So, I Have a Mistletoe In My Trees Problem…

Yes, you read that right. I have mistletoes in my trees. This is a serious thing for me because mistletoe is actually a parasite that will eventually kill the tree. The mistletoe have been there for a while (AKA longer than I feel comfortable commenting about online) and I’m very worried about the trees. So… I decided to fight it.

As of this post, I have six trees in my yard with mistletoe. All the infected trees are Ironwood trees. I already cut the branches with mistletoes off three trees. (I decided to cut the branches off the trees before trying other methods of getting rid of mistletoe. I have seen branch removal work in the past. Plus, the trees needed to get pruned anyway.) Two of the trees are doing really well and don’t show any further problems.

Here is a photograph of one of the mistletoe infected branches I cut off one of the trees…

The third tree, on the other hand, had two other branches infected with mistletoe. I can reach one, but the second one will require me to use a ladder. As of the writing of this post, I wasn’t able to cut the branches off. I needed a small break to do other things and to wait until the weather changes.

Even though I’m really happy and optimistic about the first three trees, I am worried about the other three. The first two trees have mistletoe in the tip top of the canopy. The third tree’s mistletoe can be reached with a ladder, but there are three branches infected. So, I’ll need to figure out how what to do with them. Of course I could hire someone to cut the branches, but I want to see how far I can go before it becomes too much for me to do.

I’m not sure if I will continue to make future post updates on the mistletoe problem. I don’t want to be too excited about the two trees with mistletoe at the tops of their canopies, but I am worried I may need some help getting to them. I also don’t know how fast the “help” will be in removing the mistletoes. Still, if I feel comfortable talking about mistletoe progress in future post, I will.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!