limbing up pin oak trees

[tyrant]

I have several Pin Oaks that until 5 years ago were in the miuddle of the woods. our development moved in and now they are on the edge of the woods and exposed to sunlight from the south. As a result they are covered with 'sucker' branches mixed in with dead branches from ground level to the top 20% of the tree. The canopy top 20% is 'normal' looking. What can I do to care for these trees. The dead limbs have to go. Should I have my tree guy take off the 'sucker branches' too. Will they grow back again. I assume they will never form normal spreading branches. I am also thinking that these trees are slowly dying because of the drastic change is conditions. To add to the problem they were all choked with wild grape vines nearly 2'' in diameter. These have been cut off and some pulled down. What to do what to do..........

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

You are in a part of the country that has oak wilt. Don't prune during the growing season. Make sure the arborist you hire are sanitzing their cutting tools. If cutting must happen, or if you have storm damage, try to paint the wounds immediately with pruning paint.
For the health of the trees, simply remove dead branches and pull out the vines. Removing any living branches will increase the tree's stress.
My next concern would be the root zone. What's going on there? Is it disturbed? If the roots haven't been cut off, and the soil is now exposed to sunlight, the trees might benift from some compost and/or mulch spread 2 or 3 inches deep. Also be careful of soil compaction. Keep bucket trucks, dump trucks, and chippers away from the trees root area as much as possible.

 

[Jay Banks]

Additionally, Mike if construction has encroached into the CRZ there is already an impact to these roots. Not knowing how the trees were protected leaves me at a loss for recommendations to mitigate.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The best way I have found to contol vines is to cut them off at the base and as high as you can reach above ground, then let them dry up and fall out. Pulling the cut vine can break branches in the tree.

Doing this in the leaf off period will keep them from having brown cureled leaves ahnging in the tree.

painting the vine stumps with a 5:1 mix of roundup and hort. oil will kill most of the roots in spring.

You cna thing the sprouts out to leave a select few to become new branches,select for good attachment angle and growth direction. Don't cull all the bad ones at once, allow the tree to adapt to the loss.

 

[tyrant]

thanks for all the info..

I think I am going to get my tree guy, who claims to have a degree in forestry and i have no reason to doubt him, to just remove the dead stuff. all of the vines have been cut off and are just hanging. the leave do look wilted but I think this is due to drought in our area this year in combination with the stress from the vines etc..
My other question was largely answered in the soil compaction thread but here goes. For grading purposes I would like to use a Bobcat to push 8 to 12 inches of sandy. loamy soil into the area near these trees. The soil will not be against the trunks but will cover approx. 60% of the root zone on the shady side. I am hoping that the lighter weight bobcat will not compact the soil too badly. I have very very sandy soil and i think it is already pretty compacted.
Thanks again for all the input.

Gary

 

[Jay Banks]

When you say 60 % of the root zone, where are you measuring from? From the trunk to the drip line? The critical root zone should be considered and that is an area equal to 1 foot of radius for every inch of trunk diameter. So if you have a 10" DBH trunk you should consider your critical root zone as a 20 foot circle around the tree, and this does not cover the whole rooting system.

I would suggest staying out of the CRZ.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

What Jay said.

Soil compaction is the loss of prorosity between the particles. This causes root death do to poorgass exchange.

A small study I canot refer too (Im good for that, heard this one at a Kim Koder talk) light truck tires run over the same area just 5 times caused an 80% compaction of the soil.

If you think the soil has been compcted, the radial trenching may be in order to remidiate.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

TYRANT TREES

Hello,

Tyrant mentions "very, very SANDY SOIL"

I do not believe that it is really possible to compact the kind of soil you described.

From soils and horticulture classes in college and working as a greenskeeper and golf course superintendent in the '80's; I just don't see how you could compact it.

Sand is basically tiny rock.

Soil is determined by the percentage of clay, silt and sand.

Clay is the smallest, then silt, then sand.

Clay has serious compaction problems because often it is little platelets, and the final squeezing leaves extremely little pores.

Sand being the largest particle leaves a good size pore after its final crushing.

The smallest sand particle is about 50 times larger than the largest clay particle. And the difference between the smallest clay particle and the largest sand particle is quite close to the difference between a basketball and a firestation !!

The serious compaction problems in soils with sand is when there is enough clay or silt to jam the spaces between the sand.

But if there is very, very much sand, compaction is barely an issue.

Mario Vaden
Landscape Designer / Arborist

M.D. Vaden Trees & Landscapes
Beaverton, Oregon

www.mdvaden.com

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

That is assuming the layman understands soil composition. is it a sandy clay, or a clayey sand, or a sandy clay loam?

If the major constituant is sand, or loam, then the soil is les prone to compaction. Thsi should be checked out though if heavy equipment has been running around inside the dripline. If the microenvironment of an old tree has been changed significantly, then some soil amending is not a bad thing.

I am starting to have a problem with mulching where we just throw chips on the soil. At least on valuable specemine trees we should be doing basal/rootzone excavations befor putting mulch down. Dumping mulch just burries some problems deeper. Smalley and Bones talk about fused root plates and decay, I'm wondering if we can reduce this tendancy by root pruning. ensure good butress development by removing any seconday roots crossing over the First Order Roots that become the buttres.