Old ReGrowth Red Maple

[silverzuk]

I am still lost to what is so special about a red maple in MA?
They are very prevalent here. So much that you would never have to plant one. Just quit mowing, and they will grow.

By the pictures of the tree, it looks like that tree just needs topped. Remove the big low angle limb down the fork in the limb.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

treeseer- It's 50 out today! I can't wait!

DUGs-sawshop- You bet I did, three times and I have to go back for interviews. I almost died on the second trip up, remember that snow blizzard you guys got on the 18th? Well I went off the road and the ass end of the VW was halfway in a 3 lane highway at 3am. I though that was the end.

silverzuk- Ok, for 1 yes they are the most commonly seen subspecies of the Maple family. However with that being said, out of all the subspecies of the Maple family the Rubrum is at the bottom of the list for reaching maturity. Reds take the longest to reach their maturity and are rarely seen past this age of my trees. For 2 its my family's tree, generations of tree houses have been built in it and it was (before 2008) the most beautiful red with an extremely wide canopy between all the limbs, forestry department even said they might be sending someone out here this summer to measure its trunk for a record book (17.5'ish) The root flare alone is amazing to me.

I am going to try not to cut anything major off right away there is virtually NO scars anywhere the tree has never been pruned in its rough 300 years of being there. Although weight reduction is needed, I have been told not to top it for longevity. I would love to see it cabled together so it moves as a whole and dosent flex the inclusive bark.

 

[DUGs-sawshop]

PFE- Three times to watch a tree cut?? Your a diehard for sure. It was my cousins company that cut the tree down "Whitney Tree Service". I didnt even know they were cutting it down till i saw it on the news.
Heres the tree link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_(tree)
Heres pics - http://www.yarmouthcommunityservices.org/Herbie.html

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Updates

PFE- Three times to watch a tree cut?? Your a diehard for sure. It was my cousins company that cut the tree down "Whitney Tree Service". I didnt even know they were cutting it down till i saw it on the news.
Heres the tree link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_(tree)
Heres pics - http://www.yarmouthcommunityservices.org/Herbie.html

I'm making a film, once for B-roll twice for the cut (I missed) third for the start of two more trips of interviews.

Are you serious? I hate Whitney they won't talk. I want to interview the crew that worked on Herbie but I've repetitively called and they will not return my calls and the guy when I have talked with him is a grump. It's free advertisement how can they refuse? Talk to them for me please?

I've seen the trees link I've seen every piece of documentation ever produced on it on the web its a huge project for me. There is a thread for it on here somewhere I made.

Today I worked from the time I awoke until dusk, removing more layers of junk & shooters so this tree can breath & thrive. Most of you have seen my work on the previous old red maple tree and I have taken the same approach here as well. The tree will thank me, somehow

^The weird lighting is because I was using halogen lights for extra light it was getting dark^​

 

[treeseer]

Nice work!

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Nice work!

Thank you, I love this tree to death. I still have more work to do with a broom and a garden hose. Do you think cutting all those shooters will help the canopy? I was thinking about walking a few hundred feet in all directions and identifying all red maple shoots and clipping them so there is NO offspring. I think after this it should thrive more this summer than any other in the past 20 years.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

More updates

PS- thanks for whomever rated my thread a 5 star I really appreciated that one

So today I got to work unlike yesterday procrastinating touching the girdlers and doing clearing. This is no slice and dice go at it job each move takes careful thinking not to hurt the flare, I learned my lesson on the last tree once you chip away bark off a root flare its gone for good (and its soft) so with that being said,
BEFORE(where I left off):

AFTER:

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS:

That was all I had time for today, took me three times as long because I made a video of me doing it you guys will love! Me and my ghetto tool kit (aka what I could find in gramps tool box plus one of my gramas forks)​

 

[treeseer]

nate why did you stop--by chiseling and wiggling you can get the girdlers out.

good on you to avoid flare damage!

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

nate why did you stop--by chiseling and wiggling you can get the girdlers out.

good on you to avoid flare damage!

