'Servicing' a veteran torminalis

[treeseer]

due to the high footfall in the area we have now decided to install bracing as well as the canopy reduction.

 

 

 

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I knew somehow that you would.

 

Fine looking work! And clear specs on pruning. Getting crown in line with itself more, and the surrounding canopy; very overlooked risk mitigation strategy.

 

What species is that leaning cavitated arboreal wonder underneath the servicetree? It will no doubt benefit from increased exposure to light.

[David Humphries]

I

What species is that leaning cavitated arboreal wonder underneath the servicetree? It will no doubt benefit from increased exposure to light.

 

it's Quercus robur Guy.

 

Fistulina hepatica decay in the basal region.

It leans fairly heavily away from the Sorbus, so much so, that we decided to reduce the canopy of this tree 5 years ago to lower the risk of it falling over and causing signicant damage to the sorbus roots.

 

 

 

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[David Humphries]

interesting! how often are you surveying this tree? or is it more like constant survey whenever you walk past it? how long ago was it cleared around as looks like used to be more densely wooded.

 

The area looks cleared, but its actually only clear under the canopy where regular walkers keep the ground vegetation to a minimum.

If you look to the left hand side of this Victorian image you can see the line of trees before they were engulfed in secondary woodland.

 

 

It's not specifically high up on our risk sequencing zones as its a predominantly wooded area.

 

But due to its local heritage, we keep a regular eye on this particular line.

 

 

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[jwade]

Cracking documentation of really under appreciated native tree, hopefully it'll have a good few years left in it. Have you ever tried to grow on the seed in plugs to plant in other areas of the wood? Seeds need quite a long winter chill to get them going. Shame that the fencing didn't allow for natural germination in the leaf litter.

 

I've had good germination rates from wild service collected in parts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. I've also observed that trees growing on exposed steeper terrain tend to sucker and regenerate clonally (as is often the case with service), maybe because of root disturbance.

[Phil71]

due to the high footfall in the area we have now decided to install bracing as well as the canopy reduction.

 

 

 

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Hi David, just wondering how you tension up the bracing? I've used Cobra bracing and use ratchet straps to pull the limbs being braced in, but I guess this isn't practical with the split lower down?

Cheers...Phil

[David Humphries]

Have you ever tried to grow on the seed in plugs to plant in other areas of the wood? Seeds need quite a long winter chill to get them going. Shame that the fencing didn't allow for natural germination in the leaf litter.

 

We have a fairly healthy population of young torminalis out across the site in the woodland and hedgerows.

Mostly from suckering but we suspect a proportion are from seed.

 

We've noted out in the field that very early on the dicotyledons are nipped below the leaves. We think this is from mice.

 

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[David Humphries]

I've had good germination rates from wild service collected in parts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

 

4 years ago a colleague (Casper Price, who is now helping to manage the trees at Winkworth Arboretum) took up a project to collect seed from a number of our older wild service.

 

Some of these are going out for planting this year.

 

Including a couple form the UK height champion

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/56106-uks-tallest-wild-service-tree.html

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[David Humphries]

Hi David, just wondering how you tension up the bracing? I've used Cobra bracing and use ratchet straps to pull the limbs being braced in, but I guess this isn't practical with the split lower down?

Cheers...Phil

 

Hello Phil,

 

we feel the crack in the butress didn't really give us the opportunity to take in any slack (via ratchet or winch cable) for the base set static brace, as this would have placed further compresive stress on a weak structural part of the tree. So this was tensioned by hand during the splice. I don't believe (in itself) it will arrest the crack, but will aid (with the addition of the top braces) holding the two trunks should the crack develop further.

 

The operation to instal the upper dynamic braces involved two climbers (Michal & Nick) and the weight in their tips on the two seperate parts of the canopy did pull the upper canopy together to help tension the two braces, though there is still some play in them.

 

I'm thinking with hind-sight, we could perhaps have installed a more static metal cable as the lower brace (although invasive) this would have offered more structural support.

 

Regular monitoring may inform some tinkering with how we have it currently set up.

 

 

 

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[jwade]

Excellent news, nice to see so many healthy young seedlings. The fruits can be messy to process!

[David Humphries]

Been pondering about the name of the prime ministers country retreat and whether it derives from one of the common names of the torminails.

 

Although it would appear that the original house was linked to a position at the 12th century court around the office of Exchequer, there is also however a healthy presence of the trees known as 'Chequers' on the estate.

 

Would be interesting to know what age the oldest ones are.

 

 

 

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