Limb Removal

[JustRandy]

How did I do? Should I cut more off? I'm trying to err on the side of leaving too much limbwood rather than cutting into trunkwood. But the problem is that rotten bit left after I cut and the lack of an obvious collar on the limb. Its a Willow Oak, btw.

 

[TDunk]

In the first two pics. it looks ok. But in the second to last pic. it looks like you could take another 1-2" off. You want to cut it at the collar of the limb. Leaving a stub is almost as bad as cutting to much.

 

[JustRandy]

Yeah, I didn't think it looked quite right, but all the pics are the same cut. The first two are just close-ups. I'm having trouble telling just where the collar is.

The tree is important to me, so I want to make sure I do it right.

 

[Del_]

I think the branch collar is not in a plane so making the perfect cut would be hard unless you can sharpen your saw to cut potato chip shaped cuts.

I've drawn in where I see the branch collar. Nature curves.

 

[pdqdl]

I think you did fine. Leave it alone.

It will have a hard time healing the decayed section anyway.

 

[Dadatwins]

Leave it as it is, Treeco shows the ridge correctly but you will cause more damage trying to get it perfect. The shape and growth pattern of the tree do not allow for perfect cutting. I would leave it as is.

 

[JustRandy]

I think the branch collar is not in a plane so making the perfect cut would be hard unless you can sharpen your saw to cut potato chip shaped cuts.

I've drawn in where I see the branch collar. Nature curves.

Thanks for taking the time with that pic. I was thinking the same thing earlier, but wasn't sure.

Do you think I should leave it alone as well? My ladder is still sitting against the tree awaiting a consensus.

 

[JustRandy]

What should I do about the decayed "hole" in the tree? Nothing? Silicone? Bug spray?

I did find a few small ants on the branch after it hit the ground.

 

[Dadatwins]

Leave it alone, the tree will close the wound. Putting any foreign substance will interfere with that process. The ants were attacking the moist decayed wood. A few days in the sun will dry the cut out. I have recomended a piece of aluminum over the wound if birds start pecking at it. I would give it some time and see what the tree does before getting too involved.

 

[JeffL]

Looks fine. If the branch was dead, the tree had already started healing over it anyways, which would have brought the branch collar further up the limb anyways, as the tree tried to essentially heal over the entire limb. Aesthetics wise, I might take another 1/2" cookie off it, tree biology wise, I'd say leave it as is! And ditch the ladder!

 

[JustRandy]

Thanks everyone. I feel much better now.

 

[treeseer]

Nice job but i share your concern about remaining decay. Maybe shave a leetle bit off that area to reduce the amount of remaining decay, then scoop/blow the loose stuff out of the hole.

Ladders are good but it would be better to also be tied in when working up there.

 

[JustRandy]

Since I have compressed air in a garage about 20ft from the tree, I was going to blow the "dirt" out of the "hole" and take a closer look to see how deep it is.

On this page where it says, "Bad, Worse, Correct", bad or correct is what I was shooting for: http://www.plantamnesty.org/6024_pages/old_gold_archives/xtyui/bkLimbingPICs.html And that link came from this page: http://www.plantamnesty.org/6024_pages/old_gold_archives/xtyui/bkLimbing.html Which makes it sound important not to cut off part of the collar. That's why I'm kinda hesistant to cut anymore and was actually thinking of plugging the hole with 50yr warranty silicone to keep the bugs out until the tree successfully walls-off the injury. But I'm no arborist and know little about what I'm doing.

I'm not sure what "tied in" means. I'm pretty comfortable on ladders, but worry when a limb begins to fall that it might hit the ladder. In this case though, the limb was short (since it had rotted and most of it fell off already) and I cut at an angle so the limb would fall away from the ladder. It was still a relatively stressful chore that I felt could be put off no longer.

 

[JustRandy]

The hole is at least 1.5 inches deep.

 

[treeseer]

caulk would shut off air movement and increase decay imo. water oaks are not good at walling off rot; that one seems to be doing an average job; leave it.

very nice job on the pics btw--you should give us all lesssons!

 

[JustRandy]

caulk would shut off air movement and increase decay imo. water oaks are not good at walling off rot; that one seems to be doing an average job; leave it.

very nice job on the pics btw--you should give us all lesssons!

Thanks! Not too bad for a 6yr old 3.1 mp camera.

I'm in the dark on this paint or no-paint tree wounds. A long time ago it was standard practice to paint, but now its a bad thing, but for roots its still a good thing. Yet I have an old Southern Red Oak with a hole in the side of it big enough for a cat to curl up in that I know was caused a long time ago by a farmer scraping the side of the tree and knocking bark off. Had that farmer smeared silicone on the exposed wood, I don't see how that hole would be this big today.

The atv trails I've made in the woods have similar damage by the tires rubbing the bark off. The trees continue to grow, but the wood where the bark was removed begins to rot. As a matter of fact, anytime any wood is left out in the weather, it rots. I guess that's why we paint houses and caulk windows. Furniture lasts for centuries and becomes valuable antiques with a few good coats of shellac or whatever they use. Yet, for some reason, modern arborists say leave the wood alone and don't coat it with anything. I'm confused.

Isn't the wood inside a tree effectively dead? Just like lumber? The only living part of the tree is the part right below the bark, right? So, how is coating dead wood considered harmful? It would seem to me the worst that would happen is the dead wood would rot despite the coating, and not that the coating would accelerate the rot.

All I'm really wanting to do is fill the hole in so its not a "bowl" to hold water. I left it as-is for now and took the ladder down, but I can put it right back up if the consensus is to plug the hole or take any further action.

 

[treeseer]

for roots it's a good thing? how do you know?

Good points otherwise. Anti-sealing is proclaimed with religious fervor, but no one is paying for research on sealants, so here we are. If you want to clean out that little hole and plug it with silicone i don't see how it could hurt much.

 

[JustRandy]

for roots it's a good thing? how do you know?

Good points otherwise. Anti-sealing is proclaimed with religious fervor, but no one is paying for research on sealants, so here we are. If you want to clean out that little hole and plug it with silicone i don't see how it could hurt much.

I don't really 'know', but I've read that in a few places.

A quick google produced:

"While it is not recommended to paint branch cuts, it is still recommended to paint root cuts. If you can't immediately locate a quality tree paint, you could use orange shellac, which is often used to paint the edges of freshly trimmed tree bark. It has an "antiseptic" quality which helps with the potential pathogen issue."
http://www.treeboss.net/fences_tree-roots.htm

"Repair roots by cutting off the damaged areas and painting them with tree paint."
http://www.abe.msstate.edu/csd/NRCS-BMPs/pdf/trees/treepres_protect.pdf

 

[ropensaddle]

It is outside the branch bark protection zone so alls good , I have made several thousand
cuts in the past few days some good some not so good but it gets tough when millions
of cuts are ahead. Ice storm work is quite different and when mother nature tops trees
it is hard to do standard trimming mainly cleaning hangers and rips and trying to cut to
a node but they really are not the best looking trees when through sometimes. Anyway
nice cut ya got there

 

[JustRandy]

14 years later....










So what do y'all think? Any of the original posters still around?

A couple years ago someone suggested I build a little roof over it to keep the water out but I never did. Maybe I should. There's some black goo in the hole now but it feels pretty solid inside. I think by next year it will be completely closed off.

14 years is a long time but I'm pretty impressed how a wound that size healed over without rotting out. Of course, I do put a lot of mulch around the tree each year so maybe that helped.