Knackered Old Beech

[Mr Ed]

So you wouldn't advocate some faffing with a silky then...

 

Hey, if you want to earn some Dollar from it, go ahead. I'm sure a nice thin would do your wallet... ahem, the tree a world of good:D

[christreeroot]

Nice, could you post some pics

[Mr Ed]

Nice, could you post some pics

 

No. I was telling lies.

[christreeroot]

No. I was telling lies.

 

would have liked to see that 80% would that just be a stump:001_smile:

[MattyF]

that bracing kinda looks like cobra/boa stylee but in victorian metal!very unusual i wonder if thats what caused death to the stem???

i would knock off the stem then reduce by 30% or what ever the tree leans it self to with maximum wind sail weight reduction to leave as much as possible foiliage to aid recovery and no thinning!

[MattyF]

infact i would lean to eds 50%, there looks a nice under canopy in that first photo that should sustain whats left

[Mr Ed]

would have liked to see that 80% would that just be a stump:001_smile:

 

Actually I'm being silly (unusually for me). I DO have the pics, but I've just been through my laptop and my office PC and cant find them. Essentially, we had a client with a FUGE copper beech, over 110' high and a spread of nearly the same. It was completely riddled with a ganoderma (pfiferi if I remember rightly), with virtually no sound wood left. The fungi had delignified all the centre of the stem, but the tree was still in full leaf and looked fantastic.

 

Their Insurance company however, insisted the tree be felled, as it towered over their million £ house.

 

We opted to remove 80% of the crown area, so that the tree's fall zone was outside the house. We fully expected the tree to die, but we left all the lower limbs to create a new low crown like an umberellalala.

 

We also decompacted and heavily mulched the root zone.

 

Surprisingly, the tree responded by throwing out millions of epicormic shoots and creating a new crown. I have monitered it now for the past 7 years and it is still going strong. The client is happy as they retained the essential visuall impact of the large tree.

 

The only unusuall thing was it started as a copper beech, but reverted to a green leafed tree, with hints of copper. I imagine that clorophyll b is not as efficient at photosynthesizing as ordinary chlorophyl...

 

I will atempt to locate the pics tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll stop by and take soem new snaps:001_cool:

[christreeroot]

cheers Ed

[Bundle 2]

The uppermost branch would surely need taking out...its heavy as hell looking at the pics....Who says its a graft? I cant see that. Think it would benefit from lateral lightening also probably..in for a penny an' all that...after cutting it, to have it fail elsewhere would be an excercise in futility.... I cant see the point in the brace any longer...remove it ( unless it holds up the dead stem ) cos my next comment is keep the habitat stem!

I wouldnt mulch cos it'll look like crap and I am liking the already wild(ish) flower thing going on but there.

It is in the interests of tree health as it may inform to future cases...maybe try and look at it like that???

Cant see that leaving it is gonna be any better ....who knows what you'll find out??>>>>

[David Humphries]

....Who says its a graft? I cant see that.

 

Bundle, from the second photograph IMO there appears to be graft bulging at the base of both stems at approx 1.5 m just below the main union.

 

My understanding is that many coppers are grafts.

As such; I am suggesting that this may be a graft, and extra caution may be prudent if removal of dead stem is considered, due to unknown condition of internal graft/reaction wood and the corolation of this and any shock loading that could occur during removal.

 

Am willing to be educated by definitive proof of alternative.