Tony Croft aka hamadryad

that is a gem of a tip:001_cool: liking your style, was looking at doing something VERY similar to my tatty old patio this year!

The AA are all sound folk, and youll have no regrets

FFS! consumer sheeples!

crikey, would ANYONE want that role!

It was young and was almost guaranteed to flush, had this been a mature tree and the desired reduction points would have left 6 inch wide "blinds" you would have found 50% failed to flush or flushed at a point around a meter below the cut with a dead stub as a result, and a second climb needed anyway, as well as multiple shoots derived from a singular point, weakly attached and competing. By doing it in a gradual "tree time" centred way, even growths can be selected at various points, leaving each with their own space and place and more natural regrowth rather than a sudden starvation and flush scenario, which by the way leads to total shading of the interior and an overly dense canopy which also requires a second climb to thin! there is no arguments, treework is not a one hit operation most of the time its cyclic, and if its cyclic it might as well be in natural rythym and empathy:thumbup1:

yep, easy to forget the privileges we get during the winter months. top thread matty, nice one:thumbup1: I know how much thought and effort you put into your work up there, I might not say it very often but I do hold you in very high regard, not many care to the extent you do

its cheap these days just under 500 quid i think for a two man band setup, bearing in mind your CHAS is included now, makes it good value

Its alwyas difficult in crown and working to get the sort of shots required BUT.... I do have enough to illustrate the point, I will have to use a lot of natural scenarios as examples too though. Its the sa\me process as after all that is what retrenchment/crown modifying is really trying to do. to stimulate/emulate natural crown retrenchment or "growing down" as Ted Green likes to call it. look at these shots from this afternoon of an ash with typical inonotus hispidus induced induced retrenchment, self pollarding. In the second image you can see that the newer smoother barked branches grew after the breakout, the larger vertical behind the newer epis to far right of image would have been an epicormic at the time, we imitate the fungi or branch loss when we prune and stimulate this kind of scenario. Forcing a new second crown to form, until like in the second shot we can now remove that tear section right back to the collar that is beginning to form right in front of the new brnach and secondary growths to the far right of image. does this help picture what were trying to describe as procsess?

I reckon youll go a long way, right attitude, smart, I like the way you roll Theocus:thumbup1:

I have used the method many times to make a long term retrenchment program possible:thumbup1: Oak and ash need lots of light, thinning or reducing the upper canopy enough allows light through to epicormics which then develop into useable frameworks for structural style crown modifications.

thanks, not my job this time, gordons clipping turn! we do this one regular, makes for a great little alcove sound proof and wind proof when your tucked in.

they (proportionally) arent that bad:biggrin:

now the crown has been opened it will shoot from within, and create oportunity to reduce properly and decrease levers. A desirable outcome in the longer term as the decay in the stem progresses in time.

ha ha I was thinking about one of these the other day for putting the honey on me porridge! what would you make me one or two for?

dont be too hard on the pen pusher, its easily done.

better to take your time than rush in:thumbup1:

not problem if from sustainable source but HIGHLY unlikely

well you did pick one of the most discernible and widely documented, still good exercise though:thumbup:

10 ton Welly butt breaks a 18inch diameter bare'er like a twig

Just a few images from recent weeks:001_smile:

this axe design is so that you can wrap your hand around behind the blade and use it for fine work, like crafts:thumbup1:

that might be worth having:thumbup1:

Shall wait and see, let others play. should be relatively easy

only in the growing season, when its drier anyway, digging in a lot of sand will help, I would dig a small well into it and use it to water the garden in summer!