Picus testing

[danroker1987]

Does anyone ever get picus tests done,?? is it accurate?

[Paul Barton]

It's a useful tool sometimes, as long as you know what you are hoping to achieve and what the limitations are.

 

You only know whether it's accurate when you fell the tree and compare the stump cross-section with the scan image!

[danroker1987]

It's a useful tool sometimes, as long as you know what you are hoping to achieve and what the limitations are.

 

You only know whether it's accurate when you fell the tree and compare the stump cross-section with the scan image!

 

meaning that the wood could be more dense rather than it looking soft on the scan? if that makes sense....

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

As Paul says, it is a tool (albeit a very useful one...and a tad expensive) NOT a tree inspector and not an excuse for not doing a full and thorough VTA.

 

IMHO oftne used to confirm one's suspicions anyway but can be very useful in tree retention scenarios, i.e. where you're just not sure and the temptation is to remove JIC!

 

Cheers..

Paul

[Paul Barton]

It's not great at detecting decay caused by Kretzchmaria deusta - i.e. tree could be more decayed that the scan shows.

 

PICUS is often requested unnecessarily too. It's only useful for evaluating butt/stem decays, so there's no point in using it when you have a root rot present.

 

We were asked to do a load of PICUS scans on street trees last year. I went and looked at the list of about 20 odd trees but it was only worth scanning a couple of them. How many street trees do you know that fail at the stem? Most go over because of root problems - a PICUS won't help predict that.

 

Have you got a particular tree/situation in mind that prompted the question?

[roseyweb]

Hey dan, I can do picus testing for you, it's a friend of mine and I just put my little bit on top for the trouble

[Bosun]

A PICUS test seemed to work fine for us. It showed we had a tubular Ash tree (50-60% core damage). We've had the crown thinned to reduce the load. Only time will tell!

 

Bosun

[treebloke]

Does anyone ever get picus tests done,?? is it accurate?

 

Yes:001_smile: No:cursing:

 

Should give a bit more detail, it can be a useful tool but can also be a complete waste of time. Sometimes will need to be used with other methods to back up suspicions.

 

Not always the gods gift to tree analysis.

Edited February 3, 2013 by treebloke

[Jake Andrews]

But surely a image is better than guess work.i know it's not totally accurate but better than a stab in the dark. It will only aid in your conclusion of the state of the tree.but........as people have said,in the right environment.

 

Jake:thumbup1:

[PhilBeech]

It is a tool for informing management recommendations. Nothing more.