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Mark, the strawberry guava has been multiplying at 7-12% per year since its' introduction... if you remember way back when your money or salary grew by that, you could double the number (population) every 5-7 years.... in the first few decades, this doubling is barely noticeable, by the first century, it starts being noticed, by the second century you have a choking invasion....
It was this slow, but steady increase that is now the problem... now, with the acreage in waiawi, many can see the impact of this doubling, the roots are literally growing on top of each other in thickly infested acreage.... and it is still doubling... every 5-7 years...
What was a handful of trees 200 years ago is over 50,000 acres of heavily populated acres, and it will continue to double.... both spreading in acreage and density, as it has seed carriers in birds & feral pig & no natural predator & it out competes the native trees..
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We have a few dying ohia trees in my yard and my wife called several state agencies just last week to see what is going on. Nobody had any definitive replies as to what is going on with the trees. Apparently there is more than one problem happening. Some dying ohias I've seen, like one of mine here, has piles of sawdust near the base of the trunk. It looks like some kind of beetle working on it. That doesn't explain why there are many acres of dead ohias in the national park though. On the road to Bird Park you can see an area where every single ohia tree is dead. Scary.
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Peter,
The sawdust is probably the carpenter beetle. They love ohia's.
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I have found that 10-20-20 plus will revive an ohia tree that's got problems as long as they're not too excessive. Once the tree starts to fail it rots from the top down and there's not much you can do. Ohia can rot pretty fast. It's worth a shot. Small applications regularly.
http://sensiblesimplicity.lefora.com/
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Oh, and I've also found introducing koa in a mixed forest setting helps also, to get the N in the ground. Inoculate if the the fungus isn't endemic, but it seems to be most everywhere.
http://sensiblesimplicity.lefora.com/
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It seems to me too that Ohia rot pretty fast (when dead). I have some logs scattered around that are only a couple of years old but rotted halfway through.
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Peter,
I think the dead ohi'as along the road to bird park may have been caused by a fire(? - Not 100% sure on that one), but I do know that Bird Park and the kipuka further up the road are places where cohort die back has been cited as the reason for ohi'a death.
What little I understand about cohort die back goes something like this: a whole bunch of ohi'as, which are pretty much the same age because they all started out together on a new substrate whenever conditions were good enough for sprouting (like maybe a layer of new ash settled), reached the natural end of their lifespans and die all at once, in alarming numbers. I guess the max lifespan of ohi'as vary depending on stuff like rainfall and soil. I know there are some very old ones up in Hakalau - one is even supposed to be around 500+ years old.
Please correct me if anyone knows better about any of this.
Boring insects have attacked lama trees (but no ohi'a yet) where I live and that was the original reason my friend from UH came to have a look. I sent root samples to the Ag dept to have them look for fungal pathogens, but those tests were inconclusive. The insects, they said, are most probably a secondary problem (so they just attacked already dying trees). They suggested I send sections of the wood, hopefully with the insects still in there, to the Ag dept in Hilo and I'm working on that now. Maybe that would be good for you to do as well, if you can.
A lot of folks have tried to help me figure out what is going on with the lamas, but the thing that keeps coming up is the effect of weeds like the increasing numbers of strawberry guava. I've been told that sometimes the damage may be happening and go unnoticed for a long time, and then suddenly the tree declines and dies. Also, I've learned that not a whole lot is really known about native Hawaiian tree pathology, so I guess we're all learning as we go. I'd be interested in whatever you find out.
Uluhe Design
Native Landscape Design
uluhedesign@yahoo.com
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I live down the road from Jerry and have noticed the same thing on my property. Some of the ohia trees are next to the drive way and are doing fine, others are no where near disturbed ground and the tree just up and dies.
My question is, should I cut down the dead trees?
BTW, can anybody recommend to me a good tree service to cut down a few dead ohias that are next to my powerline and leaning in that direction. I cannot handle the job myself without hiring Jerry to hook the line back up.
FNG
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Asplundh tree service (on Makuu in HPP) has the lift truck... and I know they are the go-to guys for many utility company power line tree service in some states....
Do not know the $$$ (I'm guessing they're on the high end)
But how is Jerry gonna stay in business if you don't at least try to do it on your own????
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quote:
Originally posted by Carey
Asplundh tree service (on Makuu in HPP) has the lift truck... and I know they are the go-to guys for many utility company power line tree service in some states....
Do not know the $$$ (I'm guessing they're on the high end)
But how is Jerry gonna stay in business if you don't at least try to do it on your own????
I will call Asplundh a call because I believe they will need a bucket truck to take these trees down, at least one of them anyway.
FNG
