Pine cones

[Marcus Forster]

Morning all

 

We have a large Monterey Pine that is in a communal garden area with a path and some patio type areas beneath it. I have been recommended to have 70% of the cones removed to reduce weight in the tree.

 

Can I get anyone's thoughts on this please?

 

Thanks

 

Marcus

[10 Bears]

Well, with very little information to go on, it is quite difficult to give any real objective view.

 

I would say however, that my initial impression is 'why?', so that leads me to ask who has advised this? Are they an arborist or similar?

 

If there is a safety justification, perhaps that the tree is defective in some way, then I would still fail to see how removing a few cones would make the tree any safer for a couple of reasons. Cones are not particularly heavy, so even if there are a few hundred cones, the reduction in weight would be minimal. If there is a defect, then surely solutions like limb removal or crown thinning would be more sensible? Trees are self-optimising structures and they will not add additional biomass to their structure if the tree was not mechanically adapted well enough to support the weight of the biomass (cones).

 

This is conjecture on my behalf as I've not seen the tree/situation, but I would be reluctant to agree to have this work done myself without a lot more information as to why this is being proposed.

 

Could you give more information and perhaps several pictures of the tree and its situation?

[Stubby]

They will all drop off anyway .

[Andrew Gale]

I've removed cones from a Monterey pine before due to them falling on to the neighbouring property and breaking the roof tiles (not my spec, purely there to carry out the work). By the time we finished they did weigh a bit but as 10 Bears has said trees will adapt....

Edited January 11, 2016 by Andrew Gale

[treesrus]

i have a large (60ft) Monterey pine in my garden - the cones are large and very heavy, with up to 5 cones in each cluster. it is a fast growing tree, and the timber is relatively weak. we had a heavy snow fall a few years back that broke off about 1/4 of the crown, but i doubt that removing the cones would have made any difference. as previously said, a tree will do what it needs to do to stay upright.

[devon TWiG]

As tressrus said The cones on Monterey pine appear in clusters and are pretty heavy , and the combined weight close to the end of a branch does occasionally cause branch failure ..... the cones themselves stay on the tree for up to 30 years !!!.... I did a similar such job a year or 2 ago ( removing many cones ) but it is not easy removing the cones in their clusters and the end of branches where they appear !!

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Morning all

 

We have a large Monterey Pine that is in a communal garden area with a path and some patio type areas beneath it. I have been recommended to have 70% of the cones removed to reduce weight in the tree.

 

Can I get anyone's thoughts on this please?

 

Thanks

 

Marcus

 

Your money would better spent relocating the path / patio.... Or issuing hard hats. Sounds like a fools errand as described above.

[Marcus Forster]

Thanks for the coments

 

I don't have a great deal of information in regards to the tree but I have been told this work was recommended by the borough Tree Officer.

 

I have a picture but it is a few years old now and has since had crown lifted to 4m and some thinning out.

 

Marcus

[10 Bears]

Well, on the basis of several assumptions, little information and no up to date pictures - it still seems a little like a fools errand to me.

 

As it is crown thinned, the weight is already gone (presumably). There are few targets beneath the tree, a path yes and the grassed area, but how often do targets ie people, occupy those spaces? Very little I would suggest. Also, when branches/cones are more likely to fall off ie in bad weather, then the targets are even less likely to be there.

 

My views could of course change if you subsequently post an image with a Sparassis crispa (cauliflower fungus) at the base or something similar!

 

Based on what you have said, the image and a measure of conjecture, I would not get the work done.

[Mark Bolam]

I think the spec is a sad reflection of the times we are living in.

It's utterly pathetic.