Twentyeight Trees

Hey guys, I’ve come across and interesting pine tree this week and I’m not totally sure what to recommend so I’d like some other opinions please. the pine is co dominant at 4m, the union is sound, perhaps too much so! The angle of which the larger stem is coming out looks like a potential hazard down the line, a lot of weight at the top. The tree is approx 15m in height and the base of the tree is 4m to the dwelling so failure would cause some pretty serious damage. I'm leaning toward reducing by 3.5-4m to reduce sail. Potentially adding brace also. or brace with no reduction, but I also feel like the stem behind isn’t big enough to provide support and it may also fail. bit of a head scratcher, I would appreciate other opinions on this one please thanks tim

Hi guys, Could I gain some further opinions on this palm tree please? It fell over and has approx a third of its roots attached, the other 2/3 have snapped rather than lifted. The client is considering having it staked up and praying for its recovery, would anyone have any experience with this or palm trees? thanks

Hi all. I have a bit of a potentially tricky situation with an ash tree and would really appreciate some opinions please. Domestic customer has a very mature ash tree overhanging her boundary, the crown and limbs significantly overhanging her small garden and seating area. the customer is not the tree owner. it grows from within a copse of trees surrounding a fishing lake. we initially planned to reduce the spread of the 3 offending limbs by a few metres, bread and butter works…. Upon climbing the tree I found some large pockets of decay at the base of one of the larger limbs and the pruning points I had lined up from initial quotation photographs during winter were deadwood. I felt as if more should come now for safety purposes but had a bad gut feeling about making larger wounds in a potentially 80+ year old ash tree. I know it’s early in the season but the tree is in good health with little signs of adb, full crown with not a huge display of internal Epicormic growth. The tree has had various weird and wonderful works carried out to it, some look professional, others certainly ladder and pole saw, It’s responded really well to all. I came down from the tree to reassess as I had an anxious moment that our pruning wounds could kill the tree or atleast send it into decline and I’ll be held liable. 1. Continue as planned, reduce spread by 2.5m and pray for growth points. 2. Pollard limbs at approx 50% of spread to remove more weight. 3. Remove the 3 limbs at collar and monitor decay. Other small/medium size limbs have been removed at the collar and are responding well. I lean toward this option 4. Walk away from the job. Last question. Is there any way to cover myself that if the tree is to respond negatively to our pruning works I’m not liable?. The trees are neglected and the owner isn’t bothered about maintaining them. Photos from tree are below, not the best as taking them from inside the tree isn’t the easiest task. sorry about the long winded thread! I’m rather heavily sleep deprived due to a 1 year old and find decision making a little harder now! Thanks all

Thanks for the reply’s chaps. I was leaning more toward the removal of associated limb / heavy reduction. luckily the section that is failing is going over the neighbouring fence with just the fence as the target. cheere 🙌

Hey guys, I recently went to look at a catalpa with a bad first union, it’s already started cracking/opening… it really doesn’t have long left till it fails. I would be super appreciative of opinions on what to do with said tree, I’ll attach photos below. would one of the 3 below align with others? 1: crown reduction by approx 1.5m and a static brace like cobra etc 2: crown reduction and a rod bracing system 3: as it’s already split and a fairly young tree, removal of entire limb and monitor decay over the years. Any help is appreciated! Thanks 🙌

I haven’t done any maintenance to this tree yet. If you look at the natural brace in the photos you’ll see it was removed years ago, the clean edge to it looks like it was pruned out rather than naturally removed. Don’t panic I’m not a remover of natural braces, I was just curious to hear other peoples opinions on them.

Thanks for the reply Dan. My theory for natural braces came from https://www.trees.org.uk/Trees.org.uk/media/Trees-org.uk/Documents/Conference17/WED-07-Dr-Duncan-Slater.pdf in a nutshell a natural brace stops the movement within the union, the friction would divide cells and create a ridge. If natural brace dies then the union is heavily compromised…. On the flip side of the natural brace doesn’t die/fail then it’s supporting the union…… 😩 all very interesting stuff! I’ll email the TO tomorrow.

Hey guys, I came across something that I’d like some more opinions on (please). I was doing a very quick inspection of some old pruning wounds in a copper beech. We were due to fell said tree and the LPA TPO’d it, understandably - it’s a very nice example and it’s recovered from pruning exceptional well for a beech. the first fork is included and rather tight. it’s had the natural brace removed, which I believe will allow the union to stabilise itself over time. the crown has also been reduced, can only assume to reduce weight/sail area. my plan for this is to reduce crown again and monitor union….Does anybody have any other suggestions for said tree or do I just need to stop being so bloody anxious! Thanks tim🌳

not exactly today, but last week! First time using a drone for some shots! Tree Services Wilts

Very true! I didn't do the maths on that one! ? My method was comparing it to the third house on the right! ? Gutters are 6m, perhaps more around 30m. Will have to rec climb it now!

Absolute whopper of an Oak in my village, 40m+, 123 years old. Took my SLR out to try and get a better of shot of it. Tree services Trowbridge

Interesting…. How big was the root ball on them when they arrived? As they're quite large specimens (photos look about 10ft?) if the root ball has been reduced significantly upon transplanting there could be a root/shoot imbalance and it may not be able to draw enough moisture out of the ground to support it's current canopy size. It's not planted too deep? Laurel is super hardy, if a few of the stems dieback they'll soon be replaced. My five pence worth anyway! Trowbridge Tree Services

Indeed, it's behind a walled garden. I heard through the pipeline that it's in decline... I hope its still there! Can anyone clarify how long Arbutus live in the UK? Tree Services Trowbridge

Arbutus in Bath, that bark ? Tree Services Trowbridge, UK

long commute for our job today.... had to walk next door. the chap was trying to remove this cherry DIY with his dads blunt saw and ladders... I offered to help before he seriously hurt himself, glad to have something to do being closed at the mo! Tree Services Trowbridge