strange reaction to reductions in beech

[ballymac]

I did some fairly severe reductions (20-30%) to two large beech trees yesterday and today. When we turned up this morning it seemed that dormant buds had flushed into leaves on the parts of the tree that were reduced yesterday.

 

I should have prefaced this by stating that I am based in NW Ireland and we experienced a pretty big westerly storm at the start of June which has affected many trees badly. Many trees appear almost burnt especially on thier western side with curled up leaves browned at the edges, and whole woodlands have browned edges. (I'm assuming this is salt damage as we are probably only 30miles or so from the atlantic). Beech seem particularily badly affected probably because they had just leafed out when the storm hit.

Some beech including the ones I was working on had loads of dormant buds and these seem to have opened out following some swinging about with a saw.

 

Just wondering if anyone had experience of this? and if anyone knows why these buds flushed following pruning?

 

Thanks

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

got any photos? you mean they had NEW growth from dormant buds within 24 hours?

[RobArb]

Thats a light reduction (20-30%) where I am

 

Sent from Rob's GalaxySII

[ballymac]

Hama

When we came back this morning there were lots of fresh leaves on the part of the tree that had been reduced- really light green new leaves. I started doubting myself that maybe I just hadn't seen them yesterday but they were definitely fresh.

I'll be passing that way tomorrow so will stop and take a few pics. There's another couple of beeches in the line of trees that haven't been worked on so I'll try and get a 'before' picture if that makes any sense.

[Fungus]

When we came back this morning there were lots of fresh leaves on the part of the tree that had been reduced- really light green new leaves. I started doubting myself that maybe I just hadn't seen them yesterday but they were definitely fresh.

 

Not that strange, considering a beech will do anything to keep its crown and trunk (bark) from sun scald after sudden overexposure.

[David Goss]

The browning of the leaves after the storm is more likely wind damage. We had the same thing here after the storms and the beeches showed it the most but now they are mostly all recovered. My guess is that the storms hit in the spring when most new growth is at its most delicate, so the wind badly damaged the new shoots which have been recovering ever since with new dormant bud growth. My guess is your pruning probably sped up the process considerably hence the new leaves the day after. Only a theory but seems logical. Still amazing how they react to things

[ballymac]

Was passing same site today so stopped and took a couple of very average photos. The new growth was only really apparent on the first tree I worked on. The second tree didn't really react with new growth anywhere near as much.

Photo 1 is of a low branch on the second tree showing the wind damaged leaves and the dormant buds.

Photo 2 is of a low branch on the first tree showing where some of the buds have opened into new growth. There were better examples of more extensive new growth further up the tree but didn't have time to go climbing to get pictures today.

Thanks for the comments/opinions to date:001_smile:

[WeeDee]

I agree with David about the wind damage. I'm based around Derry and many of the trees up here are the same - too far from you to suffer from salt. I imagine the leaves suffered in much the same way as the trailing edge of a flag does - eventually the high rate of 'flapping' just causes structural damage within the leaf.