Back from the dead? Eucalyptus

[PatrickFirwood]

So I've noticed a lot of what appeared to be dead Eucalyptus trees this year that are all following the same trend, appear to be completely dead earlier this year, and are now starting to resprout low down on the main stem. My question is will these trees ever make a full recovery? 

 

We have removed a few this summer, and although they are sprouting, the entire remaining canopy has been completely dead, dry and brittle, so I can't see them making a full recovery? 

 

Others have mentioned that they have seen a lot of dead Eucalyptus this year, so I'm just curious as to how others are dealing with them? We have a lot of customers that would like to retain the trees especially as they are starting to show signs of life again. 

[Peasgood]

They have evolved to survive fire, maybe the same mechanism allows them to survive frost too.

[Dan Maynard]

In general once wood is dead it's dead, so the upper branches which have died won't come back. The root which has been protected from frost underground may well have survived and will sprout.

 

If you take off all the dead and let the sprouts grow you should end up with a multi stemmed tree, but like coppice wood tree.

[PatrickFirwood]

13 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

In general once wood is dead it's dead, so the upper branches which have died won't come back. The root which has been protected from frost underground may well have survived and will sprout.

 

If you take off all the dead and let the sprouts grow you should end up with a multi stemmed tree, but like coppice wood tree.

Yes that's what I thought, I have suggested to some customers that don't want to loose the tree that we cut right back to where it's sprouting and see what happens, like you said a hard coppice/pollard.

[Dan Maynard]

Looked at one last week though, from underneath the leaves all looked pretty brown, but from the side you could see a layer of green leaves over the top. It was also sprouting from the trunk low down.

 

I don't think it needs to be a rush to fell euc anyway does it? Bloody hard wood once it's dead and seasoned and I think it's pretty durable in the ground too.

[richyrich]

On 01/09/2023 at 16:23, Peasgood said:

They have evolved to survive fire, maybe the same mechanism allows them to survive frost too.

It does indeed- a number of years ago I saw a few wiped out by extreme cold. However they made a full recovery from the ground..