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

David Humphries · October 24, 2008

Reduced canopy sail of Sesile Oak next to high target commuter path, within Urban Woodland.

This Tree has a recent branch failure history, and canopy climbs out above & over the surrounding Trees.

Predominantly fractured (butchered, I hear you scream) with the occassional coronet thrown in for aesthetical consideration.

Trees to south and west haloed to open up more light for the sessile to aid natural retrenchment.

David Humphries · May 15, 2009

A little update.....

1st - Before

2nd - After

3rd - Early spring

4th - This week

the rest show epicormic retrenching down the stems & around the fractures

.

Rowan the Bruce · May 15, 2009

Interesting thread, not tried those, i guess the species would need to be diffuse porous and fairly vigorous like a cerris? Nice ideas.

David Humphries · November 15, 2009

Sessile Retrenchment

1 Original cut Sep 08

2 Early epicormic developement spring 09

3 Note the re-iteration of the shoot on lhs Oct 09

4 Epicormic leaf size increase Oct 09

5 Scaffolds showing epicormic retrenchment Oct 09

.

josharb87 · November 15, 2009

so are the internal epicormics a good thing david?

David Humphries · November 15, 2009

Well.........it looks like retrenchment, so I would say the proceedure has had the desired effect.

Will be interesting to watch what happens over the next few years.

Thinning may be a possible next step, or leave it and see :001_smile:

Out of interest, I was starting to belive that the type of wounding incurred wouldn't particularly have any ecological benefits, but from being up there a week or so ago, there are lots of niche habitats being formed.

The de-lamination & flaking bark are host to algae, inverts and the like.

.

josharb87 · November 15, 2009

could it be an idea to ring the bark say a foot below the fractures to increase the ecological niche habitat? and to give a stag headed look?

my only problem with this particular example is that if someone had done the same % reduction on the oak, but instead of fractures just cut the branches the once, it'd be a topped tree, and we'd be slating it, e.g http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/27-general-tree-pics-423.html#post199326 seems to be a fine line between bad arborcultural practice, and cutting edge ecological benifits ?

David Humphries · November 16, 2009

could it be an idea to ring the bark say a foot below the fractures to increase the ecological niche habitat? and to give a stag headed look?

my only problem with this particular example is that if someone had done the same % reduction on the oak, but instead of fractures just cut the branches the once, it'd be a topped tree, and we'd be slating it, e.g http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/27-general-tree-pics-423.html#post199326 seems to be a fine line between bad arborcultural practice, and cutting edge ecological benifits ?

I don't see why not, Josh.

Although I expect a few of these scaffolds will die back anyway.

Why would anyone just top a tree in this particular instance?

I guess the crux of defending or attacking any piece of work is being appreciative of it's setting and what is trying to be acheived.

This is not roadside or back garden.

The fact that I've had the opportunity onsite, & on different occasions, to talk around this particular tree with Local TO's, Tree Wardens, Team members & Nevil faye, is enough of a reason for me to maintain this tree in this landscape at this time.

Pretty, it ain't :001_smile:

.