Spruce uprooting - advice please

[NebClimber]

Here are two pics of a Spruce that is uprooting. Client wants me to determine if fix is possible. Client would like bracing - if done - to be hidden as much as possible. Burried anchor points came to my mind.

Can this tree be effectively staked?

If so, how?

Steven

 

[Proj Eng]

The roots seem so shallow, like this has been occurring over the last few years.

 

[begleytree]

I just did one kinda similar. Mine was smaller, @8" dbh fully uprooted and on the ground. owner didn't see it or call for about 3 weeks, he was out of town. I suggested removal due to the needles starting to dry out, but he insisted. pulled it back up, installed posts 6 feet tall back inside the foliage of neighboring spruces, and guyed to the posts (steel pipe, 4") then guyed the posts to screw in anchors (small swingset type) to keep the posts from pulling (spring winds and rain).
I used 5/16 wire rope.
ultimately the tree didn't survive, but I believe that to be due to to time lag between uprooting and me doing the work, because I pulled up prob about a dozen smaller maples after our ice storm in '03, and they're doing great. I loosen the maple's cables a little about 2x a year, maybe next year I can remove them totally.
I'd say go for it, just guy down in near the other spruces you have close to hide the cable. Oh, I painted the posts and cable green to help hide them in the foliage. A bigger tree prob wouldn't need posts, mine was smaller, and I was pulling down too hard, where he wanted to get the guys in was too close, almost straight down, thats why I used posts.
-Ralph

 

[treeseer]

Man, that's got to be some hard soil, with the roots on top like that. Still, no girdling is evident, so it's worth a try.

1. Install 12' 6"x6" at the end of that fence, with an eye bolt at the top. If this is not close enough to being in line with the tree's lean, another post would need to go in the lawn. This could be made attractive by a nice birdhouse on top.

2. Run a cable from the eye bolt to the tree. Attach it to the tree with an eye bolt installed in the stem. A vine could be trained up the post, or a slender evergreen planted next to it, to hide it somewhat. You could also use olive-green arbor-tie, doubled if the load will be over 900#.

3. Crown clean all dead wood to lighten the load.

4. Lightly thin side near house to lessen imbalance.

5. Aerate the soil around/under the exposed roots (remember swinging the pick last year, Steven? That's still the best way.)

6. Rake away pinestraw/mulch and bring in compost/topsoil to cover roots, then 2-4" mulch.

There are large staples that are sold as stabilizers. These may be effective in helping to anchor those roots.

I hope everyone notes that the removal of lower branches on this spruce has a lot to do with its present instability (and it would look a wholelot better imo with lower branches sweeping the ground, too). Crown raising is not "cleaning the stem"; it damages the plant for no good reason. Crown raising is bad for many trees!

 

[NebClimber]

Guy:

Are you advising that I drill thru the tree and intall an eye bolt?

Will this tree re-root itself overtime and stand on its own?

Any idea why the roots are so shallow (what happened to this tree!)?

 

[treeseer]

Are you advising that I drill thru the tree and intall an eye bolt?
*I prefer twisting arbortie in a spiral so it doesn't girdle, if the load is not great. If the chance of a great load is strong, then drilling is the next oprion. Why don't you spend $5. and get the ISA's BMP's on cabling?
If you read and understood that you'd know more than me on the subject.

Will this tree re-root itself overtime and stand on its own?
*Potentially. Must spur deeper root function, growth and anchorage.

Any idea why the roots are so shallow (what happened to this tree!)
*First, look at the flare. Then, look to the soil profile(where does the hardpan begin, 1" deep?).
THird, look to the saw operator who increased the instability. No offense if that was you.

What species is the plant?

 

[Tree Wizard]

When you have a tree tipping over it is because the roots on the side it is tipping to are failing in some manner. Breaking, rotting, whatever. While the dirt on top of roots offer some stability it is not much. To quote an old physicist, "Pulling on dirt is like pushing on a string."

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Looks like a good tree for the Duck-Bill (spelling) system. It is a pounded in ground anchor, that has an attached high strength cable, which can be attached to the tree trunk with an eye loop.
The only problem I've seen, is they are so invisable, they are a tripping hazard. If the ends are pounded in close to the tree, that's not a big problem.

 

[NebClimber]

Duck-bill anchors are exactly what I was thinking. But I don't know if they are strong enough. All the examples on the mfg's web site show its use with smaller trees. Thoughts???

Guy, I didn't trim this tree, but how did such trimming contribute to its present state?

 

[Ekka]

Nebclimber

Trees with full canopies like that are more susceptible to wind problems.

They usually have foliage all the way to the ground, and a close up of your pics shows lots of branches down low have been removed. Now the wind can get under it and up into it too, like opening an umbrella, so not only do you have that horizontal force but also a lifting force.

Had the lower branches been left on the wind would have to go around it.

The natural conical shape creates less windforce externally the higher you go up the canopy but with the bottom removed it creates a funnel effect too ... tch tch tch, good lessons learned for Mr Customer.