My friends suffering tree

[Lancstree]

When I was round at my friends house this weekend he showed me his ornamental plum tree which he is really fond of but unfortunately it seems to be in decline. He asked me what measures could be taken to preserve the life and safety of the tree. Looking at the stem there was some extensive decay and some fungal brackets. The decay was dry and very crumbly and reached up into the crown. The tree had obviously been worked on in the past as the crown consists of uniform size regrowth.

 

Between the back of the tree and the fence there was some garden waste piled up to about a foot higher than ground level and I explained how that did the tree no favours. The tree is situated in the back corner of the garden which is pretty high over the gardens below.

 

Can anyone help shine some light on the fungal brackets and decay? Any comments appreciated.

[Lancstree]

forget the last pic

[easy-lift guy]

Looks like butt rot for the fungal brackets,if so the tree is a goner. Very contagious.

[janey]

Looks like butt rot for the fungal brackets,if so the tree is a goner. Very contagious.

 

Hi M, ignore the above

 

The tree looks like a cultivar of Prunus cerasifera . They are notorious for being riddled with Ganoderma, Phelinus,and Laetiporus and go on for years. There has at some point been a large shed limb at the crown break and there appears to be an associated decay columb due the the lack of xylem function

 

It's hard to see from the pics how far around the trunk the decay is and how structually sound the rear side of the trunk is. It looks like there is enough functional wood to warrant keeping the tree for a while longer yet (if that's what the owner wants).

 

What are the targets on the other side of the boundary fences? I'm guessing that they are average, low risk back gardens and not some high risk, 5 lane motorway?

 

All in all, given the tree's species, condition and targets, I'd say give it a heavy reduction to slightly distal to the previous points and let it remain there for a few more years.

[Lancstree]

Thanks Janey. What do you mean by 'slightly distal to the previous points'? The targets are fairly low risk. The wood on the back sounds solid. I think a reduction and possibly some sort of bracing to the eucalyptus if they are still worried.

[janey]

Thanks Janey. What do you mean by 'slightly distal to the previous points'? The targets are fairly low risk. The wood on the back sounds solid. I think a reduction and possibly some sort of bracing to the eucalyptus if they are still worried.

 

Distal - it means a point further away from the main body, eg, your hands are distal to your elbows. It's the opposite of proximal. I'm not using odd words just to sound smart, honest . I try to use exact terms when specifying work as there is no room for personal interpretation that way.

 

In this case, distal to previous reduction points means slightly higher.

 

As for the bracing, try to avoid doing that if at all possible for many, many reasons

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

oooh er, our janeys getting a bit tech these days!

 

wot she said!

[janey]

oooh er, our janeys getting a bit tech these days!

 

wot she said!

 

Must be the company I'm keeping

[easy-lift guy]

Good Luck, you will need it.

[Andy Collins]

I would fell it, its had its day.