agg221

Well, you know what to do. Plant yourself a greengage! Alec

Usually when a tree is dying its leaves start to get small and pale and the canopy looks thin. It's too early in the year to see yet, but my overall impression is that the tree itself looks pretty healthy. It has clearly been cut back a couple of times before. Once relates to the dead area where you have shown close-ups - my guess would be that the branch died and was cut off, and that whatever killed it also progressed a bit down the trunk, hence the dead area with no bark. However, if you look at the sides of the picture you can see a smooth area of new bark growing which means the tree has killed off whatever the infection was and is now re-growing bark over the top. It will eventually grow completely over that - trimming the dead area up to a smoother shape might allow that to happen a bit faster. The second area is quite a bit higher up on each of the two main branches where you can see a whole load of branches all starting at the same place with several of them very upright. That is a sign that it was cut there before and grew back. You probably don't want to go in that hard again but it shows that it can recover from cutting. If you have insect damage to the heart of the tree, that doesn't really matter so long as it is not carrying so much weight that large branches are likely to snap off. You would need someone to actually inspect it from all angles to be certain on that one. From what you have posted, nothing immediately stands out. The other issue would be severe root damage (physical or fungal) leading to it becoming unstable and blowing over. Again, that would need to be inspected but there is nothing obvious - there is something going on with that thickened base but I am not qualified to comment what it might be - could just be typical of this species. Bear in mind when you have a tree inspected by someone whose main job is working on trees that they are not truly neutral in offering an opinion as whether they get extra work may depend on what they say. The other question is, what would happen if it fell? If it wouldn't hit anything that's a problem beyond a bit of tidying up then you could just leave it. If it might be a problem then reducing it as Peasgood suggests would make that less likely to happen. There appears to be a decent line that it could be reduced to - hard to say exactly from the picture but I would guess it would take about 6-8ft off the top and a bit less off the sides and still look quite natural. It would need doing periodically after that. Alec

With plums of all types it's best to wait until they leaf out. That reduces the risk of silverleaf infection. How big is it at the moment and why do you want to prune it? If it's not too big, the main pruning on plums is to remove dead and crossing branches and keep it open enough that the light gets in to the centre of the tree. There isn't really any need to prune more. Bullfinches can be a problem. There isn't much you can do about it other than netting. They tend to go for plums as they are early flowering. By the time the pears and apples come out, there are other, more interesting things to go for. Alec

You are quite right on the pH for vegetables - my mistake. We used to lime every year on clay to get a slightly alkaline pH, on the advice of Geoffrey Smith - just shows how much he knew! Alec

If a 36" bar would be long enough for what you have in mind then it might be worth considering adding a standard roller-nosed 3/8" bar and ripping chain - maybe skip tooth. It will cut a bit slower, but you are far less likely to snap the chain when you hit metal. It's really only the hardened nails that will kill it - it will go through soft iron. The reason for thinking skip tooth if you can get it is that if you know there is a risk of hitting metal then you have fewer teeth to sort out afterwards. In my early days of milling I once spent over two hours digging barbed wire out of a hedgerow oak by chiselling out the relevant section. I needed 20' planks and couldn't afford to cut anything off the end. Tedious! Alec

Also pH adjustment. Ash is alkaline, most pure rotted chip will be neutral to acidic. Most vegetables prefer a slightly alkaline soil. I believe potatoes may be an exception to that (possibly also tomatoes since they are the same family?). Alec

We have really messed it up on several occasions. I just about remember the 1970s as a bleak time for manufacturing (Dad worked for Ford in Dagenham as a metallurgist so I kind of absorbed it). Instead of modernising, it felt like a fight by the unions to cling on to jobs that weren't really viable and the entrenched 'them and us' culture took any sense of quality out of a lot of production. Vauxhall Viva or Austin Allegro anyone...? It was right through the supply chain too, so even if you tried to build something decent, the raw materials such as the steel, were so poor you couldn't control the quality of your product. By the 1980s we pretty much axed the old-style apprentice system and decided everyone should go down the further education route with polytechnics but in breaking the unions we also made manufacturing and engineering second-class, poorly paid jobs so a lot of people with skills went to the US which paid well (the brain drain). Two things which have changed for the better since are that engineering is now fairly well paid, and the modern apprenticeship does work sometimes, for both parties. It makes further education cost-effective and the employer gets a person who is tied to the company and trained to meet their specific needs. It is, however, quite expensive for the employer - you pay the person for 5 days a week but you only get 4 days a week delivered (5th day is education) and that lasts a large number of years if someone goes all the way through to degree level. The reality is though that engineering requires you to be good at maths and ideally physical sciences too. Those are subjects which many people are not good at and, much like healthcare workers, you really don't want people who are bad at the job, or not interested. Trying to make the STEM subjects appealing is not easy and you can't force people. We (my employer) used to do well out of the EU - countries with glass ceilings for women were great for us as the UK doesn't really have one, so we used to get a lot of the brightest, most motivated female graduates. Going forward, we either shrink, reduce quality or subcontract overseas but the latter does not work for a lot of the work we do. Not really sure how that will pan out - when the opportunities are there but you can't get the staff. It does mean that the better employers will probably do well and the poorer employers will lose out, which is an interesting shift in the balance of power between employers and employees. As I said in my first comment - engineering is in a rather odd situation. Alec

