treeseer

Those are real he-men!

A love story about fasciation. Detective Dendro - The Case of the Fantastic Fans.pdf

For a first post, that's a corker! Well said; birds are our allies.

Blue Meanies and Apple Bonkers abound here.... Eeekkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!! It's in a town! Fell it immediately, before it cleans the air and water, muffles glare and noise, and all those other terrible tree traits! Or, snip 10% with pole clip, light clean interior, return annually, what is wrong with that programme?

To accomplish...what objective? clearance, health, symmetry, size reduction, or all of the above? Cuts could be kept small enough to minimise drippage. Perhaps drippage will detach client. The Niwaki idea was good up til the raw fish.

Depends on the objective and the site; hard to tell w no pics. If they're commingled with the leylandii, the pines might not carry on new growth unless sunlight hits a lot of needles.

wonderful work with the tickling; nice to see! That oak is one tough old bird then!

The oak looks like it could stand to have a little load taken off. That failure altered biomechanics in a big way.

BS 3998 says that *topping* is 'the removal of most or all of the crown of a mature tree by indiscriminately cutting through the main stem." PAGE 8. The text on pollarding--thanks to JLA--uses qualifiers like 'preferably' and 'should'. Where the confusion really kicks in is when those conditional terms are misinterpreted as absolutes. BS3998 did not 'clearly detail' these parameters, or say they are the 'only' sizes and stages where pollarding can be done. Myths are borne of exaggeration. We have different objectives than serfs did back in 1600, so strictly adhering to their limitations seems a bit out of place. Plus, I doubt those serfs would have refused to pollard a tree just because it was over an arbitrary measurement like 200 mm. But in any case, this is 2014, and if the objective is to preserve big old trees we must shed the shackles of past paradigms.

Good thoughts thanks. Any concentrated fert would be heavily buffered by blending with compost.

And nicer yet to help them with extra devices where there are people around.

I did too, to confirm. NCSU puts out good info, but most of it's geared to the commercial growers. A more recent text says Passalora sp. is the pathogen, but no matter. We may spray with copper, but first there are a whole lot of dead needles to cliip off.

Zone 7 SE US which was mild and wet this summer, great conditions for Cercospora. The plan is to "CERCOSPORA BLIGHT ON FOLIAGE. Remove dead needles and twigs and branches. There is some hope for new interior foliage to form. The more light comes in, the greater the chance of adventitious growth. Remove soil from stem tissue, dry the area, deeply aerate nearby soil, clean and heat any bleeding lesions, and amend the soil for structure with calcium fertilizer and beneficial microorganisms to help speed compartmentalization. 50% thinning proposed for crown above sight line. Reduce height only after assessment and approval." Client made it clear she was not in favour of topping. My past reductions of central leaders on leylands have not always met the objective of opening the center, as topping seems to spur the kind of dense growth that it was supposed to get rid of.

Looks ok S side but N side has tip, and heavy interior, dieback.Black dots on twigs look like a scavenger. Drainage good, 4" of soil over flare but no girdling seen on the one I cleared so far. The one that had the green strap pulled out--slippery sap!!--did not have the grey needles--Cercospora?

Take 2: 10 years ago these were planted as 10' trees. After a decade of no worries, and no maintenance, problems are noted.

10 years ago these were planted as 10' trees. After a decade of no worries, no maintenance, problems are noted.

Jameson makes an extendable 7' -> 14' pole that is very handy.

Mario you're on point: Age is not as important as style. It all depends on architecture, which determines plumbing, and energy flow. It can be indeed be done to an older bigger tree ... to keep the cuts similar size relative to proportion, the pollard would just be bigger, taller, larger. A synonym for 'retrenchment pruning' is 'progressive pollarding'. As long as the health and structure of the tree are maintained, those traditional mathematic guidelines don't apply as much as with younger trees. Young or old, they can both be pollarded, along with periodic pruning: but how long a period; how long a lapse is too long? I recently inspected some oaks that were cut back after ice damage in 2002. The owner likes them full; I arranged to reinspect in a year, hoping to sell codom work then, but it's far from hazardous. When definitions are vague, misunderstanding is inevitable. BS says it's the removal of most or all of the crown of a mature tree by indiscriminately cutting through the main stem. US says it's excessive cutting, often internodal (used to say 'predetermined'), and done without regard for the the health and structure of the tree. So for example, a reduction of ~9%/dose, 1-3 meter lengths, <10 cm cuts is not an uncommon programme to follow on hollow old trees.

And a poor looking graft union to boot. Given the extent of the reduction, sounds like much load has been removed. Sounding the roots themselves may be worth a listen.

The basal picture highlights the need to remove soil etc. from the stem area, remove any dead tissue from the stem, and examine the soil/tree interface. Conjecture without diagnosis is very limited, and conclusions are impossible.

Stupendous battles there tween tree and fung and fung. Or are they just the dances of coevolution?

I get something like that from municipal arborists here when i spec reduction for risk mitigation. If I spec 2m they want 3; if 3, then 5...compromise is reached after future health, maintenance and risk ramifications are detailed. If trees are 30m tall then they can stand to lose >1.5m typically? The concept of growing downward, retrenchment, is a challenge to sell, as it requires the consumer to think in 4 dimensions, and acquire patience. RETRENCHING HOLLOW TREES FOR LIFE 131226 tcia.docx

Schizopora not seen in US references. No pores visible even on the creamier fung on the inside of the dead bark. Here's some side shots. Very toothy.

A toothed crust species? ok i get that stereum is smoother... Here are some closeups of bark plates i pulled off, outside and inside.

Fork not that bad but not good either; definite cracking potential. some support was a good idea but they really went overboard there. Remember that even if the 'strangling' hardware is removed, the bark that it compressed continues the strangulation, so it should be shaved back to the phloem to allow recovery. but of course new support should go in before removing the old.