tree died after crowning

[greensampling]

hi i am looking for advice,

i had a very healthy eucalyptus gunni that was thriving to the point that it grew rather tall and needed the height reduced. I had a tree surgeon come round and they cut approx 1/3rd off the height of it in Nov 22. They said it would be fine to cut at this time.

Since it had been cut its health began deteriorating. the leaves started going brown, wilted, some leaf loss. I wasnt sure if it was due to the weather and ofcourse because it had the stress from being cut. it had thrived through the winter of 2021 (i purchased it in mid 2021). I did some research and it said if you scrape back some of the surface of the bark it should be green underneath. i did so and found it is brown. i cut a small branch off and it was also brown inside. no green. i believe my gunni has died. it cost afew hundred to purchase. what rights do i have as i feel it died because of the work of the tree surgeon. the tree surgeon has insurance. am i within my rights to ask him to replace it with a gunni of the same height that i purchased it back in 2021?

 

thanks

[monkeybusiness]

10 minutes ago, greensampling said:

hi i am looking for advice,

i had a very healthy eucalyptus gunni that was thriving to the point that it grew rather tall and needed the height reduced. I had a tree surgeon come round and they cut approx 1/3rd off the height of it in Nov 22. They said it would be fine to cut at this time.

Since it had been cut its health began deteriorating. the leaves started going brown, wilted, some leaf loss. I wasnt sure if it was due to the weather and ofcourse because it had the stress from being cut. it had thrived through the winter of 2021 (i purchased it in mid 2021). I did some research and it said if you scrape back some of the surface of the bark it should be green underneath. i did so and found it is brown. i cut a small branch off and it was also brown inside. no green. i believe my gunni has died. it cost afew hundred to purchase. what rights do i have as i feel it died because of the work of the tree surgeon. the tree surgeon has insurance. am i within my rights to ask him to replace it with a gunni of the same height that i purchased it back in 2021?

 

thanks

No, you aren’t. 
Gunnii can be susceptible to frost damage in my experience - I’ve seen mature specimens die after particularly cold spells. 
 

[greensampling]

Hi thanks for your response,

Would cutting it back in back in November increase likelihood of it dying from frost in the winter. The surgeon said November would be fine, and I took his advice. 

 

[Paul in the woods]

Do you have a photo of the tree? I'm curious about its history, was it pot grown or rootballed at all? I've grown quite a few types of euc from seed and they all seem to have very vigorous roots that seem to want to get out of their pots and establish. I would have thought a large pot grown tree would need care to establish and last year was very dry. 

 

It might also grow from the base, I gather gunni can be coppiced when young and it will throw out juvenile foliage. 

Edited March 11, 2023 by Paul in the woods

[greensampling]

X

Edited March 12, 2023 by greensampling
Please delete my post thread (privacy). Advice has been taken onboard, thankyou

[dumper]

Looks overgrown in pot eucalyptus don’t like being in pots too long evergreens best cut during spring, my guess is wind burn and desiccation if you lift it up I would bet the roots are still the same as when in pot did you pull out the roots when planting?

Edited March 11, 2023 by dumper

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

Tree surgeon is nothing to do with death of that tree in my experience,and I couldn’t resist…………. It is bad location for it by any consideration and probably was killed by the neighbour seen that too many times🧐

[Paul in the woods]

That doesn't look like wind scorch to me. Mine got badly a scorched by the wind last year and the tips went brown and the leaves at the end of the branches went brown and blew off but the large mature leaves remained green. They recovered well.

 

To my uneducated eye that looks like the tree has died, possibly too much of too little water? I wouldn't rule out herbicides either.

 

As others have said though, if that tree had established well you'd need to cut it back every year, they can be rather rampant and not ideal as a small tree. 

 

It might be worth talking to the nursery you bought it from to get their opinion?

[Steve Bullman]

Never seen a euc die from being topped in 20+ years. I suspect theres something else going on with this one.

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

14 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

Never seen a euc die from being topped in 20+ years. I suspect theres something else going on with this one.

That what I’m saying,most of the time they recover from the stump,if it left slightly longer and on sunny place🫡.In Ireland now they become same curse as laylandi are🙈