Mature beech limb splits

[skyhuck]

bat survey would have returned a zero rating, crack not open to the air, nor large enough.

 

 

 

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I was pulling Bobs leg!!

[Highland Forestry]

Seen this a few times in mature Beech with multiple scaffold limbs..

 

As far as I am aware - quite natural, literally caused by the ammount of weight hanigng off it!

 

I took one down last year that was exactly the same as your photos... we had to rig off the limbs and heard some interesting cracking sounds whilst doing so, but thankfully they were strong enough to cope with the weight we were rigging down.

 

I would suggest it was a good call to remove the limb - they can and do fail in a big way eventually!

[treeseer]

As far as I am aware - quite natural, literally caused by the ammount of weight hanigng off it!

!

Common on oaks etc. here in the US too.

 

Overextended limbs need reduction to prevent that sort of crack.

 

Limb could have been supported but best to get it gone if not key to form.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

This fault tends to happen to phototropic limbs (extending rapidly toward light) 90% of the time they are growing on the North side if in open ground as the limb trys to reach away from the main body of the crown to reach out from canopy shading.

 

it is very common, and in most cases removal of the branch is not needed, simply reduction by one third the length is sualy enough to manage the hazard. This is a good way of maintaining the habitat that is the hazarb beam.

 

in time they stabalise and occlude, how many limbs have you ever cut only to see they have a large crack at thier centres?

 

removal makes a large wound at the stem junction, a higher future risk than a stabalised hazard beam fracture.

 

Dog legs where a leading tip has died and a sub order shoot takes over as in this case are more prone to the fault, and worth looking out for when managing trees, especialy in parkland or open grown situations.

 

Also worth noting that Matthecks slenderness ratio can be applied to limb assesment as well as stem calculations.

[Paul Barton]

bat survey would have returned a zero rating, crack not open to the air, nor large enough.

 

Really? The crack looks like it has an opening on the branch edge to me. And I thought bats only needed very small cracks...I have heard they will even rest behind patches of flaking bark.

[apexarb]

hi the splits are most likely caused by tangental forces this happens when the limbs become too long to be able to support themselves and often had ribs of repair structure visible, more common in oak but it is possibly the answer not always easy to tell from photos

 

terry

[Joy Yeomans]

in two weeks, been called out to 3 emergency jobs all large beech failures.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Really? The crack looks like it has an opening on the branch edge to me. And I thought bats only needed very small cracks...I have heard they will even rest behind patches of flaking bark.

 

IMO, no bats.