AUBURN, Alabama -- The spring has produced encouraging signs of life in the two historic live oak trees at Toomer's Corner, but Auburn horticulturists say more tests are needed to determine whether the powerful herbicide used to poison the trees last year has dissipated.
Gary Keever, the Auburn horticulturist who is leading the team of scientists working on the trees, strapped into bucket lift early Wednesday to get a birds-eye view of the two trees.
Police allege that Harvey Updyke laced the trees with Spike 80df, a potent herbicide that has made the trees appear gnarled and sickly.
Keever said the early assesment of the trees was positive. There is foliage growth over the entire canopy, and fresh, healthy shoots are growing. Leafs no longer show the visible signs of poison that were present last year. However, there are also many dead limbs that must be pruned, and soil tests are pending.
"That will give us an idea of how much herbicide might still be in the beds and also in the foliage of the trees," Keever said.
Keever said scientists will try two new methods this spring to prod the trees to rejuvenate. Every two weeks, the trees will be fed a liquid fertilizer with micro-nutrients.
On March 26, a company from Tennessee will come to inject the trees with a sugar solution. Keever compared it to a human getting Intravenous therapy, or an IV.
"Spike 80df inhibits photosynthesis, so the trees aren't able to capture that sunlight and over time they deplete any carbohydrate reserves that are in the tree," Keever said. "So we hope to inject this sugar solution into the trunk. The trees take that solution up, trans-locate it to the foliage and hopefully supply some of the food energy to sustain the trees for longer."
In the big picture, Keever said today's news is good.
"You look at our alternative. If we didn't have that new flush growth on the trees now, they'd essentially be dead," he said. "So we're not out of the woods, we're not clear of the herbicide, but it is encouraging that we're seeing as much new growth as we are on the trees and that it's not showing any signs of poisoning yet."
So should the grim prognosis that the trees are likely to eventually die be changed?
"I don't think so, not at this point," Keever said. "Let us gain more information. Once we have the soil tests back, we'll have a better indication of how much herbicide is in the zone where the trees are likely to be taking up water and nutrients. As we progress over the next 4-6 weeks, we'll have a much better idea of if we're likely to repeat what we saw last year."
Source-
www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/03/toomers_corner_oaks_showing_en.html
