Re: Re: River Birch

We discussed the merits of Merit a long time back. Purist environmentalists don't like it because they just won't use anything. But some of us realize that sometimes you have to use something and Merit is effective while being less offensive than previously used products. Yes, Ceres, it is effective against Japanese Beetles. JBs love my birch and devour every leaf. But when I put Merit down in April for the roots to take it up, by JB time the systemic ability is in place and the tree sustains little damage. This means it is a preventative, not a solution during JB feeding time. Yes, it does affect microorganisms in the soil, but nowhere near as badly as awful things like Diazinon. And the organisms do bounce back, especially when the gardener continues to practice other earth-friendly gardening methods.

There may have been more up to date reports since I last looked at the product, but this is what I know from my earlier research and what we learned in MG class.


Kitty
neIN, Zone 5
----- Original Message ----- From: "Betsy Kelson" <bkelson@ix.netcom.com>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Re: River Birch


HI All!
       Behind and lurking as usual. I went to a BAYER CropScience Product
Training this last week. They had been doing tests in Ohio and Michigan on
EAB and were getting good control with MERIT which is in their BAyer Tree
and Shrub product.

betsy
Evergreen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bonnie Holmes" <holmesbm@usit.net>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Re: River Birch



What a shame!!!  Is there anything that can stop/deter/reduce this borer.
I'm understanding from other things that I am reading that the continuing
warming will make it worse.  We always have had the pine borer in the

South

but cooler winters usually kept the numbers small.  Not having a "normal"
winter in almost twenty years has resulted in unusually large insect
populations that are very difficult to keep under control.


> [Original Message]
> From: <Cersgarden@aol.com>
> To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> Date: 8/9/2006 2:28:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [CHAT] Re: River Birch
>
> In a message dated 8/9/06 12:13:34 PM, holmesbm@usit.net writes:
>
>
> > The new hybrid of paper birch that was mentioned in my workshop was
> > "Heritage"
> >
>
> Bonnie, this is the better   one for our area also but not on the
recommended
> list. Due to our heavy clay, birches have a iron chlorosis   problem
here.
> I have a huge 3 trunked birch, not Heritage just a species & it is
beautiful
> but certainly one of the messiest trees you can have.   My neighbor has

3

in
> their landscape that suffer and look terrible.   They finally removed

the
worst
> one. I love the bark!
> The information I rcd yesterday is the Emerald Ash Borer has > killed
> 15
> million ash trees in Michigan. Pockets of damaging activity have also
been
> found in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio & Windsor Ontario. In 2005 visual
surveys
> were conducted in all 99 counties in Iowa. More than 1300 ash trees in
238
> sites were observed for the signs & sysmptoms of EAB. Several
instances

of
> native boring insects were recorded but NO EAB were found.
>      Ceres
>
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