MUDPACKING (and Biocontrol)

Many people ask how they can control the blight on a tree that is infected with the blight. One way to extend the life of an infected tree, often for a year or longer, is to apply a mudpack. This page is primarily dedicated to disseminating information about the mudpack.

One shoud know, though, that there are other methods of biocontrol for chestnut blight cankers.
These other methods are summarized here by various authors
here by Dr. Sandra Anagnostakis of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
and on the Connecticut Chapter website here by Timothy McKechnie.

http://www.masschestnut.org/mudpackingCankers.php
This link takes you to a site on the Massachusettes Chapter's website. In this document, TACF Staff Pathologist Dr. Fred Hebard documents the process of mudpacking, also known as a soil compress.

Here are some pictures of mudpacks. Click on the images to get larger, higher resolution photographs.

The Windsor Tree in Massachusettes. The mudpack is covered here with a black plastic trash bag and held in place with duct tape.	Mudpack on a tree at Lasdon Park orchard in NY State. Black plastic is held in place with chicken wire.
A healed canker after a mudpack was removed at Lasdon Park in NY State. Craig Hibben of TACF-NY manages these American trees for the Chapter.	Chandis Klinger and one of his trees on which he used the "tin can method" of mudpacking.
Eugene Dougherty stand with the Tuning Fork tree in Delano, PA. This tree was kept alive for 6+ years through Eugene's diligent mudpacking work. Black plastic trash bags are held in place with duct tape.	An example of how tall a tree can get using Klinger's tin can method. PA-TACF President Tim Phelps stands at the base of the tree.