North Carolina: Fraser Fir Christmas trees develop soil pathogens so foreign invasive firs will solve the problem?

An estimated 50 million Fraser firs are under cultivation, and North
Carolina ranks second in the nation (behind Oregon) in the number of
Christmas trees harvested. With the rapid increase in fir plantings
have come problems, such as the spread of a highly destructive rot,
called Phytophthora, that infects the roots of Frasers and kills
thousands of trees each year. It costs N.C. growers an estimated $5
million to $6 million a year. The exotic pathogen doesn’t just kill
the trees. It leaves the soil unusable for growing more Frasers. Left
unchecked, that poses a serious threat to a state industry that relies
on the signature Fraser.

But help may be on the way from Turkey. More
than 50,000 Turkish firs are now growing on mountain slopes in North
Carolina. Growers and researchers are looking for disease-resistant
varieties of fir that can thrive on land where Frasers can no longer
grow, as well as species that can be grafted to improve the Frasers’
disease tolerance. Jack Wiseman Jr., a wholesale Christmas tree grower
in Avery County, said he has lost about 15 acres of land to the root
rot, much of that since a pair of hurricanes dumped nearly 50 inches
of rain in the mountains in 2004. That fueled the waterborne root rot
that moves through the soil. To make the land productive again,
Wiseman has planted about 1,000 Turkish firs. He’s hoping they’ll be
ready to harvest in seven years, although they appear to grow more
slowly than Frasers. “They are a really pretty tree,” Wiseman said.
“It’s really dark green and has a little bigger needle than the
Fraser. … If you have ground where you can’t grow Frasers, you might
as well try something.” Researchers at N.C. State University have
identified the Turkish fir and Momi fir from Japan as among the most
promising of the more than 30 fir species they’ve studied for disease
resistance. At a research greenhouse at N.C. State, AnneMargaret
Braham, a research technician, used a hand-held field computer one day
recently to enter data about the health of 6,000 fir seedlings sitting
on a tabletop. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/415686.html

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