To fracture prune, or................

[David Humphries]

So

 

nearly 10 years on from the start of this thread

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

[Mick Dempsey]

Ok, it's raining and I'm skiving off. So I'm bored and I'm in!

Got to page 5 and skipped back to the end.

 

I understood fracture pruning for bats and whatnot on dead trees but not this.

 

It doesn't surprise me it came back nicely, what are your findings/conclusions/discoveries from this?

[sean]

So

 

nearly 10 years on from the start of this thread

 

[ATTACH]219907[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]219908[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]219909[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]219910[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]219911[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

.

 

beautiful looking crown:thumbup1:

[Mark Bolam]

This thread is a great excuse for my very low quality pruning cuts.

[David Humphries]

Ok, it's raining and I'm skiving off. So I'm bored and I'm in!

Got to page 5 and skipped back to the end.

 

I understood fracture pruning for bats and whatnot on dead trees but not this.

 

It doesn't surprise me it came back nicely, what are your findings/conclusions/discoveries from this?

 

 

 

Howdee Mick

 

First thing to consider is that I'm not actually advocating other arbs should do this.

 

Secondly, my work predominantly comes from an urban woodland conservation/environmental Arb perspective, not front/back gardens or streets.

 

I'm sure I've said this earlier in the thread, but 'fracture pruning' is somewhat about the aesthetic within the environment that it's being carried out in. The technique can be utilised to mimic the way that tears and fractured branches occur in natural woodland, open space settings.

 

It's also fairly clear that this is in part, an indulgence and about what I and the team (and some others) through interaction with leading arb thinkers and reading a fair deal about this stuff, have been inspired and chosen to do (not guided by the relatively constrained contemporary Arb standards) to be able to watch trees over long periods of time (32 years on site and counting........) to see how trees alter their growth (hormone changes, reduced apical dominance, branch reiteration etc) in reaction to what we unnaturally do to them.

 

This particular tree had (in my view) a potential weakness at the base where one of its three weak unions failed' leading to the removal of one third of its sail.

The canopy required height reduction to limit the wind load on its remaining sail, which would have had an negative effect on the weakened base union.

 

The basic act of reduction achieved that specific aim, and when you consider that its neighbours have had those 10 years to absorb a larger portion of local wind load whilst they have out grown the weaker runt of the collective canopy, (see last image in my previous post) then we've bought it some time.

 

 

Fracture pruning in its pure sense is nothing to do with bats and whatnot, I think you may be confusing other techniques like 'veteranising' in that regard?

 

Creating veteran type habitat for the benefit of beasts, bugs and furry flying things is an altogether different thing

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited May 11, 2017 by David Humphries

[Mick Dempsey]

Ok, so it was an indulgence, an experiment if you will, and why not?

 

And yes, I confused it with veteranisation.

[LandmarkTrading]

We recently wrote a little guide to pruning trees, hopefully there'll be some useful info in there for you: https://www.landmarktrading.com/blog/pruning/

[David Humphries]

............hopefully there'll be some useful info in there for you: https://www.landmarktrading.com/blog/pruning/

 

 

Ha, good one

 

 

 

 

 

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[Mesterh]

10 years! time flys when your not 21.

 

Looks terrible, I bet you wish you had felled it like I suggested.

 

Sorry if you have already been asked but have you had to carry out any other work other than the initial works?

 

I don't know if works is the proper term, I was going to use hack job but thought it rude.

[David Humphries]

10 years! time flys when your not 21.

 

Looks terrible, I bet you wish you had felled it like I suggested.

 

Sorry if you have already been asked but have you had to carry out any other work other than the initial works?

 

I don't know if works is the proper term, I was going to use hack job but thought it rude.

 

 

 

Just the initial hack job, so far

 

 

We intend to go back up and assess the condition and connection of the epicormic sprouts.

 

 

 

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