[Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

[Dick]

Personally, Joni, I would start over. Recovery with bark intact but no foliage would likely be very slow and the trees will never recover to a decent shape. I would start over from scratch to avoid five years down the road thinking, "Ah, geez, I should have started over!" 

Won't insurance cover the replacement costs? I would certainly check it out especially if the fire source was a neighbor's home. Bark is a vital organ that will not recover and callus can't repair large areas.

Water at their trunk bases can do no good, either, because feeder roots exist only in a band around the drip line. If you decide to try to save the trees, deep water three feet only in a broad shallow trench defining the drip line.

Would you mind letting us know your final action and how well it works. 

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer
University of Arizona Maricopa County
Cooperative Extension

 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <joni.bowers at gmail.com>
To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 7:31 PM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page


> Joni
> 85015
> joni.bowers at gmail.com
> 
> We had a fire yesterday that severely damaged my three trees in the backyard.  A 5 year old turkey fig, a 4 year old apricot, and a 10-13 year old seedless ash.  (They were 4 ft. high "sticks" when I planted them.) The fig is half charred to white on the branches and the rest is crumbly leaves.  The trunk looks untouched.  The apricot is crumbly leaves and the bark is peeling away from the trunk.  The ash is half crumbly leaves and half okay leaves but the bark is peeling away from the trunk.  I've got water dripping at their bases but am I just wasting water or will they survive like my neighbor assured me?
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Arid_gardener mailing list
> Arid_gardener at CALS.arizona.edu
> http://CALS.arizona.edu/mailman2/listinfo/arid_gardener
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://CALS.arizona.edu/pipermail/arid_gardener/attachments/20070812/e12406b3/attachment.html