Another tree disease to worry about? Importation of walnut plants now banned in MN

[NickB79]

http://www.mda.state.mn.us/en/plants/plantdiseases/1000cankers/tcdquarantine.aspx

snip

"Whereas, this disease, called Thousand Cankers Disease of Walnut, is caused by an insect/fungus complex in which the insect called the walnut twig beetle (Pityophthorus juglandis) introduces the fungus (Geosmithia morbida) into walnut trees (Juglans species) causing cankers which eventually kill the walnut tree; and

Whereas hundreds of walnut trees in western and southwestern United States have been killed by Thousand Cankers Disease of Walnut and was confirmed for the first time on black walnut (Juglans nigra) in its native range in July 2010, in Knoxville, Tennessee;"

I just stumbled onto this because I was told I couldn't order some rather hard-to-find walnut hybrids from an otherwise excellent nursery out of Washington State for my orchard expansion in the spring. #$#$%#$%$^!#@!!@#! :mad:

[midnight]

1. Wisconsin has a fungus that is causing needle drop and other black spots on our maples.....

[virgogal]

4. What is needle drop on maples? City gal here.

[Another Bill C.]

2. I mow down a lot of

black walnut and English walnut seedlings every year here in St. Paul. They seem to be really hardy when they're growing where they shouldn't.

[NickB79]

3. Are you sure they're English walnut seedlings? If so, I'll be over with a shovel!

English walnuts would be on the ragged northern edge of their possible range in the Twin Cities, but with the climate now noticeably warmer than it was only 10 years ago they finally stand a chance of being more widely planted. I was looking at growing them instead of black walnuts because black walnuts create a chemical in their roots (juglone) that tends to poison the ground around the tree to certain plants, such as tomatoes, whereas English walnuts don't.

[Another Bill C.]

5. I've babied an English walnut for about

25 or 30 years. I bought it from Gurney's. In the first few years it seemed to die off twice. In its last resurrection it came back with a double trunk. There weren't any nuts on it this year so I don't expect any seedlings in the spring. I get a lot of black walnut seedlings from a neighbor's tree, too, and the only difference I can see in the seedlings is the size of the leaves. The squirrels win every race to get the nuts each year so all I get are the seedlings. If you can identify them, you're certainly welcome to them.