Oddjobz

Squirrel fights..... have seen squirrels fighting for territory where they jump from tree to tree in a panic breaking branches along the way. If you have deer in your area....generally all will be broken at lower elevation. High winds on over laden branches....leaf out is too fast for the stem size to keep up and breaks in the wind. (as someone already mentioned).

This is a common occurrence in our region. We have an overabundance of overhead KV lines throughout the province. Hydro Quebec policy is "above ground" ..... in opposition to the standards everywhere else in North America and most parts of Europe. It make Horticultural planning a real pain for homeowners, landscapers and municipalities. Especially when cultivars come along with a tree typically an overstory, claim its now and understory with confined canopy spread ......... and it fails to meet the design criteria. Cultivars aren't perfect.....Nature defies rules. Imagine that behind that maple are two Ash trees......both have been treated for Emerald Ash borer at some expense. We should question "why" treat when they should be removed and replaced immediately since they don't belong under 3 phase KV lines to begin with. Duh. So back to the the original question.......As one poster said " Just say no" . Consider: Soil (wet, dry, alkali or acidic) Do you want: Tall slender, Tall wide, Short wide, Short compact. Type: Deciduous or conifer (do you want to go barefoot around the tree, soft needle confer) Do you like to rake leaves? Large leaf (rake or mulch) or small leaf (dissolves into the soil) All trees have their plus and minuses..... Good idea to ask an arborist .....we deal with these things daily..

Oddly enough I ran into one today. The idea of these trees were that they were to be understory and narrow enough that they would grow beside overhead wires without needing extensive maintenance. As you can see on the left side of the tree, it is losing its cultivar's form and is reverting to natural. The large laterals are prime candidates for breakage, as this one is experiencing. One dead limb already exists in the naturalized area of growth.......on the back rear two leaders have also broken from the design and are poking diagonally out from the canopy. So much for cultivars efforts with maples. They don't seem to want to behave........Often in these trees we'll see schoolmarms. (Lateral scaffolds that decide to go vertical and try to assume the "terminal role" or "dominant leader" if you prefer) BTW, most of these are hybrids of Sugar and Norway maples. Many cultivars exist, few have had over 50% success as far as I've seen......along a highway, not a problem, next to a house or power line......problem.😒

Well, I found variant "Laciniatum Wieri" here are the key points that immediately steers me clear of this for residential purposes. Height: 20 m, fast growing Crown: round to broad fan-shaped, half-open crown, capricious growing Application: avenues and broad streets, parks, squares, cemeteries, industrial areas, large gardens Shape: clearstem tree, multi-stem tree Anyways, it could be worse, they could have offered an eastern poplar or a weeping willow..... 🙂 PS: The 3 most dangerous trees for septics and underground watering/supply systems due to the extremely aggressive nature of the root systems. 1) Eastern Poplar 2) Weeping willow 3) Silver maple All can grow extensive root systems up to 100meters....far wider than the drip line. (the order above is debatable, but all three are nasty)

Any Acer in the overstory category. ie: Sugar, Norway, Silver should never be planted withing 3 meters of any structure, retaining wall, supply pipes etc. The root mass of these trees are quite enormous. Buttress roots will grow laterally down angled in most instances. Consider the canopy can easily reach more than 33 meters wide and root length can exceed 100meters. The catch here is that the new hybrids do not carry all traits of the source. BUT, this is a BIG "but". There can be a reversion to natural traits in some specimens..... Ex: 15yrs ago a Columnar Sugar Maple was marketed as an understory (less than 10-12 meters height.) I went to see one the other day...... currently just under 18 meters and insanely dense canopy, less than 2% visible sky. I'm extremely leery of anything derived from the Acer Saccharinum (silver maple) strain. These trees easily hybridize naturally. I've seen at least 8 variations of trees over 80yrs old...... all are massive, fast growing, invasive roots, carpenter ant favorite, fragile grained, susceptible to verticillium wilt and prone to co-dominance trees out there. Fine in a forest but not near a home. I believe they are genetically poorer than the more dense fiber maples and more susceptible to problems. So be vary wary.........personally, I'd replace it while I could.

For urban work there is always the risk of embedded metal, even concrete. For canopy pruning Stihl or Oregon chain. Occasionally Archer or Stens on the top handle saws..... For bigger wood Oregon or Archer. Semi-chisel , (full skip on anything over 24" bar.) Faster to sharpen than Stihl (most likely will need a touch), SC is more forgiving as many have posted. Stihl is a very hard cutting edge, longer to file and costs more on files. Plus if you have a climber who pulls laterally instead of vertically when he pinches , the chain will eventually snap no matter what brand you use. Keep a hand saw with you at all times in the tree. FOR EVERYONE WHO USES A CHAINSAW, IF YOU GET PINCHED, TAKE THE 5 EXTRA MINUTES TO WEDGE, LIFT OR CUT-OUT A PINCHED BAR. A REPLACEMENT PART IS GOING TO HAVE A COST VALUE MORE THAN AN HOUR OF YOUR TIME SO TAKE THE TIME TO DO IT RIGHT......sorry had to vent that. You always have that one dipstick that the moment you turn your back he'll try to cut through a suspended log and pinch at the bottom instead of rolling the log or pulling out and undercutting. Drives me nuts..... When working in muddy/sandy conditions. Often will take a bigger saw with a shorter bar (I like to run a 28-32 on everything). 70-90cc , 24-28" , put a .404 skip chain of any cheaper brand of chain and sharpen or replace as needed. The wider 404 cutting edge will last longer and require fewer touch-ups. If I catch a nail or embedded fence pop on a fresh cheap chain and go again..... I'll re-splice chains as needed after a job and put them in the spares box to repeat the process. Key point is when on production and you can keep spares with you, it is faster to swap out a chain than sharpen it on anything over 24" . Talking urban work where the truck is close. Far in the bush, not so easy for the loggers. When replacing bars, generally Oregon...... I'm about to try Tsumura bars on the climbing saws. I just put a nice lightweight Tsumura on my Mac 10-10 (24"SC-FS) and husky 288 (36"SC-FS) ......impressed so far, will see how long they wear before the rails need to be evened.