I can't comment. Alec

I can try 🙂 Capacitors are used, but do a different thing. If you think of a battery as a thin walled tank, like an unpressurised domestic water tank and a capacitor as being like water-type fire extinguisher. Think of the water as being like energy. For a given weight, the domestic water tank holds a lot more water (energy) than the fire extinguisher can, due to the weight of the cylinder itself to take the pressure. When you turn both on, the pressure in the fire extinguisher means it empties very fast whereas the water tank can only drain slowly. What that means in practice is that you use a capacitor when you want to get energy in or out very quickly. They are used for regenerative braking for example. However, if you want steady energy delivery for transport you want the highest possible energy density (Wh/kg). Capacitors will give you less than 1Wh/kg, supercapacitors up to around 15Wh/kg whereas the batteries in the current generation Tesla will give you over 250Wh/kg. Hope that helps! Alec

I think RR will be bailed out (again) as being of strategic national importance. Their aero engine business has been hugely impacted by the 'power by the hour' business model as with all the grounded planes they are not being paid. I can't comment on the submarine business but they have a programme to build small modular reactors for civil power generation - this has just had a very large government cash injection and it looks likely that they will be funded through to build. The hope is that they can sell them internationally. They also have an active programme developing electric flight - a major challenge as the energy density (kWh/kg) needs to be increased substantially to make this viable, but for short-hop flights it looks like we are probably less than a decade from the first commercial planes. The first test flights are scheduled for 2025. I appear to have somewhat hijacked this thread - sorry! Alec

Which bit? Fusion or hydrogen I presume as the rest is fairly standard. Hydrogen is a consequence of a couple of shifts. The first is that it is compliant with the net-zero agenda which means it is more viable as a source of fuel for longer range vehicles and for distributing in a gas network than most of the alternatives, although there is not enough platinum for us all to end up with fuel cell vehicles without a very radical change in catalyst efficiency (my first patent in 1998 was on fuel cell catalysts as I used to develop them for Johnson Matthey). The second shift is that electrolysis of water to hydrogen and oxygen is a viable way to use renewable energy which is generated out of sync. with demand (when the sun is shining people don't want the lights on...) Green hydrogen as it is known, as opposed to brown hydrogen made by steam reforming of carbon, is inherently free of carbon monoxide which is a major poison for catalysts. The cost of cleaning up reformate gas was one reason fuel cells did not make more progress than they have. Still not convinced that fuel cells are where hydrogen is going, but added to the standard gas network and used as a direct replacement fuel in internal combustion engines I think is more probable. Fusion - the big steps forward are the ITER project and the decision run a UK Tokomak programme. Tesla and UKAEA are currently recruiting vigorously at the higher engineering end. There is a timeline for the Tokomak but I can't remember offhand what it is - I know it looked ambitious. Alec

It's very odd in engineering. The UK never trained enough engineers. We always used to recruit a lot from mainland Europe, but where I work our European staff have mostly chosen to go back to the EU, partly because they didn't feel that Britain really wanted them and partly because they felt they had more flexibility by doing so (including the fact that they could visit their families). Last year we made 100 redundancies (out of 700 staff) and we made three more last week so it looks set to continue - there was strong signposting of what would probably be another 50 or so. Against that, we have had nearly 20 departures already this year due to people either retiring or finding other, better jobs and all the people I knew who were made redundant last year have gone on to new jobs, some of them significantly better than the old one. Aerospace has never looked worse and oil & gas is long-term shaky, but energy as a whole is buoyant, including nuclear at Hinkley point with Sizewell to follow and the Rolls Royce SMR programme, together with major investment in fusion. There are also new wind turbine facilities being built - blades on Teesside and towers in Scotland. There is a huge amount going on with electric vehicles too and hydrogen is very much up and coming. Yellow goods looks like it will be OK as there are various infrastructure programmes starting, such as widening the reach of superfast broadband, which will probably underpin Civil too, along with telecoms. Medical engineering has never been a better business to be in. I think what's happening is a realignment. Good companies will lose staff due to contraction, bad companies will lose staff due to there being a shortage of engineers. I think engineering will be one of the sectors which sorts itself out in the fairly near term. The problem is going to be trying to guess where in the country you need to relocate to. Alec

