Look at this.

[Harrison2604]

SHIGO has a lot to answer for, what you learn is based on his work, as are council TO recommendations.

 

The fact remains that the people who know most about trees revere the pollard. If you want to REALLY know trees, study the pollards of our great land.

 

Fancy linking me some studies that you think are read worthy?

[Harrison2604]

This veteran tree handbook has a lot of interesting information in! It's gonna take a while for me to get through all of this, take it in and remember it! It has a lot about pollarding aleady, on the first page!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

This veteran tree handbook has a lot of interesting information in! It's gonna take a while for me to get through all of this, take it in and remember it! It has a lot about pollarding aleady, on the first page!

 

search the ancient tree forum theres loads of info there

 

also TEP treework environmental practice where you will find loads of good stuff to download

 

then a;lso see andrew cowans Arborecology Ltd

 

when youve done there give me a shout:thumbup:

[Tom Cook]

We have been working on some really old over mature neglected hornbeam pollards and coppices at college experimenting with techniques to bring them back to their original state of pollarded stems and coppice stools and we have been leaving 2 or 3 small stems with some growth on them to help them survive.

[rammer]

Giraffe pollard eh.

 

As in "Giraffe to do that"?

 

:biggrin:

[redmoosefaction]

Moosie

[David Goss]

Ummm i dont know what the original thread was here as it seems stuff has beed deleted or i just dont know what i am doing on here as yet BUT!! thats a big BUT! I have been doing this job for about 20 years now and i have admittedly done a few pollards in my time which i now regret very much as i now know better. A pollard should be done ONLY as a last resort. If the tree is in bad shape and dying back on major limbs etc and becoming dangerous to the point where removal seems the only option, then a pollard can be done to at least try to save the tree from complete removal, if the tree is to be kept. I can understand that you may find "veteran tree handbook" and this sort of thing interesting and they may have some valid points in them (cant say i have read them) but i have been taught and continue to read many things from many good scientists and tree people like shigo and mattheck etc who have studied in great detail and with modern scientific methods about this very subject and not one of them say its a good thing. So i am confused that Harrison here is being told differently by Hamadryad. If i have misunderstood then i am sorry but i have read other posts by you Hamadryad and you seem very knowledgeable so could you please explain why it seems you are going against everything that modern arboriculture is teaching us? I have seen the problems and the damage that pollarding does to trees first hand and it makes me sad that it is still practised today. I for one will never do it again and have refused many jobs where i have been asked to do so.

I hope i got the wrong end of the stick here (excuse the pun) but should we not stand up against these methods and the people who practice them? I would love to name and shame any company i have heard of that does this and the "its what the customer wants" excuse just does not wash with me. A simple "no missus sorry i wont do that to a healthy tree, here is what i suggest instead and why" normally works for me. Information is generally what a customer lacks and i can give it and am happy to do so.

Anyway sorry if i have gone on a bit but i do feel strongly about this topic. Can someone please explain if i got this right or wrong?

[David Goss]

looking back on the thread i can see by the picture that someone has been given the job of working on an already pollarded tree. This is something i have had to deal with on many occasions and it is very often a difficult call as to what exactly to do. The fact of the matter is that the tree is already damaged and will never be the same again, so whatever you do it cant be any worse than what has already happened. You just have to make the call on which limbs are best to come off and which should stay to try and make the best of a bad situation. Still looks horrible when your done like the 2 headed giraffe there

[Lorry thompson]

Giraffe pollard eh.

 

As in "Giraffe to do that"?

 

Love it:thumbup:

[Ben Tidey]

David it appears that you are confusing pollard with toping. they are quite different.

Toping is the removal of larger limbs as you have mentioned and the pollard is the regular removal of young dynamic grouth. so i think its this ould confusion of words again. not having a dig just it tock a while for me too grasp aswel