arbmark

new to me, brilliant! plus the end of a silage bail wrap on top

the problem is tv and radio programmes suggesting that tree surgeons will let you have it for nothing. you can be lucky. like most however, i charge!

bummer didnt know that! there must be someting else for bracken about. anyone tried anything effective?

pigs are very risky, damaging tree roots in their escapades. I'm not sure it would be a permanent fix in any case. Has the canopy closed after 10-12 yrs or have the trees had a fight on their hands getting away through the ramblers? The density of b&b should decrease as the canopy thickens, but this makes each tree thinning the perfect chance for renewed vigour in the scrub layer. Mechanical solutions are limited, so you could brushcut & clear up a few lines and make inroads from there, just severing the bramble shoots at the base. Unless things are really bad i would let it run its course - woodland always wins in the end. It would be a lot of work just to speed things up. Or perhaps late springtime spraying would be the best option. I would guess it is the oaks that probably need the most help so focus on them?

bit too much flesh for me mate! wrong time of year for horseflies isnt it - some spiders have nasty little bites.

gutting. cheers for the heads up - i'm not far away. hope it was insured. might leave the dog outside for a few nights! google makes it so easy these days. i reckon there must be a way of tracking if someone is googling tree surgeons around the country but as a simple trog of the finest sort i might be talking rubbish

super fly mate. you'd better exlain!

yea photinia was my first thought

i needed slippers!!!! Was at my godmothers near bodenham - flipping eck you lot know how to eat in herefordshyre.... she also complained about a local tree surgeon selling her logs that were too big - that wouldnt be you was it!?!?! mind you she hadnt noticed they were nearly all cypress:laugh1: happy new year & have fun with your helical. sticking with the blakes - like something big, cheap & easy to hold on to:confused1:

know the feeling. eye gone and a thousand bowlines till the next one. hey guess what i got for christmas - a superdry jacket (albeit without the logo, fortunately!)

ditto with a mince pie and a vermouth with a cherry on a stick

the nightmare that is christmas, i mean :thumbup:the nightmare before christmas:thumbup: or :thumbup1:blackadders christmas carol:thumbup1: not exactly a film granted

yep brittle, ay. and likes to hake's mouth as some call it, easily. when i have seen it, the other usual hedgerow suspects seem to be fairly immune. It really depends how badly infected the hedge is as a whole. If there is a fair mix in the hedge then you can cut out the blackthorn and favour the rest. you can only do what you can do really if extensive planting up isnt an option. blackthorn will always keep suckering even when suppressed by the fungus, but a heavily infected hedge wont come back well. it actually depends on your local style.....and the role of the 'pleachers' (steepers here) in the regrowing hedge and how important their survival is as opposed to basal growth. good luck

every decent sized cerasifera i ever see seems to have it! very useful documentation of decline thanks Gerrit - update on the radiata - the owner is happy with the insurance situation on the tree having had it inspected so remains to be seen if she will let me do some pruning.......but its staying put anyway. Thanks.

looks like the contents of hama's christmas stocking tipped out on a log

as a small silver lining, the affected wood, before it goes too spongy gives an awesome contrasting two-tone effect for spoons, turning, candlesticks etc. glass half full and all that! as tony said, its really common on wild blackthorn and when ive laid hedges infected the regrowth has been poor. i would say despite the appearance of the ripewood being in good nick, it probably wont respond to laying as well as you would like. if its a garden hedge it could be worth a replant with non-susceptibles....

thanks guys. i guess the only way is to ask the stockist if they know, whilst having a couple of options rather being set on the shiniest!!!!! some good info anyway cheers, M

you can probably cut up more than you reckon and split off ring segments with wedges, bars etc. Has the stream washed away most of the soil off it? Get a stiff brush on it and a bar to poke out soil from between adjacent roots and a bucket to pour water over it. You could budget a new chain into the price or hack off lumps with an axe..... or just go hire a winch....use old rope & slings, but it sounds like its going to need lifting so its up to you whether you try it in one lump. long poles n old corrugated sheets make skidding easier.

apologies for the xenophobic thread but blundering on....its not just about nationaltiy, infact hardly at all for me its more about freight miles and keeping money in the uk economy...... so we've got DMM (wales i think), At least some petzl and, almost certainly stein, assuming worcs' cider fuelled leaps of logic arent leading us astray. any more? or is the fact that the brands out-sourrce to different countries to get their products made going to thwart me in my plans to go native, as borntotrot put it:thumbup1:

mix it up. if you sell the wood or whatever at least it wont all the same. you'll get sick of the sight of the same logs its a poor situation for woodland diversity i have seen monocultures of young ash heavy with canker. I wouldnt go for much sycamore its a dominant one and low on the biodiversity stakes. If you want some firewood quickly go for a single block of hybrid pops and willows. Ash is a good mainstay for the rest and cherry aint far behind. I wouldnt plant as close as some of the others have said. my ideal would be 3m spacings. It takes a long time planting and thinning can be quite laborious when you could be busy doing other stuff. More to spray etc. If you want to establish a healthy coppice of the usual native stuff its going to take 20yrs till the first real crop (2nd cut) spacings increased to 5m+. Obviously hybrid stuff will be half this timescale, but then good things come to those who wait!

Cheers Tony - its part of the NPTC Level 3 Diploma in Work-based Trees and Timber (new i think). I'm on the waiting list. Thanks also gibbon - all very useful and i appreciate the deeper knowledge of others its possible to call on here Tip end weight reduction to minimise further loss of primary branches and continual monitoring of crown health thereon seems the way to go. The whole things going to be slimy with rook poop though!

awesome stuff hama thankyou - i can learn a lot from this. its help like this that makes arbtalk such a useful tool to all users. doing a professional tree survey course soon. i cant wait!!!!!!!!

aye but have ye seen it hama?!? i take it you think it should go. Cons Area, near a pub etc etc... Is incremental trunk growth going to guarantee the strength of the woody cylinder? It wont be happening all the way round. And we are back to the buckling v inc. growth thing..... I have told the owner ( who i have given this link) that i think a second opinion is necessary.....

i should perhaps say that i believe the consultant is aware of the infection but has said that there is nothing that needs to be done by surgery. he is a man of considerable experience in these things. yes indeed as gibbon says this is what gives the tree hope really - i dont think there are many cases of them failing and i am thinking some small amount of work is justified to reduce branch tip weights... It doesnt want to lose any more primary branches. It has lost a not unappreciable amount of the original crown and it wouldnt want to have it its ability to function impaired. thoughts welcome on this..... I think David will have to wait for the autopsy snaps:biggrin: Baring in mind Gerrit's words, it probably needs gently managing into retirement, like me but with less prospect of having to do up houses...!!! If anyone out there has any experience of phaeolus bringing down a monterey, now is your moment to pipe up!!!! thanks guys, Mark

i know this is an international forum..... but i unpacked my shiny new stein rc2000 the other day and saw it was made in the UK. woohoo!! such a rare thing these days it seems. i would like to buy british manufacutred gear where there is a choice. So does anyone know any other arb brands/products that are so we can help keep british manufacturing alive?