what to do with the old lime pollards?

[MattyF]

You could take the tops down to the old cuts,leave till you get some regen,then cut the sides.

 

i was thinking along those lines,if they where oaks or beach ect i would do that....im hoping the general opion is limes will with stand that and be done in one shot?

the collasped ones have epicormic shooted madly this year

[Charlieh]

Matt,

 

have you been for a walk round wimpole hall near the arrington end, they have done a row of limes, some in a fairly poor state similar to your last pic, they seem to have recovered ok after pollarding. Not a great deal of help but worth a look, they have hazel sticks stored in the rotten trunks. Also there are some pretty good examples of coronet cuts around the parkland.

[Steve Bullman]

i have almost an exact replica of that job going on....repollard ever other tree last year, went to view them last week and they put on plenty growth. another year and we'll do the rest. i think trees such as these that like you say are literally falling part dont leave too many options other than repollard.

[MattyF]

Matt,

 

have you been for a walk round wimpole hall near the arrington end, they have done a row of limes, some in a fairly poor state similar to your last pic, they seem to have recovered ok after pollarding. Not a great deal of help but worth a look, they have hazel sticks stored in the rotten trunks. Also there are some pretty good examples of coronet cuts around the parkland.

 

ah nice one charlie!,might take the dog for a walk around up there on sunday.....these are in wendy about 4-5 miles from wimpole same sorta soil conditions both are flood plains to the river cam i believe

[David Humphries]

Not one hundred percent sure on this but.........

You could try Giraffe Pollarding which would be re polarding the canopy back to the top of the bole, but leaving one or two of the larger poles which would act as sap risers. When the regrowth becomes substantial you could then remove the larger ones.

I've seen this done on lapsed Ash pollards.

[skyhuck]

Not one hundred percent sure on this but.........

You could try Giraffe Pollarding which would be re polarding the canopy back to the top of the bole, but leaving one or two of the larger poles which would act as sap risers. When the regrowth becomes substantial you could then remove the larger ones.

I've seen this done on lapsed Ash pollards.

 

That sounds like a better plan than mine

[treedave]

Not one hundred percent sure on this but.........

You could try Giraffe Pollarding which would be re polarding the canopy back to the top of the bole, but leaving one or two of the larger poles which would act as sap risers. When the regrowth becomes substantial you could then remove the larger ones.

I've seen this done on lapsed Ash pollards.

 

I work with a guy that does a lot of veteran tree work, and with trees in danger of collapse that want to be retained, he tends to reduce the mechanical load / sail area whilst retaining the lower more stable canopy. Monkeyed's technique is on the money IMHO, as long as the retained larger poles don't retain a large sail area / mechanical load.

 

Looks like some interesting work.

[Chris Harris]

Not one hundred percent sure on this but.........

You could try Giraffe Pollarding which would be re polarding the canopy back to the top of the bole, but leaving one or two of the larger poles which would act as sap risers. When the regrowth becomes substantial you could then remove the larger ones.

I've seen this done on lapsed Ash pollards.

 

Also agree with you on this & also what treedave said, i've done quite a bit of work on a private estate with alot of veteran trees that are mechanicly unsound but are fantastic trees that need to be kept. We normaly reduce these instages to encourage epicormic growth to form lower down eventually forming the trees new crown. by reducing a trees by 10% you remove 70% of the sail affect

[Log-ologist]

Regardless of the pruning regime, the most important thing is to establish replacement trees that willl perpetuate the avenue.

[Tom D]

Not one hundred percent sure on this but.........

You could try Giraffe Pollarding which would be re polarding the canopy back to the top of the bole, but leaving one or two of the larger poles which would act as sap risers. When the regrowth becomes substantial you could then remove the larger ones.

I've seen this done on lapsed Ash pollards.

 

I agree, inspect on a tree by tree basis and keep as much as you can rather than reduce right down, if a stem has a good attachment keep it. If you are worried about wind sail reduce these stems a little but nothing drastic. Remember the more you take off the more shock and therefore root and corresponding butt rot. Just removing all the crossing / weak / included / and poorly attached branches will reduce the overall wind resistance considerably.

 

And of course get some replacements planted