Sycamore Tree health advice needed

[Carnagepooltricks]

Hi, my names Adam.

 

I've got an old hedge barrier between part of my garden and a field. It's made up of very large Sycamore and holly trees. I've noticed in the last couple years that the Sycamore trees look to have develop some sort of rot on some of the branches at the base of the tree and the root passages animals use to travel through the hedge. A couple days ago the most visibly "rotten" branch from one of the tree's snapped off. I have known these trees for about 30 years and they always been large trees.

 

I will try to attach some pictures and give you a link to a video I uploaded to my youtube channel (the video is unlisted so no one else can see it apart from you, it won't appear on my channel). The link is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVhY23tsbnU

 

I'm quite fond of the tree's so hope its nothing too serious. However I will be renovating that part of the garden soon so if something needs to come down before it falls down; now would be a good time as there is nothing there for it to damage (other than falling on me).

 

Many Thanks,

Adam

[openspaceman]

It looks like the trees grew on a bank and have been coppiced, or possibly laid, in the past. The old cut stems have now rotted and hollowed out the stools. As the trees are a lot taller now the leverage they now have acting on the stool means they are liable to fall.

 

@Gimlet and @gary112 may have some advice

[Carnagepooltricks]

Hi Openspaceman, thanks for getting back to me.

 

I'm not sure the have been coppiced. They haven't been touched in the last 30 years and were were large established trees back then (I took off some of the lower hanging branches on either side)

The smaller branches coming up is holly, it's sort of intertwined in with the sycamore trees. there is a monster holly tree at the top pretty much the same height, I didn't know they grew that big before seeing it.

It does look like that big stem might need to go though. I'm hoping it isn't a type of disease that will infect the whole hedge? 

[Mick Dempsey]

2 minutes ago, Carnagepooltricks said:

Hi Openspaceman, thanks for getting back to me.

 

I'm not sure the have been coppiced. They haven't been touched in the last 30 years and were were large established trees back then (I took off some of the lower hanging branches on either side)

The smaller branches coming up is holly, it's sort of intertwined in with the sycamore trees. there is a monster holly tree at the top pretty much the same height, I didn't know they grew that big before seeing it.

It does look like that big stem might need to go though. I'm hoping it isn't a type of disease that will infect the whole hedge? 

Read what he (openspaceman) says. It’s clearly a lapsed hedge.

He knows his stuff.

[AHPP]

Can't help you with your original query but would be interested to know if you're familiar with the process of assarting and whether you think your hedge is the product of it?

[AHPP]

Actually I’ll have stab at the opening question since I’m here now but with the caveat that my tree health knowledge isn’t as good as that of others’ already on this thread. I say the rot/ripped patch is just general gnarliness from previous coppicing and probably no deadly infection or whatever. I’d coppice the big ones and lay the small ones for something to do and for the sake of interest.

[Carnagepooltricks]

Hey AHPP,  I'm not familiar with assarting although I did google it, chopping down woodland for agriculture right? I dunno I guess at some point it was woodland. The garden was basically a field 35-40 years ago which was sold off by it's farmer. All the fields behind belong to a large stately house built in 1550 so hard to tell how long they've been fields for.

 

So you think it might just be some sort rot just effecting those particular branches as apposed to some sort of fungus/disease? The tree with the badger hole in looks like it's got it too, so I guess that whole thing should come down? that would be a shame, I used to love climbing that.

 

Hey Mick, yeah I am taking it all on board I just have very little experience with tree maintenance, I've lived in the countryside my whole live just never had to deal with tree's too much. My favourite tree snapped in half a couple months back in a strong wind, not quite sure of the type of tree but any ideas on why? (other than the wind ) I will need a ladder to get a good look at the break so just took these from the ground.

[Dan Maynard]

Looking at health, there is lots of sprouting branches, good leaf cover, they are clearly vigorous. The decay inside is the dead heartwood rotting out, it has no real impact on the tree health.

 

I would guess these are one or two hundred years old as the base stools are wide, probably felled every 20 years for firewood.

 

Your last tree is cedar. The wood is brittle so when they fail it tends to be dramatic like that, possible there was a defect around some small damage earlier in the trees life.

[AHPP]

18 minutes ago, Carnagepooltricks said:

Hey AHPP,  I'm not familiar with assarting although I did google it, chopping down woodland for agriculture right? I dunno I guess at some point it was woodland. The garden was basically a field 35-40 years ago which was sold off by it's farmer. All the fields behind belong to a large stately house built in 1550 so hard to tell how long they've been fields for.

 

So you think it might just be some sort rot just effecting those particular branches as apposed to some sort of fungus/disease? The tree with the badger hole in looks like it's got it too, so I guess that whole thing should come down? that would be a shame, I used to love climbing that.

 

Hey Mick, yeah I am taking it all on board I just have very little experience with tree maintenance, I've lived in the countryside my whole live just never had to deal with tree's too much. My favourite tree snapped in half a couple months back in a strong wind, not quite sure of the type of tree but any ideas on why? (other than the wind ) I will need a ladder to get a good look at the break so just took these from the ground.

Clearing woodland but importantly leaving a band as a hedge. A niche interest and something you need an eye for. When I spot one, I feel a bit like an ancienter man who can survey a landscape and subconsciously know where water is etc. I could easily be wrong half the time though.

 

If another bit looks similarly rotten, I'd say it's similarly rotten. I couldn't say there isn't some other fungus or whatever in play but the main damage is always going to be the fact it's been previously cut. Trees grow as maidens with the grain sweeping elegantly around branch unions etc; they're strong and protect themselves from pestilence with bark. You cut them and they regrow hard, new branches can end up at ganky angles, holding water, trapping weak bark between stems etc. Once they're cut once, they need cutting regularly to stop new stems becoming too heavy for their union strength. Your hedge is overstood. Say it was forty years since the last cut. It should have probably have been cut at twenty years ish.

 

Other tree is a cedar, probably deodar. They're snappy.

 

Basically nothing looks untoward. Just trees doing tree things.

[Carnagepooltricks]

Hey Dan, That's good to know ,I too think they look healthy but not quite sure how these things work. So are you saying the middle bit will rot out and the rest of the tree will be fine? There is a old hedge in one of the fields that looks like someone has washed all the soil away from the roots, it's sort of suspended by large trunks/roots over the small bank, is that kind of what it would look like eventually?

 

So the ceder is prone to breaking. There used to be a oak on the side the ceder broke until 2015, when that went the ceder was thinner on that side. It had been filling out nicely over the last 7 years so it looked pretty even, maybe it wasn't used to that weight on that side? The wind always seems to blow down the hill and it fell in that same direction. (towards where the oak would be and going with the wind)

 

Hey AHPP, Yeah that's cool, there is a nice little woodland triangle I used to walk between a couple fields, probably 10 meters wide and the length of the field finishing in a point. I guess it acts as a buffer between the two field height levels, great for a nice walk. Is that part of assarting?