Jim B
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Everything posted by Jim B
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If it's oak it is likely to be Pinhole Borer. The trees need milling as soon as they are felled to combat this. A lot of people will not accept this damage when buying beams etc.
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Top photos look like firewood damage a long time ago. Queen wasps have made a second nest and started again rather than hibernate due to this warm weather, perhaps same on the figs.
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Andrews, best boots I've had and I've had a lot of boots.
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You need a license to use mewps on highways
Jim B replied to Steve Bullman's topic in Cranes and Mewps
Is this the same licence for traffic control work? It's 75.00 plus vat in Norfolk, plus drawings required. -
Well I found it a lot more interesting than More 4 last night, with Alan Titchmarsh still planting Ash!?!
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We have something going on at present within East Anglia and the South East which resembles drought but we haven't had enough warmth or dry periods to warrant the damage to the trees. You are not alone in seeing this, I and a few others within the industry have quite a list of species now. It seems to be the larger trees of a species such as walnut, holly and hawthorn turning their toes up and calling it a day. English Oak is looking very bad throughout Norfolk but not in the usual droughted manner, they have no internal growth with bunched yellowing growth on the branch ends. I suppose all we can do is watch this space and see what happens next year.
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The lower damage in these photos looks like operator error being hit by the flail and the higher damage old grey squirrel barking.
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Well said Mike, Norwich already has plenty all round. Heating oil at 28 pence will sort us all out even if it gets cold people will buy oil this time.
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I agree 10.00 per tonne for standing processor friendly ash at present, so 100.00 plus vat seems fair for an oversized (hedgerow?) Tree.
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Yep must be wiser than you.
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Tree surgery seems to be the game to be in at the moment. Lots of start ups, the young guns have parents willing to fund new equipment, people like myself are un willing to employ pushing others into the self employment route. Things have changed its cut throat and no loyalty from most customers since the recession and let's face it we are not out of it yet. But strangely I have more work since increasing my prices and charging vat? For those heading down the selfie/ own company route look at what you hope to earn. A bank for mortgage purposes wants to see profit and will lend four times your profit. Most houses here in Norfolk are now 160 to 200k. You need a profit of at least 35k to achieve this and remember that's not turnover. Renting is 750 to 1k a month. Most of us will have to ride this out for a number of years somehow until the surgery market levels out again.
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I fell birch all year round so summer time is full of surgery sap, rot sets in if not opened quickly. As for stringyness I find each tree different, edge trees being the worst and spiralled.
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Birch needs splitting within a couple of weeks of felling, I split down to 4 inch, cord under that I score the bark and very roughly sned to allow the bark to split open. I find dries fast but must be dry and in maximum airflow.
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I produce 400 metres after air of billets each year, i do this at ride side winching or extracting to the splitter, this is the same as in many euro countries. I find this saves time on extraction as the split product is coming out of the wood rather than cordwood to restack before processing. It leaves all the mess in the wood. I have no indoor storage, billets stack high and easily, I have rows 100 metres long covered on top with maximum air flow, I have no problems with mould, and the wood seasons quicker, i achieve 20% mc on hard and soft usually 15% on soft. I personally don't find the system slow, I produce and extract 10 cubic metres a day. Billets are more suited I feel to forest production than yard. I do not have problems with bent, twisted, oversize etc. I find a vertical splitter gives a more accurate uniform billet.
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Potato boxes, Firewood boxes. IBC's - PROS & CONS ?
Jim B replied to arboriculturist's topic in Firewood forum
Good website but I am once again not impressed by the write up on kiln dried vs seasoned wood. Oh and why is a discount required in September for most of its our peak time! -
Parish council agree to fell tree - how to stop?
Jim B replied to Two Acres's topic in Trees and the Law
Once upon a time a tree would have been planted, it would have grown, village life carried on with more important things to worry about, the tree may have shed a limb in a gale probably cleared up by the local farmer and the tree left alone. We have thousands of such mature trees we praise yet if planted today would be felled due to the acute fork and included bark. Let's not forget that on average less than 1% die per annum due to trees. How many drive or walk under trees every day and how many die each day by driving into or over each other. We need to be careful, trees are precious. -
Yes and lots of other stuff. PM if interested.
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John we are finding its the semi mature to mature trees that are declining rapidly and dying with no epicormic growth and no secondary infection. Just continuously declining crowns.
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Just carry on as you would before, don't kill the stumps as some may survive. Cutting or not will make no difference as it ultimately the genetic make up of the tree to tolerate the disease. Year to year climatic differences will affect how bad it's affects are. This year here not so bad because until last week it's been dry and cool. If you have a market or use, coppice but accept serious losses to growth and saplings, that would happen anyway. Personally don't replant that's the cause of this in the first place, just coppice whatever else appears, it's what our predecessors would have done in the past.
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I've been mulling this over all day whilst processing. Wood wasp you have beaten me to it. I think as I said this morning the bubble has burst here, what with two mild winters, low oil price merchants have yards full of wood bought at 68 in the yard and now at 50 with no where for it to go. Oil is expected now to drop further. I would be very careful investing mega bucks into it at present and the elephant in the room is Chalara which I feel will apply more pressure to an overheated market. 10 years time this will have sorted itself out but somehow someone has managed to crate a boom and bust cycle in the very basic firewood market.
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This is a difficult one Jon, could you do it as a small splitter operation and build you from there? See how it goes? The firewood bubble has burst down here could happen to you up there.
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I surrender.
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I'll do a Paddy Ashdown and offer to eat my hat! I ate my tea under my ash this evening. Its having its last throws of the dice to survive. The lower branches in the picture are dead, they still have the seed stalks on them from what three years ago when the branch was infected. Please take the time to visit Norfolk I'll show you round. Yes there are other things but I can tell you that crown is not thin through drought, frost, pigeons, squirrels or seeding dieback. Seeding dieback is hidden within a year by vigorous new growth, I don't see any ash with vigorous growth full stop. I've studied ash dieback since this first started, I work with the person who found it first in the wild in the UK.
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Rubbish.
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I would say so and by the first photo it's been with you a while , just in the past the tree has been able to outgrow the disease without it noticing.
