Managing lopsided oak

[treeseer]

This one lost a neighbor to the right (west) in 1996. Owners want to know what's to be done with it. Ground is soft on downhill (south) side, where decay is evident in sinuses. crusty stuff in one of them looks like Kd. (2nd pic) Circling root visible on north side, where groundcover covers buttress root. (3rd pic, sorry about lack of light.)

 

How to judge condition?

What works to carry out? Owners value the tree, and have a budget to work with.

[treeseer]

101 views and no reply ; let's add that it is a white oak quercus alba (common here but not in uk?), at the bottom of a gently sloping back yard.

 

white oaks shut their stomata midsummer, which makes them drought resistant.

I've given it 5-10 minutes of assessment; scheduled to prune tomorrow. ground is soft on south side, where owner has compost bin. i'll be bringing a root probe.

[jomoco]

Give it a class one pruning already yu rookie!

 

Yu know, lots n lots of little cuts with a handsaw!

 

Jomoco

[David Humphries]

What do the buttresses 'sound' like Guy?

 

 

 

 

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[treequip]

Firewood

 

Fell it before that nasty fungus wrecks more of the nice firewood:laugh1:

[treeseer]

What do the buttresses 'sound' like Guy?

 

 

 

 

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Quit e thumpy; hollowish. Probe found lateral roots up to ~1m from trunk but they had a little give to them. The probe did not go straight into the trunk from the sinuses as i thought it might, but it went in a ways.

 

one nearby house is in range if it falls, but not by much. imo the tree itself is the biggest risk of loss. It's an ok candidate for retrenching so that's what we did.

 

We took a bit more off the top than i specced below, but left more of the lowest limb. after pics to follow.

 

treequip, you must be in a cold climate.