60 FT OAK TREE MAY HAVE PROBLEMS
- Thread starter mspope111
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Just try and think about the forces a tree must resist.
The weight pushing down from the weight of the tree sitting on top of it, and the shear forces created by winds pushing it sideways and torque from those same winds rotating the tree creating torque on the trunk. Three different forces all at the same time put a lot of stress on a tree trunk.
I still remember a little bit from school. ...lol .....Some of what they taught did stick.
But you are correct that it is also a strength:weight ratio thing depending on the application. I'll give you partial credit.
I had to look up how to spell partial....lol.....I did suck at spelling. (I still do)
Have you ever seen Frank Rinn's demonstration of this?
He uses fruits and veggies to get the point across. If I remember correctly:
celery vs. carrot. Celery bends while a carrot snaps to show bending strength.
I don't remember what he used to demonstrate compression strength (the strongest force in trees)
A banana to help think through how torsional strength is the weakest of the 3 in trees.
Obviously not all the same...but almost all are stranger in compression than bending and stronger in bending than torsion... Those absolute strengths and ratios can be drastically different.
another thing I learned from Frank Rinn....based on USFS research, but I can't find it quickly right now, gotta think of the right key words:
For red oak (this tree), faster grown trees are actually stronger than slower growing trees. I always thought it was the other way around (and for diffuse porous species it is). However with Red oak, the faster growth happens with late wood which is stronger/more solid wood.
Look at the rings, with slow growing years they are about 50:50 early wood to late wood. Now look at a years where it grew fast...notice there is much more late wood than the hollow pores of early wood.
Well, hell's bells. If you don't like leaves, you moved to the wrong neighborhood. How long have you been there?? That tree's got to be 100 years old.
Kind of drastic measures to want to take down a tree because it drops leaves in your yard.
Buy a leaf blower ... maybe the noise will make your neighbor crazy and help them to decide to take it down.
Kind of drastic measures to want to take down a tree because it drops leaves in your yard.
Buy a leaf blower ... maybe the noise will make your neighbor crazy and help them to decide to take it down.
mspope111
ArboristSite Lurker
No, its the safety factor. We love the tree, it is beautiful! Just want them to care for it! That is: PICKING UP THEIR OWN LEAVES!Well, hell's bells. If you don't like leaves, you moved to the wrong neighborhood. How long have you been there?? That tree's got to be 100 years old.
Kind of drastic measures to want to take down a tree because it drops leaves in your yard.
Buy a leaf blower ... maybe the noise will make your neighbor crazy and help them to decide to take it down.
Picking up their leaves on your property!? That sounds petty as hell. I can understand the safety worry as we had a neighbors dead oak fell on our shed after trying to get them to remove it for 2 years. After it fell, my insurance paid us and then sued them as we had proof that it had been dead and we tried to get them to remove it. The leaf thing is ridiculous though.
I never heard that one before!
mspope111
ArboristSite Lurker
You may think it's "petty". When you become our age and they refuse to pick up their own leaves and they fall/blow into our yard not once but several times during the winter season, you get sick of it spending money cleaning them up! Im not talking about a few, Im talking about 1 ft deep throughout your front yard, garage etc.! So maybe the "leaf thing" is ridiculous to you, but some people who do not care for their trees and are a nuisance to others get tired of cleaning up the crap year after year! Wait until your 60, we'll see and you can't get out there and do alot of manual labor and have to spend money to hire help to keep your property clean so they don't blow into the next person's yard. Or maybe should we just let the leaves blow into someone's else's yard and let them worry about them. Maybe they will help pay each year for the maintenance of someone else's neglect. Then I can tell them "THEY ARE PETTY".
I would drop my pants and bend over right in front of you. Kiss all of it! 
Consider a temporary snow fence or construction fence to keep them from blowing into your yard. Have someone that used to live around the corner with lots of trees who never raked. Neighbor put up an orange construction site fence and they'd pile against that.
Yup... all the leaves in my yard would blow into the neighbor's yard, to the north, then get caught in their fence on the north side of their property. Several years ago, they removed the fence - acres of field crops on the other side, and the leaves blew out of their yard, too.
Until last year, when I put a fence up on the north side of my property... now they accumulate there... which is no problem, I just rake them away from the fence and mulch them with the mower.
... and I am over 60.
mspope111
ArboristSite Lurker
Yes! Raking against a fence a piece of cake! Raking acres of field crop is another story! Gotcha drift! No pun intended..Yup... all the leaves in my yard would blow into the neighbor's yard, to the north, then get caught in their fence on the north side of their property. Several years ago, they removed the fence - acres of field crops on the other side, and the leaves blew out of their yard, too.
Until last year, when I put a fence up on the north side of my property... now they accumulate there... which is no problem, I just rake them away from the fence and mulch them with the mower.
... and I am over 60.
mspope111
ArboristSite Lurker
Here's a photo of the fence I put up all by myself - and like I said, I'm over 60.
Looks great, inexpensive, and looks as good as new three years later.
I got everything I needed @ Lowes: steel posts, green plastic fencing by-the-roll, and zip-ties to attach the fence to the posts.
The only other things you need are a post driver, twine for making a straight line, tape measure for spacing and height, and a level with a magnet on it to get the posts level and straight.
Took no time at all.
Good luck!
Btw, as you can see in the photo, I had to put up the fence to keep my neighbor from killing my Green Giant arbs with weed-killer.
mspope111
ArboristSite Lurker
thank you! It looks nice! What a good neighbor you are!Here's a photo of the fence I put up all by myself - and like I said, I'm over 60.
Looks great, inexpensive, and looks as good as new three years later.
I got everything I needed @ Lowes: steel posts, green plastic fencing by-the-roll, and zip-ties to attach the fence to the posts.
The only other things you need are a post driver, twine for making a straight line, tape measure for spacing and height, and a level with a magnet on it to get the posts level and straight.
Took no time at all.
View attachment 853903
Good luck!
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