Hello,
I have a willow tree (I guess the base at 24" diameter) fairly close to my house that I've been doing battle with for the past few years. Every year I trim it back away from the roof...and it keeps trying to sneek over there.
Please have a look at it:
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Photoview/
The main trunk is fairly straight and only really had one high limb that juts out over my house.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Photoview/P1000107.jpg?t=1285159180
The trunk does fork pretty low
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Photoview/P1000108.jpg?t=1285159180
and comes out in the direction of my/my neighbor's houses
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Photoview/P1000110.jpg?t=1285159180
This tree seems pretty hardy, we had the epic Kentucky ice storm of 2009 here and it did pretty well. Many of the top branches were actually bent all the way to the deck, but it only lost a few good sized limbs.
My question(s) are:
If I were to take off the whole fork on the house side down low, do you think this would kill the rest of the tree?
What time of the year is a good for a large trimming of a Willow in Kentucky? It just dropped leaves about 3 days ago (note they are still on my deck).
My thinking is that I'm a youngish (29) guy in good shape who has been can climb a tree easily enough. I've been cutting firewood and felling trees for firewood most of my life. And I'm generally fairly sensible. I think that I can climb this, tie off to the main trunk up high, and do a good trim on this a little at a time by roping each little piece of limb to the main trunk so it swings away from the house as I cut it.
Willow seems to be pretty easy to cut, so I'm thinking a good hand saw might be alright - what hand saws do you suggest? I have a MS361 and an 026....but think they would do more harm than good up in a tree at their size. I'm not opposed to buying a mid priced ($300-400) climbing saw also if it would make this a lot easier. I also already do have a 21' pole saw that I use for general pruning normally (I get up on the roof and use the pole saw to keep the limbs away).
I have a willow tree (I guess the base at 24" diameter) fairly close to my house that I've been doing battle with for the past few years. Every year I trim it back away from the roof...and it keeps trying to sneek over there.
Please have a look at it:
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Photoview/
The main trunk is fairly straight and only really had one high limb that juts out over my house.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Photoview/P1000107.jpg?t=1285159180
The trunk does fork pretty low
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Photoview/P1000108.jpg?t=1285159180
and comes out in the direction of my/my neighbor's houses
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/Photoview/P1000110.jpg?t=1285159180
This tree seems pretty hardy, we had the epic Kentucky ice storm of 2009 here and it did pretty well. Many of the top branches were actually bent all the way to the deck, but it only lost a few good sized limbs.
My question(s) are:
If I were to take off the whole fork on the house side down low, do you think this would kill the rest of the tree?
What time of the year is a good for a large trimming of a Willow in Kentucky? It just dropped leaves about 3 days ago (note they are still on my deck).
My thinking is that I'm a youngish (29) guy in good shape who has been can climb a tree easily enough. I've been cutting firewood and felling trees for firewood most of my life. And I'm generally fairly sensible. I think that I can climb this, tie off to the main trunk up high, and do a good trim on this a little at a time by roping each little piece of limb to the main trunk so it swings away from the house as I cut it.
Willow seems to be pretty easy to cut, so I'm thinking a good hand saw might be alright - what hand saws do you suggest? I have a MS361 and an 026....but think they would do more harm than good up in a tree at their size. I'm not opposed to buying a mid priced ($300-400) climbing saw also if it would make this a lot easier. I also already do have a 21' pole saw that I use for general pruning normally (I get up on the roof and use the pole saw to keep the limbs away).