Would you class this as good tree surgery

[tree-fancier123]

although willows are with eucalypts some of most vigorous fighters after being decaptitated, is it true that willows, particularly babylonica and chrysocoma weeping willows are among the most susceptiple to fungal colonization of the open pruning wounds?

When people with big weeping willows say ' I want it cut, but I don't want to lose it' all I've been able to say so far is 'well should be ok, willows usually grow back' , but in Lonsdale there is a picture of a dead willow ' from severe topping' it says. I'm just curious if many people have shortened the branches on weeping willows and the tree has become infected in the following years.

[john p]

although willows are with eucalypts some of most vigorous fighters after being decaptitated, is it true that willows, particularly babylonica and chrysocoma weeping willows are among the most susceptiple to fungal colonization of the open pruning wounds?

 

When people with big weeping willows say ' I want it cut, but I don't want to lose it' all I've been able to say so far is 'well should be ok, willows usually grow back' , but in Lonsdale there is a picture of a dead willow ' from severe topping' it says. I'm just curious if many people have shortened the branches on weeping willows and the tree has become infected in the following years.

 

 

I've bashed hundreds of willows viciously through the years, as far as I know they are all still plugging away!

[tree-fancier123]

I've bashed hundreds of willows viciously through the years, as far as I know they are all still plugging away!

interesting you've had no patients die on you - that has to be good for business.

 

The reference in my first post was incorrect - the picture I had seen of death due to severe topping was poplar not willow, and in Brown and Kirkhams pruning book

[jomoco]

It's all dependent on species, and whether that species is in its natural environment, or a manmade one, being force fed copious amounts of nitrogen fertilizer?

 

Erythrina caffra in a manmade environment's a prime example. Here in SoCal they either get whacked back every year, or they fall apart each summer.

 

It's a commercial reality.

 

You purists? Obviously ain't been around long enough to realize the stark difference between the natural world, and the manmade world's realities n limitations.

 

Jomoco

[Mick Dempsey]

I've seen a few turn their toes up after a year or so.

 

The vast majority just come back strongly. Especially if they've got their toes near the water.

 

Pops can go either way it's true.

[Mick Dempsey]

It's all dependent on species, and whether that species is in its natural environment, or a manmade one, being force fed copious amounts of nitrogen fertilizer?

 

Erythrina caffra in a manmade environment's a prime example. Here in SoCal they either get whacked back every year, or they fall apart each summer.

 

It's a commercial reality.

 

You purists? Obviously ain't been around long enough to realize the stark difference between the natural world, and the manmade world's realities n limitations.

 

Jomoco

 

Good post Jomo.

[Gary Prentice]

It's all dependent on species, and whether that species is in its natural environment, or a manmade one, being force fed copious amounts of nitrogen fertilizer?

 

Erythrina caffra in a manmade environment's a prime example. Here in SoCal they either get whacked back every year, or they fall apart each summer.

 

It's a commercial reality.

 

You purists? Obviously ain't been around long enough to realize the stark difference between the natural world, and the manmade world's realities n limitations.

 

Jomoco

 

Nope, I'm a newbie- since around about 1985:biggrin:

 

Loads to learn yet

[jomoco]

Nope, I'm a newbie- since around about 1985:biggrin:

 

Loads to learn yet

 

Et tu Brute?

 

Jomoco

[tree-fancier123]

I've seen a few turn their toes up after a year or so.

 

The vast majority just come back strongly. Especially if they've got their toes near the water.

 

Pops can go either way it's true.

thanks for the data

I thought there must be something to what I'd read re weeping willows getting infected through pruning wounds - if I get the opportunity to cut a big specimen maybe I will say something along the lines of ' willow can become infected following pruning, can't guarantee it will be ok'.

A lot of the weeping willows aren't what I'd call precious, but ocaisionally see a magnificent specimen

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

Damn I said I was done with this thread.

 

I'd look to the works, over twenty or more years, that were published on the lapsed beech pollards at, I think, Burnham beeches.

 

Is it a justifiable arguement, or just smoke and mirrors, to say that (true) pollards are longer lived or bringing lapsed (original) pollards back into management is all the same thing as topping?

 

Pollards are created, as a planned form of management intended for the the life of the tree for a particular purpose, begun when the tree is just taller than the height that the pollard heads are wanted. It's quite clear and included in BS3998.

 

Edit. Dealing with a lapsed pollard. Consider species, location, vitality and the trees regenerative abilities as a species. Then, prune back to beyond the boll/pollard head, considering stem diameter in the relation ship to the retained stem length.

 

Can (some) topped trees become pollarded trees- yes IMO but should they really be or should it be more the case that the right tree for the right place would be the better move?

 

Thanks for sticking your head above the parapet Gary.

The research on lapsed pollards at Burnham Beeches is still ongoing. They have had some very interesting observations on the relative success/failure of various pruning techniques on lapsed pollards recently.

To my thinking bringing long lapsed pollards back is tantamount to topping and agree that one needs to take species, age, site conditions etc in into consideration.

I was trying to stir up a little more thought about the responses given to the OP. rather than a knee jerk reaction to a photo of a tree which we know very little about.

Despite