Mistletoe

gf beranek said:
One fellow in Sonoma County, his name is Sam Noonan, cuts the Mt off and wraps black plastic,or roofing paper around the wound to starve the MT of light. How successful he is at it I really don't know. Maybe someone could chime in on that subject. Hey?
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when i worked for sam he had us wrap with tar paper and seal it together with black caulking. that way it wouldnt girdle or need to be removed later, just fall off as the limb got bigger. dont really know how it pans out in the long run though
 
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  • #27
I have heard of the tar paper, but I was wondering how well it might have worked. We have a lot of live oak here infected in major leaders. So rather than butcher the tree I was wondering if that might be a viable option ..... The fact that the tar paper just falls off with the caulking is a serious plus. TY
 
i think the idea is if you can keep the light off the haustoria for a year theres a good chance that particular infestation will die off or the tree will have a chance to grow over it
 
We get mistletoe around southern CA on the coast live oaks Quercus agrifolia and the sycamore Platanus racemosa. I've not had the pleasure of doing a mistletoe removal yet. I have a feeling it is a very "zen" activity.

There are a few park trees here that have mistletoe in them and I've thought about climbing a few and cutting it out just to see how quickly it grew back in. Maybe I could do a comparison between the duct tape idea and just cutting it out???? Hmmmm

No joke about this. Keep in mind where I live...but if I get to the point where it makes sense to me to duct tape the cuts, I will use this eco-friendly duct tape and I know it well sell more here!!!!

love
nick
 
nick, i dont think ive ever seen it in agrifolia, even where infestatins are bad. maybe not in any live oak
 
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  • #32
We have it in live Oak here BAD. As well as the blue, whites and valley oak. Canyon Oak and Golden cup get it pretty good but not as bad as the live oak. I am going to go out on a theoretical limb here and guess at why the live oak get it so bad... The live oak have a lot of foliage that the birds like. The birds eat the mistletoe berrys and defecate in the trees. Seed and fertilizer in my book. Also helps the seeds stick. Thus the thicker the foliage in the tree... the more mistletoe you see. Also sa it spreads in the tree, the birds and just the sticky seeds dropping add more to the problem. Eventually, the tree becomes standing fire wood.

I need to look up the conifer version and give you the name, Burnman might even be familiar with the stuff. I will be cutting down more grey pine this year that are being killed by it. See if I can post a link soon as far as those species are concerned.
 
treelooker said:
Strategies and Treatments for Leafy Mistletoe ( Phoradendron tomentosum[DC.] Engelm ex. Gray) Suppression on Cedar Elm ( Ulmus crassifolia Nutt.)

W. Todd Watson and Tomas Martinez-Trinidad

Abstract. Leafy mistletoe, Phoradendron tomentosum (DC.) Engelm ex. Gray, can adversely affect trees growing in urban environments. The efficacy of several methods for controlling P. tomentosum in Ulmus crassifolia was evaluated in two separate trials. In the first experiment, eight treatments with five replicate trees, 20.3 to 30.5 cm (8.1 to 12.2 in) dbh, were evaluated. Removal of the branch 30.5 cm (12.2 in) below the mistletoe, removal of mistletoe, and treating the branch bark with naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) or a caulking compound in which mistletoe was removed resulted in reduced regrowth of the ectophyte (>90%) after 5 months. The use of growth regulator and herbicides (ethephon, 2,4-D, and glyphosate) on intact mistletoe plants in experiment 1 did not provide acceptable control of mistletoe. After 29 months, only removal of the branch and caulking over the bark after mistletoe removal demonstrated a significant long-term effect on mistletoe mortality (40% and 57%, respectively). In the second experiment, a new treatment was evaluated based on the results from the first experiment. The use of NAA and light exclusion (black latex paint) reduced the resprouting of mistletoe by 50% after 8 months, but this effect diminished over time. However, 16 months after application, NAA and paint significantly reduced regrowth compared with removing mistletoe alone. This study provides strategies to achieve acceptable short-term control and long-term management of leafy mistletoe in urban
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What journal(s) was this published in?

jp:D
 
The seeds also stick to the bird's feet and they spread them that way. Kind of like stepping in dog crap.
 
