Soil minerals stimulate olive trees

27 07 2010

Today I received an interesting email from Chuck Cunningham, a tree grower in Buellton, CA who has taken a keen interest in the work I am doing. He writes:

I forgot to mention an unusual occurrence in my “fruitless” olive trees.  I have been tending and growing some 40-50 Olea Europae “low fruiting” olives that for the last several years have only developed perhaps 6 olives grand total. After using Azomite on the trees they are all fruiting? I am not sure if they will hold, but it is interesting since to my knowledge nothing else has changed.

Over the years I’ve seen a number of cases where stressed, poorly-producing olive trees have responded nicely to topical treatments with soil minerals. I am aware of several olive growers who are improving their yields significantly by amending soils with alkaline-rich minerals, which improve soil fertility and, thus, tree health and productivity. The soil minerals that I use in my practice are a combination of finely-ground Azomite and calcitic limestone. Azomite is a volcanic ash that is loaded in trace minerals. The calcitic limestone helps to buffer soil acidity and provide calcium, a major constituent of bark and wood.





El Capitan oaks responding to fire mimicry

21 07 2010

Last week I visited and re-photographed several coast live oaks near El Capitan Ranch outside of Santa Barbara that were treated last year with fire mimicry. Most of the oaks have shown significant improvement in canopy health in just one year. Here is a sample of the results:

Read the rest of this entry »





Encino heritage oak – 2010 update

15 07 2010

Yesterday I visited and tended a huge valley oak which, at about 500 years old, is possibly the oldest valley oak in Encino, CA. This oak appears to have been pollarded (pruned in a way that encourages broad, spreading branches) by the native people hundreds of years ago. Last year I posted a story about this Encino heritage oak, and presented photos that showed a significant improvement in the health of the tree in response to fire mimicry treatments.

We are now in the 4th year of fire mimicry treatments and the oak continues to show a very good response, as the photos below indicate:

Encino heritage oak





Five-year response of California buckeyes to fire mimicry

12 07 2010

Last year I posted a piece on using fire mimicry to treat early leaf senescence in California buckeyes. A few days ago I checked up on these buckeyes and re-photographed them. As you can see in the photos posted here the buckeyes are continuing to show improvement after tending with fire mimicry practices.

When I first saw these trees in 2005 they appeared to be severely stressed due to soil acidification. The lawn areas around their base had a dense cover of mosses growing among the grasses. The mosses were removed by thatching the lawn areas and the soils were treated with several hundred pounds of soil minerals (Azomite and calcitic limestone).

These and other results (see here and here) are showing that the fire mimicry practices which are working so well in restoring the health of the oaks (see here, here, here, here, here, etc.) are also useful in restoring the health of other kinds of trees. This certainly makes sense if the problem is ecological (e.g. fire suppression, soil acidification, overcrowding, etc.) rather than pathological (e.g. disease, insect pests).

I encourage anyone who is interested in getting more information on the methods and services of tree care and forest restoration shown here to please contact me. Read the rest of this entry »





Acid rain in Big Sur – 2009-2010 rain year summary

16 06 2010

During the 2009-2010 rainy season the precipitation gauge at my home here in Big Sur received a total of 36.24” of rain, which was more than the totals for any of the previous three years. It was a particularly long rainy season, lasting from October 13, 2009 to May 28, 2010.

Double acid rainbow in Big Sur (photo by Lee Klinger)

With regards to rain pH there were 39 measurable events with a mean volume-weighted pH (± s.d.) of 4.80 ± 0.13. The lowest pH reading this past rain year was 4.37 recorded on December 27, 2009, and the highest pH reading was 5.65 recorded on May 18, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »





