Rate My Pollard

[Aunt Maud]

Seeings we have a "Rate My Hinge" and pollards seem to be the flavour at the mo, here's "Rate My Pollard".......

 

Mothers Kkknobbly Sycamore, planted by me 45 years ago and hacked at by amateurs ever since. (I used the ladder to climb it ) Just had it's first full chopping.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Aunt Maud

[Mick Dempsey]

Decent enough, are those your socks on the line? Did she do them in exchange?

[Aunt Maud]

They're the groundies socks, but I had to do his job too, as he couldn't be bothered.

[Mick Dempsey]

Conventional wisdom would suggest that sycamore would rot at the pollard point a lot.

 

What's the story? How many times have you done it? And did you treat it as a pollard from the off.

Not often we can plot the whole history of a tree like that.

[stihlmadasever]

Yip its a pollard alright,is it a repollard?

[Mick Dempsey]

Yip its a pollard alright,is it a repollard?

 

One look at the knuckles should tell you that,

[Aunt Maud]

I planted it when I was 5 with my brother and sister.......It's rumoured that we stole it as a sapling from Belhus Woods, but we just borrowed it and they can have it back any time they want if they come and collect it.

 

Dad's been up it and topped it about 30 years ago and it's been chopped at by him ever since.

 

I started to go up it about 15 years ago and took the tall shoots off at the knuckles after he got too old to go up it, although he was up it last year and he's 80.

 

It looks pretty good at the knuckles, there's a bit of die back where he topped it originally. Other than that, there's loads of buds, a couple of pockets with water in them at the top, otherwise it's a solid tree.

 

It's never been completely cropped like it is now, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. Judging by the number of buds on it, I don't think it's going to have any issues, but it has been cut somewhere pretty much every year of its life in one way or another.

[Mick Dempsey]

Resilient types those sycs, thanks for the info.

[geoff]

It's a cracking looking tree, I would be proud of it.

 

It's a good thread idea too imo, pollards are a big part of the trade, like them or not, and have a history that is interesting.

[sean]

It's a cracking looking tree, I would be proud of it.

 

It's a good thread idea too imo, pollards are a big part of the trade, like them or not, and have a history that is interesting.

 

Personally I think there should be grants available to landowners to plant and maintain trees as pollards. A massive loss to the landscape both culturally and as key components to bio diversity