Rope strangled pinus radiata - will it live?

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Jonathan1984

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Hi folks,
I have a Pinus Radiata about 3 years old and 14 feet high which has been strangled by a half inch rope. The trunk is 3 inches dia above the swollen strangled area.

Its still looking good and green, and the rope was removed without too much damage, but what do you all think - will it live?

Also if it lives will it become dangerous when it grows larger due to the strangled trunk being weakened/deformed?

Oh and, lets not talk about who did this.... ;)

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It's not uncommon for trees to grow over cables. The defect should close completely when the bark joins together. The annual girth growth will be on the outside and this old defect will be in the heart wood area of the tree. Oxygen exchange in open wounds can cause heart rot disease.
Pine are not the most resistant trees to various diseases.
You can sound this tree with a solid object when it's older to see if it's centre is hollow.
Look for mushrooms or konks on the stem. Bird holes would be another indicator.
BTW, The tree it at least 10 yrs old.
 
Counting the whorls, yeah, it looks 9-10. But they may have had it planted 3 years ago. A LOT of growth 2 yrs ago!
2018 was a good year apparently.
Funny how it has such a long leader in just that one year?
I realize Pine doesn't like wet feet like Western Red Cedar, Spruce or Hemlock but it's certainly planted appropriately on the hill.
I bet it was wet that year and had a steady supply of food washing it's way? That and perhaps a long sunny season.
 
Thanks for your replies, and actually you are right it is older than 3.
I planted it about 2 and a half years ago after digging it up from a forest, at that time it was about 4 feet tall, I have no idea how old it was then.
Its irrigated and fertilized in the garden so that probably speeds up its growth.
I just don't want it to fall over in a storm in 10 years time...
 
So what do you suggest, should I remove the tree and plant a new one?
Or is there a remedy for this damage?

If there is nothing of value that it would damage if it failed I suggest keeping it. It is always good to plant trees so plant some to replace this one if it fails on it's own. The only remedy for this damage is to hope it outgrows it and to keep weeds down around it, mulch it. water it if it is dry.
 
Man, that is one weird looking Monterey Pine tree. I lived in Monterey County for 20 years and have grown hundreds of these trees. My mother's house was in the middle of a huge Monterey Pine forest. You can water them all you want. The needles have adapted to get water out of fog and drip on the roots year round. We had Monterey pines in the lawn and watered the lawn year round. The trees there did just fine. If you want to save the tree, you can cut it just below the girdle and make one lower branch the new central leader. I did that with a lodgepole pine here to get rid of a gall infection and it is doing fine. Monterey Pines are not that long lived a tree though. 50-60 years max. They grow really fast though. I have seen many Monterey Pines only 3 years old that size.

Dunno where you are located. Here in Oregon, they planted a bunch of Radiatas and KMX trees (Knobcone-Monterey cross) and they grew great until they were 20 feet high and they just stopped growing. No one has figured out why, other than that it is likely due to too cold a climate. So if you are in a cold winter climate, I would not grow them. As I see palms in your photos, I suspect you are in a warmer climate.
 
Man, that is one weird looking Monterey Pine tree. I lived in Monterey County for 20 years and have grown hundreds of these trees. My mother's house was in the middle of a huge Monterey Pine forest. You can water them all you want. The needles have adapted to get water out of fog and drip on the roots year round. We had Monterey pines in the lawn and watered the lawn year round. The trees there did just fine. If you want to save the tree, you can cut it just below the girdle and make one lower branch the new central leader. I did that with a lodgepole pine here to get rid of a gall infection and it is doing fine. Monterey Pines are not that long lived a tree though. 50-60 years max. They grow really fast though. I have seen many Monterey Pines only 3 years old that size.

Dunno where you are located. Here in Oregon, they planted a bunch of Radiatas and KMX trees (Knobcone-Monterey cross) and they grew great until they were 20 feet high and they just stopped growing. No one has figured out why, other than that it is likely due to too cold a climate. So if you are in a cold winter climate, I would not grow them. As I see palms in your photos, I suspect you are in a warmer climate.

Well I'm actually in south west Australia, it gets cold in the winter but never freezing and the summers are quite warm. They grow a lot of these trees in pine plantation down here, which is where I found this one growing in an area that was being dozed for the next crop. That made it easy to dig out, and it would have been destroyed in the next few days. Maybe I'll have to go back and find another one.
 
Those are so mutated for growing lumber they do not allow them to be re-imported into California. But they are the same species. They are invasive as all heck. I noticed that living in Monterey, where they were re-populating cleared fields pretty fast in the area. Easy enough to get another one and replace it there. They are considered trash trees here as well. Other than for landscaping. The surface roots wreak things like foundations, blacktop driveways and parking lots though, so the scheme in Carmel was to plant them deeper in an 6' x 6' open bottom large RR tie box 2-3 feet under grade. It seemed to work.
 

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