Is this a drill hole?

[Yournamehere]

Not really my field of expertise but would it need to be deep?

Would it need to be just deep enough to reach the cambium and if so would 9mm be enough?

Defo ask what was used though; tell him we're all dying to know:001_smile:

Happy Days

Yourn

[NoRush]

Is it your side of the tree or his

[cornish wood burner]

Careful Sally, it sounds like you are not on the best of terms with your neighbour already. Asking him outright what he poisoned your tree with, could start a war. Maybe he did administer something but as I said before doesn't look like a drill hole to me.

Alternatively could your tree just have been in decline and the hole is a symptom of that. Something in the ground that trees and shrubs dont like perhaps. If that is the case and your neighbour is innocent then he will feel very aggrieved with you. You have to live with the resulting fallout so consider your response carefully.

Edited June 11, 2015 by cornish wood burner

[sloth]

Careful Sally, it sounds like you are not on the best of terms with your neighbour already. Asking him outright what he poisoned your tree with, could start a war. Maybe he did administer something but as I said before doesn't look like a drill hole to me.

Alternatively could your tree just have been in decline and the hole is a symptom of that. Something in the ground that trees and shrubs dont like perhaps. If that is the case and your neighbour is innocent then he will feel very aggrieved with you. You have to live with the resulting fallout so consider your response carefully.

 

Sound advice. And as asked, what side of the tree is the 'hole'? To me it doesn't look right to be a shed or pruned branch - more like a central hole from a drill bit with a scored circle from the chuck around it. There looks to be similar amount of algae between the 'hole' and the circle as there is just outside the circle; this suggests the outer ring mark has been scored into the bark, rather being the result of new callous growth, hence my 'chuck mark' and central drill bit thoughts...

Before going and pointing the finger of blame maybe get a local surveyor /consultant to have a look?

[SallyRZ]

I will see if I can take a better picture tomorrow (the top isn't pointed but I can see it looks that way in the photo).

[Billhook]

from a farmers point of view I would have said that it would be much easier to tip some obnoxious translocated type chemical around the roots. A job that could be done quickly without the noise and mess of a drill.

With a drill you would have to somehow inject chemical without making a mess of yourself, the tree and the ground around. Plus you would not manage to inject enough chemical into a hole that size plus I do not think it would affect the whole tree from that point without a form of dripfeed.

 

The clue is the lavender and it may have been as simple as him tipping a bucket of drain cleaner or Harpic around the base, perhaps on several occasions.

 

A trail camera like a Bushnell which is automatic and has night vision, would be the answer for any future activity, then you have clear evidence and a date and time.

 

Making accusations without hard evidence is hopeless, as would paying for a soil analysis or involving lawyers.

[MattyF]

Have come across quite a few TPOed trees that have been drilled and you can usually see quite clearly it is a drill plus it never seems to kill the tree out right.

[WelshMan]

It's difficult to say. But if you enlarge the photo and look at the lower branch to the right, it's not too difficult to see that if that branch was broken off, it could leave the same type of wound.

[peatff]

The hole in the tree looks like it has been healing for a good few years so if it is only just showing detrimental effects I doubt it was anything to do with what is happening now.

[SallyRZ]

Sorry for the missed questions.

 

I too thought initially that it was odd that the hole was on our 'side' (and so high up too). But we are on a bus route with regular traffic and a bus stop opposite, so it would have looked less suspicious to be working from our side. And it's easy to see when we're out if you spend as much time looking out of the window as the neighbour does...while this might sound paranoid of us, for example I did once come back to find his gardener leaning over the back garden fence and cutting two parallel horizontal lines through the ivy on our ash tree, about 18 inches apart, in order to remove that section and therefore kill the ivy above. He said he hated the ivy and that it was "smothering" the tree (not sure why he was bothered about that) and he wasn't at all embarrassed about being 'caught'. So you see, he has form. No effect on the ivy, by the way, as he didn't get to complete the job. And he hasn't tried since.

 

MattyF, are you saying this does look like a drill hole, but that you wouldn't have expected it to have been able to kill the tree?

 

Cornish wood burner, you have a point, especially as nothing can be done, and he'll certainly deny it. I'll think about that (but definitely mention it in some non-accusatory and puzzled way in passing the next time he wanders by with a complaint).

 

Billhook, I was thinking too that the hole might be too shallow for a chemical, but from what others have indicated it does seem possible. I then wondered whether something injected into the tree and therefore down to the roots could somehow spread to nearby plants? The weeds grow back there, so it's not as if the section of earth as a whole is completely resistant to anything living. Haven't tried to plant anything yet though to test that. I appreciate your recommendation about a camera but feel a bit reluctant to take that route as I don't want to become too (even more?) obsessed about what next door gets up to ie becoming like the neighbour himself.

 

Sloth, yes, the chuck-scored outer circle is exactly what it looks like. And thank you, I will see if a friend of a friend (there must be one) can have a look.

 

The tree is not very old (the section of earth was only put there 8 years ago, and as I say the tree just started growing there over time) and not very tall. Here are a couple more photos, including one showing the hole from above. I hope they're clear enough. The hole on the right hand part of the tree, about halfway between those two parallel branches.

 

Very many thanks again for reading this and for all your help.