  It is there because the crapemyrtle was infested with Crapemyrtle Bark Scale.  If you want to, you can wash that sooty mold off with soapy water and a scrub brush.  You can also just wait for the bark to exfoliate because it eventually will.
  4. “There is nothing else to do this time of year!” Sure there is. You can prune out shoots coming from the base of plant as described in #3.  Better yet, apply mulch.  Mulch moderates soil temperatures, retains soil moisture, controls weeds, and gives gardeners and landscapers alike a worthy, beneficial way to occupy their time on chilly winter days.
  5. “Everybody does it!” Would this work with your mother? Who is everybody?  Certainly not anybody who is somebody in horticulture.  Neil Sperry rants against this practice on his Facebook page.  Self-respecting botanic gardens prohibit this pracitice on their grounds.  If everybody celebrated crapemyrtle topping season by jumping off a cliff, would you?

To experience the full beauty of a crapemyrtle you should never top the tree. Allow it to grow as a medium size tree and give it time to develop a nice rounded canopy.

For further reading, appropriate practices for pruning crapemyrtles are summarized here.

North Texas Cities Prepare for EAB

North Texas Cities Prepare for EAB

Apr 13, 2020 | News

By Jeremy Priest

The recent North Central Texas UFC included a panel of municipalities and experts regarding the preparation for EAB. Although most of the metroplex will still not face EAB for a number of years, unless a large jump is made by the pest, there is a need to begin preparations when it comes to municipalities. North Texas is blessed with low ash populations from the start, but even a 2% population could add up when considering an entire city.

Emerald ash borer is an invasive pest which devastates ash trees.

The speakers presented the need for an inventory or good sample at a minimum, with Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and Dallas among those undertaking efforts to understand their ash trees. Without this information there is almost no way to predict the impact and potential costs. The experts made it clear that prolonging the life of ash trees is a valuable undertaking, as opposed to simply removing all ash trees at once. For example, the City of Arlington recently completed a study of park trees and determined as many as 15,700 ash trees exist in Arlington parks. The total number of ash is considerable and it will not possible to treat all trees, but only about 500 or so are greater than 8 inches diameter. Also, the study stratified by natural and open areas which indicates that only 200-250 ash trees are located near park visitors, which would be the primary targets for removal or treatment over the next 15 years. Although removal costs are not as concerning with a small ash population, simply removing all ash trees at once is not in the best interest of the urban forest, citizens expectations, or the municipal budget. This is especially important now given expectations of budget decreases across the country for as much as the next three years. Removing a few trees early on can help spread the cost and reduce the feeding ability of the EAB population. Ideally only trees in poor or fair condition should be removed (as the City of Plano has begun doing) and planning should be done so that any trees that are removed are replaced within a year or so. Don’t neglect tree planting and remember to increase diversity, as many cities have found replanting difficult as EAB removals increase.

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Ash tree receiving trunk injection of emamectin benzoate for prevention of EAB. Preventative treatment is not yet necessary, but can be done out of an abundance of caution.

As EAB begins to take effect in a community some trees will need to be removed, especially as early removal increases safety. The instability of ash once EAB has been in it for a year increases the risk of failure during the removal process. Most experts and studies have suggested treating at least some of the ash trees to prevent safety hazards, allow continued benefit of these ash trees, prolong the life of surrounding untreated ash trees, and importantly enough, fit removal and replacement within budgetary constraints. Foresters can conduct treatment injections themselves to reduce cost, but the chemicals themselves are not inexpensive. Emamectin benzoate products are generally considered the best choice for tree health and environmental impacts but the chemical alone will generally cost $3-5/inch of trunk diameter, depending on the desired rate. Still, there is little reason that cities could not spare a few hundred dollars to protect at least a handful of their best ash trees, since treatment is far less expensive than removal. Heavy concentration of ash tree removals, even if only a dozen trees fall under city control, may impact contractors removing the trees and the ultimate destination of that debris. Infested wood needs to be ground down or heat treated to prevent spread, or otherwise properly disposed of. Since many tree owners will be needing ash trees removed at the same time, there could be a financial impact (e.g. contractor delays, high prices) for tree removals that homeowners feel more than others. The loss of a tree is one thing, but the impact of losing that tree canopy forever is much worse. We need to encourage homeowners to plant a replacement tree in every way possible, including setting that example on city properties through replanting. As foresters we should consider the whole urban forest for our community, even if the trees are not under our direct control. If municipalities properly manage EAB it will not only provide an example for citizens, it could help protect and prolong their ash trees.