The people I know who have been on furlough have been on 80% pay. Those who have been on higher have had a day a week of enforced annual leave until their annual leave has run out, at which point they have dropped to 80%,. Most of the people I knew who were on furlough are now unemployed - it was a precursor. Redundancy came through in the autumn, as soon as there would have been any cost to the company by reinstatement. I would imagine that people who work in retail, hospitality or tourism where the company believes it will be re-opening may be in a different position - my experience has been in engineering (including RR, Airbus, JCB and my own employer). Alec

I agree with most of this, except the part about people sitting around on furlough having money in their pockets and being desperate to spend it. Furlough covers 80% of your salary. Even allowing for reduced travel costs, most people on furlough are worse off than they were working. They also have a high level of uncertainty over whether their jobs will resume so tend to be more cautious about spending.. The people who have the money for tree work are all those people who are still working, from home, often more hours than they were before, and are fed up with seeing that tree out of the window every day when sitting working. There are plenty of them and they may continue to want work done if/when there is some semblance of a return to normal as the mix of office/home working permanently changes. I would anticipate a gradual decline in demand from around June through to the autumn,. After that, who knows? Alec

I like that. You have to do something with the top to stop it being knocked over - not sure I would do what they have but I don't have any better ideas. Also, if you run short on firewood... Alec

I can offer some comments from outside of arb. Firstly, any formal calculation system that defines a number is fraught with difficulties. I work for a large company. We had a 'share in success' scheme which ran for a few years. It took into account a 'balanced scorecard' approach which covered various aspects including safety, productivity, orderbook, profitability etc, setting targets for each at the beginning of the year by giving it a score, added up to a total score. If we beat the score, we got a pre-defined bonus. The problem was, you could beat the score without necessarily achieving the profit to pay for it. The second year we got that right but the problem was, everyone was trying to beat the score by performing well, but then the profit wasn't there (out of their control) to pay for it. I think there were a couple of years where it paid out and then it died - it really didn't inspire anyone. Assuming these are employees, pay rises are good. If you give pay rises to the people you want to keep then they tend to stay. They also find it harder to leave if you get to the point where they are well paid for their level. The point is that they deserve above average pay, because they work above the average, which earns your business above the average. The consequence is that those who are not performing do not get pay rises (or at least much smaller ones). You have to be prepared to justify this - they will always talk. I always find an upfront discussion is best - not just a letter, but one to one as it doesn't need to be embarrassing. 'You are doing well. That has been helping the business to do well so in recognition of your contribution I am pleased to increase your salary by X'. 'You are doing OK, but you need to look at improving A and B. If you do, that will mean you are able to bring more to the company and I will be able to increase your salary accordingly'. If someone is not doing OK, they should be well aware and either improving fast or aware that they are leaving soon. The good thing about salary rises is they are is regular, consistent and makes people feel valued. The bad thing is that you have to be able to sustain the increased salary bill so there may be times when you aren't confident enough of doing that but want to offer a reward for something. An ad-hoc bonus, varied the same as the above and with the same explanation, achieves this. Being completely ad-hoc, they are not expected and therefore people do not resent not getting one at a particular time. They still need to be given with a verbal explanation - just giving people a bit extra in their wages leaves them more likely to be confused and wondering whether they need to return it. Not giving it to someone and explaining why sends a clear message and allows them to decide to improve, decide to keep not getting one, or decide that they are leaving (or you may decide that for them). The thing is, they can be for whatever you want, so long as you are consistent. People calling out safety issues and avoiding an accident; people getting the job done and saving a day, whatever is appropriate and you can link back to why this generated some extra cash which they are sharing in. Cash is always best btw - different people have different circumstances and may not actually appreciate something that you think is generous - the person who doesn't drink won't get much out of a bottle of Scotch; the person who just wants to get home to their wife and kids may not appreciate a meal out with the team etc. One exception to this - up until 2020 my employer gave everyone a Christmas gift. It was a small hamper of nice things to eat/drink. It was a completely mixed assortment and it cost them probably about £20-30/person. Being mixed, it really didn't matter if you didn't drink, or eat certain things - nothing difficult about passing on a few of the items to other people. It was worth a lot more as a gesture than the cost and by going to everyone it sent the message that everyone was still valued. Just a few thoughts. Alec

