Topped Repair?

[DDM]

I was called by a new homeowner that was left this fine specimen by the previous owner.She wanted to know how to repair it?Ive never been asked that before.I'm sure i know the answer though.

 

[Treeman14]

Yikes!!!

Well David, first you'll need a big saw...and a stump grinder. No, just kidding. This will be a long-term crown restoration project. You'll need to selectively prune out the weaker sprouts and try to re-establish some leaders and scaffold limbs. Don't try to fix it all at once. It will take years of pruning, small steps. Repairing a tree like this can be one of the most rewarding things we do as arborists. Good luck to you.

 

[rbtree]

Basal prune???

Methinks yes with that one, is it a tulip tree?

The regrowth will be weakly attached. That is a horrible top job, very hard to ever do an acceptable restorative prune on that baby. And the new growth will be way up there, If a new branch falls, it could create some damage. The tree would need corrective work every two-three years for sure.

Main determination is how good a compartmentalizer she is. Then if any new growth come out in a u shape, that would be a plus. If it is an oak, it will be easier to work with.

Restored three birch today, that had been hatracked at 15 feet or so, New sprouts were 20 feet tall. They had compartmentalized pretty darn well, for birches. We took out about half of the sprouts, they look much better.


Today, we also did a crown clean on a 3 foot dbh weeping willow. probably had over 50% dead wood. Did a bit of live cleaning to lighten the slighty heavy upper canopy. It looks great, and should do better now that it can breathe. Got a roll and a half of film shot, gotta get a website up SOON!! Left a cambium saver and throw line up, going back manana to cobra cable the weak leader we discovered.

Rog

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

I do not think the tree was topped, I think it may have been dead wooded.

Look at the base, notice the street on one side, sidewalk and house on the other. This tree may have lost most of it's roots in recent years and that's why the top died back.

Approch this tree with extreme caution!

Both in how you climb it, as well as your recommendations. A tree without much brush has greater potential to crush whatever is in it's path on the way down.

 

[rbtree]

Possible but doubtful, Mike.

Likely the street, and maybe sidewalk and house have been there for many years. Usually trees do just fine around such human inventions.

And the person who topped the tree wouldn't have made such elegant cuts if he were a trained rborist.

.........hatrackers anonymous........

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Hmmm...maybe mature trees do just fine in Seattle, growing up out of grass after having their roots chopped off, not here in Wisconsin.

Looking at the site, that tree is doing better than I would expect. I have seen thousands of trees that look like this one, not 'cus they were topped by unskilled treemen, but they slowly die back from the tips, and then are deadwooded by skilled arborists.

When a mature tree has it's roots damaged, it often takes 5 to 8 years for the damage to show, maybe longer. As the tree slowly dies back, it may take more years before the homeowner notices the dieback, and more years before they do something about it.
Looking at this tree I would take into consideration about 10 to 20 years a possible time frame for the original root damage.

This time lag is what makes diagnosing tree problems so difficult.

Perhaps it wasn't construction damage at all. Look at the grass, even that's all brown. If grass can't grow there how can a forest grown tree survive there?

In any event, they should spend their money on carefully removing the stress's on this tree. I would do a soil test, and see if I could sell carefully installing some compost and mulch to replace the grass. while you dig for the soil samples, you have a chance to see how bad the compaction is. Once the results of the soil test come back, sell them on soil compaction and fertility corrections, if any are needed.

Removing any living branches from this tree would be harmfull to the tree, IMHO.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

With those stubs on the trunk I'll have to side with the topping senario over decline. Bare minimu of thining over several years, along with some soil work ease stress there. Turf is a stress to healthy trees.

Airspade radial trenching and soil amendments with mulching way out. Add in native worms and maybe some ant colonies...

 

[seanlarkin]

I once heard that during a seminar, Dr. Alex Shigo was asked what is the best way to save a topped tree. His reply, without hesitation, was to cut it down and plant a new tree.
If there is a way to save the tree, that is great news. Of course, the homeowner may want to know the cost differential between the years of work to fix it versus the cost to plant a new tree.
If you do restore it, make sure to take pictures at every step of the way, because it will sure be an amazing job. Good luck.
-Sean

 

[DDM]

It was Topped The houses on both sides were also Raped by the same Tree Bandit.All three Homeowners that had the topping done have since moved.Ironic no? The new neighbors Admire the nicely pruned oaks across the street. LOL my customer

 

[Shespen]

I think that it was topped but it is a moot point. The biggest problem is not the damage to the top but the damage to the roots. If the roots are not already rotted out then they will be in a few short years. Trying to reconstruct a tree like this is a waste of time and money. Reconstruction should be limited to one or two scaffolds that broke out during a storm or something but when the whole tree has been decimated such as this one you are setting the tree and yourself up for failure. Keep in mind that the leaves feed the roots. What does this tree have to feed the roots with? Them little water sprouts? Most of that is being used just to compartmentalize the wounds. This tree doesn't have a chance of survival.

Steve