What is problem here??

[john87]

Hi all,

 

Advice needed.. First off, what sort of tree is this.. Is it a sycamore??

 

john..

[openspaceman]

aesculus hippocastanum

[john87]

18 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

aesculus hippocastanum

Thank you!!

 

Now, what has happened here... several large branches fell off.. When you look at the wood where the branches broke, it is very light, almost like Balsa wood, and it has sort of delaminated, with white stuff inbetween the "laminations"..

 

john..

[Dan Maynard]

That is delignification caused by white rot, those branches are dead. What caused so much of the tree to die is not apparent.

[john87]

5 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

That is delignification caused by white rot, those branches are dead. What caused so much of the tree to die is not apparent.

Thank you very much!!!! I will post some photos of another tree now, one about 200 yards from the first one.. A few questions..

 

1, is it the same sort of tree??

 

2, It looks like the same rot, is is contagious to other trees??

 

3, It there a reason that it would start half way up a tree or does it start at the bottom and work up??

 

john..

 

[Dan Maynard]

Doesn't look the same no, I'd guess a willow or poplar.

 

White rot is a broad description of decay inside the wood caused by many different fungi, so on its own not enough to say. That's why we look for fruiting bodies or FFB as identifiers.

 

Some fungi start at cuts or wounds and spread down, some start at the bottom and spread up. HC and pop are not good at stopping the spread either way. Fungal spores are everywhere so it's always going to spread given a chance, bit like bacteria always around us ready to infect a cut. Some do spread through the soil.

 

In any case these are pretty advanced and with that much of the top dead the bottom will have been starved. The danger of course is decay in the roots causing the whole thing to fall over.

 

Looks like it's by a road in which case duty of care applies, best advice I can give is get someone competent to have a look as failure reasonably foreseeable.

[john87]

Yes i agree, the large branch on the ground fell off the other week. The rest looks unsafe to me, i certainly would not climb it. It definitely needs to be removed though as you say..

 

john

[Dan Maynard]

Probably obvious but if you are thinking of taking it on yourself a felling hinge made of that white stuff is not to be relied on, likely to just snap rather than bend so the tree falls any direction it likes. Seriously consider hiring someone just to get it on the ground.

[john87]

1 hour ago, Dan Maynard said:

Probably obvious but if you are thinking of taking it on yourself a felling hinge made of that white stuff is not to be relied on, likely to just snap rather than bend so the tree falls any direction it likes. Seriously consider hiring someone just to get it on the ground.

There is a huge tree next to it so i could in theory traverse across, but it is about 25 or 30 feet away and i would need seriously big bollocks and rather more experience than i have!

 

I was thinking that perhaps i could spike up it and cut it down in small chunks, but maybe not such a great idea, given that it could snap at any time.. It will have to be removed in bits as not enough room to just fell it in one, especially given that as you say, it could well all go somewhat amiss..

 

Thank you very much for all your brilliant advice though!!!

 

john..

Edited March 18, 2022 by john87

[drinksloe]

U could also put ur rope up the other tree with a throwline or ladder or even climb it and come back down leaving ur rope up to save u monkey swinging across.

 

Its always far harder than it looks, even when i was younger and climbing more it took a lot of confidence/bollocks to really go for it