Using repeat photography to assess the response of oaks to fire mimicry

12 06 2010

Last week I checked up on some oaks in Santa Barbara that have been undergoing fire mimicry treatments for the past two years. One way I assess the change in health of a tree is through repeat photography analysis of the tree’s canopy. Repeat photography is not as simple as it seems. Photographs are taken at the time the oaks are first treated. Subsequent photos are taken at annual intervals, meaning I get to visit the trees I treat every year, year-after-year. It’s quite a commitment to schedule yearly visits to all the oaks I’ve treated. In re-photographing the trees it is important to match the time of year, time of day, sky condition, camera angle, and exposures as closely as possible to the original photos. I don’t get it precise every time, but I do my best. Changes in tree health can be detected in the photographs as increases or decreases in canopy density (the amount of background sky seen through the canopy), and in changes in the amount of gray or brown foliage vs. green foliage.

Below are the results of the repeat photography analysis of the canopy health in the Santa Barbara oaks I visited last week . . .

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Monterey Bay area oaks responding to fire mimicry

14 05 2010

Yesterday I went to check on some sick coast live oaks in the Monterey Bay area that have been undergoing fire mimicry treatments for the past two years. The results I believe are encouraging . . .

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Eucalyptus decline linked to fire suppression

7 05 2010

Earlier this year I was contacted by Vic Jurskis, a scientist with Forests NSW (Australia), alerting me to the work he has been doing on fire suppression and eucalyptus decline. He shared with me several of his scientific papers that document the pre-settlement burning of eucalyptus forests by the aboriginal people, and the critical effects that fire suppression is now having on those forests. (Reprints of these papers are available. Contact me about obtaining a reprint.)

In his most recent paper Jurskis writes –

“Exclusion of fire and/or grazing has contributed to shrub or sapling encroachment, weed invasion, loss of herbal diversity and tree decline compounded by pests, parasites and diseases. The ancient trees that were established before European settlement are especially vulnerable because they have become weaker competitors for water and nutrients, whilst they are more vulnerable to fires because they typically have exposed dry wood that is easily ignited and burns readily.”

(from Jurskis, V. 2009. River red gum and white cypress forests in south-western New South Wales, Australia: Ecological history and implications for conservation of grassy woodlands. Forest Ecology and Management 258: 2593–2601.)

In another paper Jurskis states – Read the rest of this entry »





Acid rain in Big Sur – April 2010 update

1 05 2010

Acid rainbow over Big Sur (photo by Lee Klinger)

April numbers are in for the rain pH in Big Sur. Precipitation total was 6.12″ for April and pH readings were made for seven rainfall events. The April values shown below are tending slightly higher (less acidic) than previous readings (see here, here, here, here, and here).

Rainfall amounts and pH in Big Sur - April 2010





Acute Oak Decline in the UK – Part 2

30 04 2010

In my previous post on Acute Oak Decline I posed the question of whether ecological factors are predisposing oaks to this “new” disease. My concern is that research groups led by the plant pathologists will remain focused on the disease model and not consider the ecology of the problem. I encourage scientists studying Acute Oak Decline to pause for a moment, take a breath, and consider things like rain pH, soil fertility, and ecosystem structure before launching into a costly vortex of biological studies on whatever bacterial species is determined to be the “cause”.

In this post I would like to present some preliminary findings of soil fertility in a stand of diseased and non-diseased English oaks (Quercus robur) in Bushy Park, London, UK. Several oaks showed bleeding symptoms characteristic of Acute Oak Decline (see photos below), although the bacterial species was not positively ID’d.

English oak with Acute Oak Decline in Bushy Park, London (photo by Lee Klinger)

Closeup view of Acute Oak Decline bleeding symptoms. Note deep cracks in the bark. (photo by Lee Klinger)

Upon inspecting the soils I noticed that near the diseased trees there were large mats of mosses, whereas few mosses were found around the non-diseased oaks. Having a strong interest in the influence that mosses may have on soil fertility, and thus oak health, I, along with Neville Fay of Treework Environmental Practice and Vinodh Krishnamurthy of Soil Foodweb Lab Services and Research, devised a simple test. Read the rest of this entry »