Topping young tree

[Khriss]

16 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

 

Most, but not all.
 

An attenuated birch like the OP describes can become an extremely whippy, almost comically so, rocking and yawing in the slightest breeze.

A snip off the top and it’s much more stable.

"  snip "" ? he were using motor pole saw!!  K

 

( off t'ladder...) 

[Mick Dempsey]

4 minutes ago, Khriss said:

"  snip "" ? he were using motor pole saw!!  K

 

( off t'ladder...) 

So what?

[Stephen Blair]

I avoid working on Birch at the start of the year due to the force of the sap rising, the sap can pour out a wound for weeks And doesn’t do the tree any favours and first/only time it happened to me I was worried about doing a bad job.

  An old gardener friend told me to go and wrap a big cloth round it to help it calyst over and keep pathogens out.

  Not sure how much that helped but I do know 21 years later the trees still there.

  Sounds like you went about it the right way and don’t feel bad for using an extension pole.  That’s what they are there for. 

[Khriss]

36 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

So what?

... You after a job or summat?  K

[AHPP]

41 minutes ago, Chris at eden said:

We didn't have the HSE, the courts, and statutory legislation for millions of years saying that we need to manage risk at an appropriate level by removing defects in high target areas.  Its cheaper and more effective to remove defects through formative pruning than waiting for them to become an issue requiring major tree works.  Not that anyone actually does formative pruning (can't remember the last time I recommended it), or that the works described by the OP can be described as such.  I take your point about the trees being fine without it but as with most pruning works, its for the benefit of people not the trees.  

 

 

370,000,000 years ago - trees arrive

200,000 years ago - humans arrive

1000 years ago - modern legal system emerges in UK - people now definitely responsible for their property damaging other people's property

970 years of people being responsible for their trees causing damage etc goes happily by

30 years ago - internet arrives, lets people more effectively swap ideas about how to scare people into unnecessary tree work, people act like fannies about perceived liability hiding behind every photon

 

We're talking about things like silver birches in a McDonalds car park. They'll be dead from drought, compaction or the need to put a bin where they were before they're twelve feet tall anyway. It's not a two tonne limb from a heritage oak that could fall on a picnic in Hyde Park.

 

[Chris at eden]

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

 

Most, but not all.

 

That is why I said most.  

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

 

An attenuated birch like the OP describes can become an extremely whippy, almost comically so, rocking and yawing in the slightest breeze.

They still pruned it as it was hitting the window, not for the good of the tree.  The movement over time will lead to the formation of stem taper stabilising the tree.  

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

A snip off the top and it’s much more stable.

I agree.  It has also lost its apical bud so will almost certainly form with multiple leaders - a defect for the future.  Kind of the opposite of formative pruning. 

[Chris at eden]

2 hours ago, Jack.P said:

The tree described has fair chance at success but won’t know for a while.was recently looking at another one which had already been very heavily pollarded and seemed ok although very un natural looking.the lady did say she still thought it was too big even though it was already reduced by two thirds .

No such thing as a heavy pollard.  Sounds like its been mullered and just needs finishing off with 3 cuts at the bottom.  

[Mick Dempsey]

4 minutes ago, Chris at eden said:

No such thing as a heavy pollard.  Sounds like its been mullered and just needs finishing off with 3 cuts at the bottom.  

If it’s safe and the client likes it, why fell it?

[Chris at eden]

1 hour ago, Stephen Blair said:

I avoid working on Birch at the start of the year due to the force of the sap rising, the sap can pour out a wound for weeks And doesn’t do the tree any favours and first/only time it happened to me I was worried about doing a bad job.

That is a pretty old school view.  The drying of the sapwood will be more of an issue than the bleeding.  

1 hour ago, Stephen Blair said:

  An old gardener friend told me to go and wrap a big cloth round it to help it calyst over and keep pathogens out.

  Not sure how much that helped but I do know 21 years later the trees still there.

The main issue with Birch is Piptoporus which has a latent colonisation stratgy meaning the spores are already in there before you start cutting.  They are kept suppressed by the low oxygen content within the xylem vessels, once you cut and allow the vessels to dry out and oxygen to get in the fungus develops.  The rag won't do anything but if the tree is healthy there is no reason why it cant compartmentalise.  I would think its survival has more to do with the quality of your pruning than the rag to be honest.  

1 hour ago, Stephen Blair said:

  Sounds like you went about it the right way and don’t feel bad for using an extension pole.  That’s what they are there for. 

 

[Chris at eden]

3 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

If it’s safe and the client likes it, why fell it?

Fair enough, but it doesn't sound like they do like it.  They think its too big even though its already had a 66% crown reduction.