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  • #36
On the ponderosa pine here is dwarf.. Causes "witches brooms". here's a link....
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/nr/fid/fidls/fidl19.htm

I am still trying to find the other variety that I see on the grey pines, as it does look different. More yellow and fuzzy in pollen looking. Kills the grey pines right up in very few years of infestation.. I may have to go to the local Ag Dept to get the name.
 
steve, they actually eat the berries and pass them onto other branches that way. some just drop to the limb below.
stephen, around here the mistletoe in conifers is called dwarf mistletoe. can come up with the latin at the moment
 
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  • #38
Yeah I know the dwarf.. but there is another one that I need to find the name of again... like I said.. more yellow in color and really does in the gray pines (bull pines).
 
There are mainly 2 different breeds of the parasite; 1 favoring hard and 1 soft/pine woods. Shaving doesn't do much except set it back growth wise and lose a season of fruiting/spreading. But, shaving and suffocating from light, can kill it. Suffocating with tape and plastic can give a wet spot of rot potential. Suffocating light by paint can be more of a 'breathable'/ drier solution.

i think this is good winter/ early spring work, when things are slow. That is usually when it stands out the best to be seen(because everything else is paled or stripped of green), and before it fruits and spreads. So, you get work, and can do a better job, than when you can't see the stuff quiet as well in summer etc.

The parasite feeds on nutrients and water going out to the limb, so the limb dies off, sometimes even shrivelling up, inverting and dying and falling off to look like a nasty, depleted donkey dong of distorted , depleted wood. The stuff is like tree cancer. The toxic berries(which can over power small kids, pets and elderly/sick with fatal consequence) are very, very sticky and generally stay were they land. Trees spread to, depend on where the birds like to land, thinness of bark etc. around'ere. Birds etc. are very efficient spreaders of seeds etc. They are so messy when they eat, that either they spread the seeds around when eating or carrying, or after digested. so, either the seed gets spread, or the seed gets spread. Kinda like, either the leaves feed, store resources and protect the tree on the branch, or fall to the ground and feed, store resources and protect! Nature works out very many such strategies, working both a force, and it's promised equal and opposite force to the focused target, as the most efficient strategy.

Another factor in how mistletoe devastates a tree is, that in hot droughts a normal tree leaf will close it's stoma, to preserve precious water. Less is given off, and less is drawn up. This can lead to leaf burn though, for the tree then isn't cooling itself as much with transpiration. But, mistletoe will keep all it's stomata open, cooling itself, drawing more water to it to feed it's self at the cost of loss of feeding and watering to the other tree parts; especially points further out than the mistletoe.
 
Thanks for the link skwerl.

I spent some time looking through the paper (http://auf.isa-arbor.com/request.asp?JournalID=1&ArticleID=2965&Type=1)
and the abstract seems misleading or confusing (go figure). If you look at the charts and their data in the paper, it suggests there was very little to no difference in the NAA and Paint experiment or the caulking experiment when compared with just the mistletoe removal in almost all cases.

I did see a slight difference at 29 months between Removal and Caulking and Mistletoe removal but again seemed very slight. Maybe not worth the time and expense to the homeowner?

Also, this study was performed with one species of trees so is obviously not comprehensive.


"Figure 3. P. tomentosumgrowth (mean ± SE) 29 months after application in experiment 1 with 8 treatments on U. crassifoliaat College Station, Texas. Data showed without transformation. Different letters between treatments indicate significant differences ( P< 0.05) using LSD after data transformation."
 

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treelooker said:
Pruning out big healthy wood just because of nearby mistletoe seems like extreme wounding, and by the looks of the research, ineffective.

"After 29 months,only removal of the branch and caulking over the bark after mistletoe removal demonstrated a significant long-term effect on mistletoe mortality (40% and 57%, respectively)."
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Hard to justify pruning out major healthy wood to eradicate mistletoe though...

jp:D
 
treesandsurf said:
"Figure 3. P. tomentosumgrowth (mean ± SE) 29 months after application in experiment 1 with 8 treatments on U. crassifoliaat College Station, Texas. Data showed without transformation. Different letters between treatments indicate significant differences ( P< 0.05) using LSD after data transformation."
Click to expand...
For real ? LMAO
 
Saw what looked to be mistle toe on a Silver Maple today.

First time for me to see that.

I also saw my first dead bradford pear last week.
 
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  • #50
Did some more mistletoe in live oaks today and got hit by meat bees (paper wasp, yellow jackets) right on my snoot... Dang things. The were actually nested in the tree base in an old wound. Usually they in the ground.. Oh well.. paid good and I will finish the tree in cooler weather. Was just brushing out the over growth at the base prior to climb and OUCH.
Lady authorized more mistletoe work next month. Mo Money ty and another booking. This stuff is definitely job security and the check is nice. Yeah the pole saw and pruner gets old 60 feet up. But hey.
 
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