CountryboyPA Storm Damage

[Daniel]

Its always challenging to comment intelligently on work performed when watching on a little monitor.. so this is more a question than a criticism..

On that first cut, it seemed like you could have saved a bit more of the large limb getting removed by making the final cut just under the tear, and above a couple of the small sprouts. This would have left a few feet of stem above the large lateral that you cut back to. Would have been my choice, as giving those small sprouts a chance to develop would probably have been better for the tree. Cutting back to a lateral 1/3 diameter of the parent stem is not necessary for storm damage, when there are sprouts or the signs of letent buds. Is there a reason you took off more than needed on that cut?

 

[Tony]

Daniel,

Sorry it has taken me a bit to reply. I've been away from the computer.

I agree that in some cases a heading cut can be used to restore the scaffolding or structure of a tree. However, these trees were generally very tall with comparatively little crown spread. Heading cuts were not necessary and would only have inhibited the trees natural C.O.D.I.T. process unnecessarily.

Furthermore, at the time the work was completed we were really in "hazard removal" and not "corrective prune" mode. As it turned out, the damage to this tree combined with its location and history of damage were cause for its removal a few months after the initial storm.

Answer your question??

Tony