Wind Damaged Conifer Tree Advice

[daavv]

Hi I've just joined and need help. Today with really high winds here in Scotland, part of one of my conifer trees was ripped off by the wind.

 

It's obviously an old tree and pretty much been left to grow at will apart from height and trimming (I just moved here not that long ago), very thick large trunk that then seperates into two large sections, one left and one right. The right section then splits into a large Y shape, this is the problem area.

 

The large left branch of this Y shape is the one ripped off. I've tidied up the mess and need advice on what to do about the ripped off open area.

 

The photos show the way it is just now. Which show the damage and the right branch(that you can just see part of going up to the right is still fine and intact apart from the open wound area.

 

Should this be left as is, and it may seal itself up over time?

 

Should it be cut off cleanly? This would remove the right side branch that is pretty large, several meters high. The branch that was ripped off was probably around 8m to 10m with the 100mph wind.

 

I can't do anything more tonight as it's still very windy getting dark and starting to rain and the rest of the week has heavy rain except Friday, supposedly.

 

Any information would be appreciated. I want to do everything possibly to keep it.

 

Thanks in advance

 

dave

 

 

 

[VEG]

Fell it as a lot of tear damage. Would be good if you could post a picture of the whole tree as it a bit easier to see exactly what the tree looks like.

Edited January 3, 2012 by VEG

[skyhuck]

Will removing the tree leave a big hole in the hedge???

[slasherscot]

scotland a big place............location would help maybe some1 on here local to u could help.

[Yorkshireman]

that appears to have ripped right through the areas that would normaly compartmentalise on failure therefor the tree wont be able to self seal adequatley,,

this will evetually lead to structural failure over your fence etc

 

perhaps cut back the weight of the limb to avoid the collapse potential & underplant ,, allow time for new plant to grow & then remove this one

 

I would advise you get a visit from a local guy to visually assess but I wouldnt hold out to much hope if I were you .......

[daavv]

Hi all, thanks for the replies so far.

 

I'll take some pics of the whole tree as it is just now, if weather allows tomorrow.

 

Just now the other large branch at that damaged section is fine

with regards to stability. But there's that ripped section it's close to, so as mentioned it doesnt look good for it's future, which is a real shame as it looks good and healthy and has been blowing about happily without disaster in the 80 odd mph gales.

 

The extremely large "branch" that was ripped off fell through the front conifers and used to be behind and above and had been allowed to get like this by the previous owners. Approx 10m-12m high.

 

So it destroyed a section of the front conifers (The front conifers are approx. 5m high.) that I had to deal with also and this has caused a few gaps that weren't there before and pushed forward a load of branches that were more central (that I'll try to re-route with string at some point). It's not as bad as it could have been though, as it's a corner area it still looks green thankfully.

 

But have to say I didn't expect to be cutting a tree with a hand saw at 8.30am this morning after 1 and a half hours sleep due to the wind! The amount of branches kicking around that need to be re-cut is unbelievable. And the trunk of the "branch that fell off" can be dealt with at another time, I managed to pull it back through and get it to the ground so there are no other bits still in the front conifers, the trunk of the ripped off branch is probably about 3m to 3.5m diameter of a plate and heavy.

 

I'm in east ayrshire and as said I'll attempt a few more pics tomorrow. But if whats left needs cut, it's easy compared to what I had to do today.

 

Cheers

 

dave

[David Goss]

I may be over your way thursday or friday and then over the weekend so i could maybe take a pop by and have a look for you. Still need to know where you are though so you can PM me address or phone number if you wish. Had a full day of storm damaged trees today and lots of connies took a beating, there is more trees down today than bawbag managed.

[daavv]

Hi everyone, the weather was fine today and I was able to take more detailed pictures. Four in this post and the remaining two in the next.

 

The tree is stable with nothing further damaged and about to fall off. If anything was going to fall off just now it would have done so last night as there were more really high winds and everything was ok today.

 

The damaged tree is situated behind the front conifers. The pics show behind these with the damaged tree in full view.

 

Any thoughts or info would be appreciated.

 

@David Goss: I'm not going to be around much over the next week but if you could have a look at the latest pics and give me your thoughts it would be appreciated.

 

Thanks again everything so far.

 

dave

 

 

 

 

[daavv]

Remaining two pics.

 

 

 

cheers

 

dave