Beech trees.

[David oakman]

Today i went to check 3 beech trees on one of them are some bad new wood wounds, as you look up water is getting in old pruning wounds. this tree is next to a driveway and road. what i wanted to know was has any one got first hand experience of the success of pollarding a mature maiden beech tree, helen read does not give it a very high success rate. The reason i would like to pollard is that there are only 11 mature beech on the estate they don't like the clay soil but it would be nice to keep them if possible.

[Pete Mctree]

Beech are never a good tree to polard or reduce heavily. They have a tendancy to die as opposed to generate epicormic regrowth. This has always been a mystery to me as the juvenile makes for good hedging material. Perhaps the dormand bud are predominantly in the bole as opposed to the crown?

 

Perhaps gradual reduction over a period of time? hopefully avoiding shock and stimulating the generation of a "sub" canopy

[AJarb]

Dont do it IMO. Its 70/30 they will die really. I`ve done it before reluctantly most of the times they have died or looked awful!

[Tom D]

Water in wounds is actually not a bad thing, the debris which collects in the little ponds creates an anerbic environment which can help to exclude many pathogens. Probably best to probe the cavities and see how extensive any rot is.

[Amelanchier]

Beech are never a good tree to polard or reduce heavily. They have a tendancy to die as opposed to generate epicormic regrowth. This has always been a mystery to me as the juvenile makes for good hedging material. Perhaps the dormand bud are predominantly in the bole as opposed to the crown?

 

Perhaps gradual reduction over a period of time? hopefully avoiding shock and stimulating the generation of a "sub" canopy

 

I'd second the above.

 

I think the production of latent buds trails off in later years. Beech tends to only generate adventitous buds (and therefore new shoots and branches) from callus.

[Johny Walker]

I'd second the above.

 

I think the production of latent buds trails off in later years. Beech tends to only generate adventitous buds (and therefore new shoots and branches) from callus.

 

we a very large beech 150yrs + in the corner of the yard la said we couldnt remove it but told us to remove the large limb over haning private schools play ground becouse off multi stems been codominate & got lots of nice hard fungi in main fork :confused1: i bet theres 30 bulk bags off log in her

[David Humphries]

Originally Posted by Pete McSheffrey

Beech are never a good tree to polard or reduce heavily. They have a tendancy to die as opposed to generate epicormic regrowth. This has always been a mystery to me as the juvenile makes for good hedging material. Perhaps the dormand bud are predominantly in the bole as opposed to the crown?

Perhaps gradual reduction over a period of time? hopefully avoiding shock and stimulating the generation of a "sub" canopy

 

I'd second the above.

 

I think the production of latent buds trails off in later years. Beech tends to only generate adventitous buds (and therefore new shoots and branches) from callus.

 

 

I would generally agree with both Pete and Tonys' views, however the Tree below is the one from the "Last Beech Standing" Thread.

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4246

 

This isn't the place to get back into the Merip debate, so my point here is to do with the reduction and subsequent survival of the canopy.

 

There is some (as expected) die back at the very top of the canopy, but this tree nearly 5 years on is still (for the most part) functioning at the point of reduction and is happily and vigourously retrenching.

 

I have programmed in to reduce further at some point within 3-5yr span.

Lets hope the merip doesn't get it first

 

.

[Marcus B-T]

Over the last 6 years I've looked at about 4000 Beech in some detail studying this. In a previous posting I pointed out the value of listening to people and finding out what the quandries are within the industry. On eof the things that struck me early on was that there are a great number of issues relating to Beech. Firstly what is tha nature of the tree/fungus interactions, when do they become unviable, what can be done to mitigate the effects. The first two where comparatively straight forward to study, it's just a matter of population dynamics and dysfunction/decay progression. The last bit was a little more tricky.

 

Beech can be 'pruned' (I use this as a general term to cover a vast range of activities) but there are some big hurdles to get over.

 

The first consideration is of course is the work necessary and I have found that because of statements like 'the widow maker' etc there is a certain nervousness about Beech.

 

The hydraulic architecture of Beech is very complex and delicate. So number one hurdle is if it is a dry year probably best not to attempt any work, this goes for the following winter period as well and in extreme circumstances the following year. It seems to take Beech some time to get over a drought.

 

In a similar vein there needs to be an understanding of where the hydraulic architecture is strong and where it is weak. Weak areas will respond poorly, strong areas will respond well.

 

Reduction needs to mimic the trees natural process of decline which is very different from other trees and also different between Beech trees. Also there is often more epicormic growth on a Beech than is immediatly apparent.

 

Beech are very delicate and local conditions probably determine if, when and how they should be tackled.

 

I have seen examples of where heavy reduction has worked very well, but it was right for those trees and undoubtedly wouldn't work on all Beech trees.

 

One curious thing is that I am coming to the conclusion that in some circumstances Ustulina can encourage epicormic growth???

[Bundle 2]

"One curious thing is that I am coming to the conclusion that in some circumstances Ustulina can encourage epicormic growth??? ..."

 

On Beech ......?

[Marcus B-T]

Yes on Beech?????