My next project

[NebClimber]

Hey guys:

This is my next project. Just wanted to see if I could figure out how to post a picture.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Bring it on!!!

Tell us a'boot it!

TD?

 

[NeTree]

Are you going to wear the tree-friendly spikes? ya know, the ones that don't damage trees?

(SMIRK)

 

[Hemlock]

After looking at that thing three things come to mind
1. What is it?
2. Where do you start?
3. Is it really worth saving?

I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in my neck of the woods. Totally speachless. Can somebody really make a difference in this trees life?

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Hemlock
Can somebody really make a difference in this trees life?

Does a bear poop in the woods?

1. Inspect base for rot and disease; treat.

2. Test soil and apply what's lacking in it.

3. Remove dead and very defective branches. Read up on restoration pruning by Gilman et al if you need to.

4. Weed and mulch. Install hardscape to prevent erosion. Come back in August to measure twig and callus growth. Sell annual PHC visit to measure the growth of decay and recovery and continue to fight for its life. That oughta do er.

If anyone sees more problems than potential in this tree, and thinks after a glance it oughta be a removal before thoroughly inspecting it, they're working as a butcher not as an arborist.

My 3 cents. PS Nice picture.

 

[Joe]

Originally posted by NebClimber
Hey guys:

This is my next project. Just wanted to see if I could figure out how to post a picture.

I'm just curious, what are your plans for this tree?

Joe

 

[Lumberjack]

I spent yesterday restoring an Elm tree. Man that was great fun. There were only a few "good" TIP, and the whole tree was a general pain. It had several previous flaws, and a huge amount of small dead wood. I climbed up on a leader and used my black widow and a heavy throwabag to knock out alot of small dead wood. I probably was knocking out stuff for at least 30 min. After that, there were 2 large leaders that were crossed and the bottom one was rotten, so it got chopped. Then the rest of the day I spent pruning the sprouts. That would have been a good job to have a crane, where I could have it set up over the center of the tree and have a good TIP.


Is it just me, or is Elm really flexible?



Carl

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Lumberjack
there were 2 large leaders that were crossed and the bottom one was rotten, so it got chopped.

How rotten was the bottom one? Big crossing limbs are tough to manage. If you cut one, the other has lost support and will probably need reduction so it does not fail later.

If there is not extensive rot, I tend to reduce the ends to lessen the wounding the limbs do to each other and leave them both in the tree. If they've adapted to each other for a long time, it may be a more stable arrangement to leave them both than to remove one.

 

[Lumberjack]

Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
How rotten was the bottom one? Big crossing limbs are tough to manage. If you cut one, the other has lost support and will probably need reduction so it does not fail later.

If there is not extensive rot, I tend to reduce the ends to lessen the wounding the limbs do to each other and leave them both in the tree. If they've adapted to each other for a long time, it may be a more stable arrangement to leave them both than to remove one.

It was pretty rotten. I check the support by first lookin at where they were touching, and then shifting my weight from the bottom one to the top one. Without much weight I could seperate the leaders, so the bottom one got done. On the other side of the tree, there were 2 limbs that were crossed, I cut out the lower one again (because it needed to go, not because it was on the bottom) and it supported the top branch a good little bit (was reduced) but I think that it was better for it to go than to stay.

Carl

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Lumberjack
I check the support by first lookin at where they were touching, and then shifting my weight from the bottom one to the top one. On the other side of the tree,it supported the top branch a good little bit (was reduced) but I think that it was better for it to go than to stay.

Sounds like a good job of looking at the whole picture and considering options before cutting.

 

[ORclimber]

Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
Does a bear poop in the woods?

1. Inspect base for rot and disease; treat.


4. Come back in August to measure twig and callus growth. Sell annual PHC visit to measure the growth of decay and recovery and continue to fight for its life. That oughta do er.

Where would an aspiring arborist learn how to do that? Is that an RCA school thing?

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by ORclimber
Where would an aspiring arborist learn how to do that? Is that an RCA school thing?

ISA does more training for diagnosis and PHC; ASCA academy barely touches on those. Comb the archives of Arborist News for articles on diagnosis; they are there free and easily searchable. Get a good manual like Sinclair's Disease book, a hand lens, and bring an inquiring mind to every tree you see. It'll come.

The best thing in the Turnbull article in Dec TCI mag was the point that the first job of an arborist is risk assessment. The first place to look is the trunk flare. If you're in OR consider buying Costello's new book on abiotic disorders.

 

[Toddppm]

What treatments are there for base rot and disease?

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Well the first treatment for rot is to measure it so risk can be assessed. Measuring the decay involves excavating rotten wood, which decreses moisture and increases airflow, which makes conditions less favorable for most decay organisms. Airspades are great for this.

Treating fungus may be controversial, but science supports it even if research hasn't caught up. No one claims a silver bullet, but disinfection followed by inoculation of soil around the flare with mycorhizal fungi may help. Diseases such as bacterial infections can be treated by disinfection.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by RockyJSquirrel
the main thing is to get paid well for your time..., and get paid well for your time.

Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!
And get paid well for it! (and what is the problem with getting paid well?)
What do you do with rot in a tree, build a nest in it?

Either prove what I do is snake oil, or your critique is nothing but adherence to anti-surgery dogma.
Tell us what you would do, then let's hear what Nebclimber plans to do.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I saw a tree with a large column od dead/decay that Guy teated with PEG a few years before. From what I could see it had done some good.

It all depends on how you market it. Many industiral fungicides are hit or miss, no guarentee. I've done things where it was explained to the client that the tree was more in hospice care then getting a cure. We can try to keep it around a few more years. Evaluate it regularly and remove when the clients risk tolerance is met.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

What/who is PEG?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Did you ont treat a tree with Polly Ethylene Glycol?

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn
Did you ont treat a tree with Polly Ethylene Glycol?

O yeah several; I just call it antifreeze(aka green snake oil to skwerl and the donothing dogmatists), being a nonchemist kind of person.:blush:
What you said about hospice is ok by me. All urban trees are on some kind of life support, so I won't quibble.

I'd call it assisted care living, like an oldfolks home. My mom's in one; she tells me that the operators plan on making money when residents kick off before 7 years. She tells me about her neighbors who make it way beyond that and get up every day cackling, "Hehhehheh one more day, I'm beatin' the odds but good".

That's the way I (and many tree owners) feel about their trees.
Every day is valuable to us all.

 

[Eagle1]

Looks like a locost.
When you say project, do you mean removal or prune?