I stopped because It was getting dark and my days festivity's were starting to catch up so I decided it would be best to stop before I hurt the tree in stupidity.


What do you mean? That set of three (I removed 2) that last largest one is staying in that tree its too embedded, I might be able to peel it away though until its gone. Next I have to remove that stump to find more girdlers.

I did find more problems and I need to get the air compressor on it to do more investigating but, looks like depending on where the other end leads to (or what it wraps around) I may have to cut this large girdling root coming FROM the red maple tree.

Why does it have a weird split where the root connects? This migh actually be the opposite end we are looking at here and this is a grafted root of the same species (look at the bark texture)

There it is: to cut or not to cut:

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Here's a few distant shots of the tree as a whole, I LOVE how it has the elm/umbrella/broccoli top look to it.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Returned today for more work, now that the grown is a bit more thawed and dry more dirt blew away with the air exposing all kinds of girdles. I removed a few that I had time for. I also removed more debris between the trees flare against aerial bark tissue.

The stump in the red circle was exposed and removed, sure enough there was a girdle under it:

Ariel bark tissue exposed:

Pictures from the roof:

 

[treeseer]

the wound on your maple's root where you took that stump's root off is nasty. remember to wiggle before pulling and if it cannot move then let the tree move it off over time.

You really do like this tree and have helped it a lot.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

the wound on your maple's root where you took that stump's root off is nasty. remember to wiggle before pulling and if it cannot move then let the tree move it off over time.

You really do like this tree and have helped it a lot.

All the girdling wounds on the flares are nasty, I think all these girdles are what has lead to the trees recent decline over the past 5 years. I just give them a tug or pull (after slicing into 2 or 3 pieces) and they come right up happily. There is that one large piece where I stopped on the first day, THAT I do not believe is going to move.

How can you not love this tree if you look at the flare it is what you see in old cartoons and such as a definitive base of a tree its just so distinctive (wetland back there=huge flare)

 

[treeseer]

All the girdling wounds on the flares are nasty, I think all these girdles are what has lead to the trees recent decline over the past 5 years.

lots of other issues too...

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

lots of other issues too...

Please share opcorn:

 

[treeseer]

age, pollution, storm damage, site changes in hydrology etc...

that embedded root--definitely leave alone; it appears to be grafted so it's more functional than dysfunctional. no stem tissue that far out on the buttress, so tissues are compatible

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

age, pollution, storm damage, site changes in hydrology etc...

that embedded root--definitely leave alone; it appears to be grafted so it's more functional than dysfunctional. no stem tissue that far out on the buttress, so tissues are compatible

Interesting, so your saying that grafting is more prone to take, on the flares between multiple variety's of tree strains? Stem tissue is what determines whether two types of wood will or can graft?

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Once again.. returned for more work THIS TAKES A LONG TIME! This poor tree is strangled to death everywhere I just want to keep unbarrying but its hard to stop and understand you can only uncover so much of a root crown.

Left is the work I have done and the right of the red line is 90% untouched

Another large grafted girdle, with a small girdle as you see I removed

I had a hinch and so I blew this area out with the air compressor (yeah because I have sooo much money for an air space)

After I blew it out I found girdles, my guess is that if there wasn't so much moist debris here in the first place than it would not have induced the flare to produce shoots like this?

They are not a major necessity and I saw too much of a future problem so I removed them

Leaving the root shoulders in place

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

You can't get rid of me

I never stop, just the most definitive root flare ever! It's like unbarring treasure of an unknown amount.

All seriousness aside now, I want to keep this pine tree. However the darn thing is hogging up the sun shine with intertwined foliage (pine/maple). Rather than falling the pine for more light I would like to grow it in alternate directions and train it a bit. Probably a bad thing to do but remove the center of the tree and let the side leaders take over. I put red lines that resemble cuts, the red ARROWS point toward the red maple limb running through the pine tree. The red dots are suppose to show possibly where the canopy would be opened up. And no cutting the red maple is NOT an option so just forget about it

​

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Coppice Stool?

Is my/this tree considered a coppice stool?? (the Maple not that pine^)​