I rather like pirarucu. Only had it once, in Tabatinga just over a year ago. How times have changed. Alec

Thanks for following up and bad luck on the tree. You might be getting more information than you ever wished for! I grew up on an old orchard with honey fungus present. I distinctly remember that when we found it (in the late 1980s) all the literature, including the RHS, gave the impression that we were about to suffer creeping Armageddon with every tree in the place dying one by one. Then we thought about it. In reality, the whole country was once wooded and no doubt honey fungus was present but the trees didn't all die. Some species are native, others were introduced centuries ago. They still haven't all died of it. So we relaxed a bit and saw what happened. We found two trees which showed fruiting bodies. One was removed in 1995 as part of building a garage, the other is still there, still vigorous enough and, at 102yrs old, quite old for an apple. No others have shown any fruiting bodies. I'm not suggesting it is trivial and should be ignored, but would personally go for the get rid of as much as possible and delay replanting approach and, with a healthy new tree, I would expect it to do well. Alec

That would be a very interesting comparison to run. I will speculate. Comparatively, the 881 has lower total power, lower torque and higher chain speed. If I set up four logs side by side and squared off the edges, so they were absolutely uniform width along the length. Of those logs, I had 2off pine and 2off ash. One of each was 20" width and the other was 48" width. If I ran the chains set up to book values on raker depth, I would expect the 881 to be faster in both the 20" logs and in the 40" pine. If I tried to push it hard in the ash it would start to bog down, so I would have to ease off to keep the cut running. It would do a nice job overall, but a bit slower. The 090 would just keep going and be faster overall in that log. If I re-set the raker depth for each individual log, I would expect the 090 to be faster in all four, taking out huge chips in the softer wood, big chips in the 20" ash and standard chips in the 48" ash. However, if I had a mix of milling to do, I would have to keep swapping chains which would take away a lot of the advantage. Will Malloff was mostly working with a single species so he had less variation needed. The other thing an 090 will do is to keep chewing through the wood even when the chain isn't perfectly sharp. It is not advisable - the saw lets you know with vibration - but it will finish that last 6" of a cut to save dragging the saw back 20' much better than anything else will. Alec

It's a risk. 30 is a funny sort of age. At 40-50 you would say it would fail but at 20 it would probably be fine. 30 is more of a guess. I would guess enough will come back to get a decent density, perhaps with a bit of replanting in the failures but depends a bit on what the owner is prepared to risk/invest in - you could try coppicing the hornbeam but leave the decent ones as standards at normal density as they should be pretty upright and not throw much shade? If it re-sprouts then great, decide what to do about the standards. If it doesn't then underplant with hazel or a mix? Otherwise it's just a case of thinning for a hardwood stand, but I'm not sure what use the hornbeam would be as an eventual timber crop. Alec

I would expect the SC and hornbeam to also coppice well. The problem with the ash will be Chalara fraxinea. Diameter will determine what is useful for what purpose. SC could potentially be useful by now. Alec

I would say that with the size of rootball, the very rapid move and the aftercare you are planning to give it, it stands as much chance of success as you could hope for. I would also suggest a mulch around the root area to help avoid competition with weeds and hold the water in whilst it is re-establishing. Some rotted bark or chip would be my choice. Alec

I hope so. Unlike many on this forum, my job is desk-based, so I have had no choice but to work from home for the past year. I therefore have no interest in taking time off work to sit and look at the same four walls. I have school age children and my wife is a teacher, so I am tied to school holidays. Last year, I took two weeks off in total (and that mostly includes weekends and Bank Holidays too, and does include working straight through Christmas). It reached the point last summer where I didn't care where we went, what we did or how much it cost - I just needed to stop and actually enjoy something. My wife booked something on the Wednesday, we flew on the Saturday and I found out where we were were going when we got to the airport. We went to Rhodes for a fortnight - sun, warm sea, good food, no work whatsoever. Europe may be just entering another lockdown - we haven't even come out of one. For all practical purposes relating to deriving any pleasure from life (unless what you want out of life is to sit and watch the television or walk around a shopping centre), lockdown continues until at least mid-May, so at least five months which is significantly longer than the first one. Timing is about the same as last year on mainland Europe for going in to lockdown, but there are fewer vulnerable people (sadly) and some vaccination has happened so it would seem reasonable that it will open up again on the same timeframe as last year and a summer break may be possible. Otherwise it looks like I will be taking even fewer days off than last year. Alec

Does it produce big silvery or yellow catkins in spring? Alec

Surely hornbeam...! Alec