I have a sick Bradford Pear that is most likely going to die before winter. I have exposed the trunk flare (not too deep actually) and completed the Sick Tree Treatment, but I have not been following Dirt Doctor programs until just recently, and I believe it is too little too late to help the tree.

I beleive the tree has a fungus because of the grey/black swirling, mottled color of the trunk. There is also some happy little acrobat ants doing their thing to it...
The tree has kicked off all the bark on the street side of the tree (the tree was planted between the sidewalk and the curb long before I bought the house), and the canopy is a sickly, thinned-out, scraggly mess.

My question is this - Is it safe to grind up this tree and use it as a mulch, or put it in the compost - or should I stack it on the curb for the city to take?

Thanks!

B

Compost it for a little while, let nature clobber whatever killed the tree. Chipping it up and piling it for a while is perfect.

Bradford pears have turned out not to be the great street trees people thought they were back in the 1980s when so many were planted, so a disease problem isn't a surprise. You could have circling/girdling roots going on also, not visible to you at this point. Many trees were simply plopped into the ground out of their black plastic pots and the roots weren't soaked and untwisted at all.

This is a good topic to call the Sunday morning radio show about - how to deal with replacing a street tree, when to replant, how to replant, etc. Good luck!

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Northwesterner

Thank you for the good advice, Northwesterner - I appreciate it!