Dead (and Undead) Wood

Oxygen is one of the reactants/catalayst for codit to occur. Wound>exposure to atmosphere> biochems at wound site react with atmosphere and reactions take place. there is study/link I posted in this thread explaining this in Sugar Maples. probabley applies to most woody plants.
 
Does pruning dw really matter? To the living parts?
Does it make sense for the tree to wait for the dead limb to self sever?
Does it make sense to prune it off ?
If you think about strategic pruning of live limbs/training, it is proven There is greater gain in growth, health and vigor
If your goal is stronger healthier trees, dw removal makes sense as part of the process of removing redundancies
 
guymayor said:
Daniel come up in April and put your time where your common sense is. Show us how to design the experiment!

And see some surprising results.

4” was a maximum; few were that big.

The attached Siberian elm probably had over 50% removed. Based just on the looks of an after shot, that was too much.

But this thread was about dead wood, so Daniel if you want to show some of your work and start a new thread please do.
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That looks a lot ore like a silver maple than a Siberian elm, though I'll take your word for it... Either way the result of that pruning is rough on the eyes, sure hope it looks better with leaves... In my way of seeing things that tree's structure has been wrecked, and there is no way to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. That one cut taking out the center is well over 4", maybe 14", from there the rest of the tree needs to be decimated (for lack of better word) to give it "shape".. I would never prune a tree like that unless it had significant decay, was threatening valuable property and the owner didn't want to remove it. I AM assuming that is why this tree was hit so hard, and would like to know for sure what the goal of this pruning is..... To be honest my first response when I opened the picture was "OH my God, that looks hideous"... I personally would rather remove a tree than leave it looking like that. That result is not at all like what I mean when I say reduction pruning.... I say let the center of the tree grow up, take weight off the tips of the lateral limbs. Work the sides, let the middle and top be as it is unless there are crossing limbs , co-doms to subordinate or its so thick it absolutely needs some thinning, which is mostly in juveniles
 
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Just did an hour presentation on the branch collar, branch bark ridge, branch protection zone and compartmentalization. This thread gave great insight. Thank you
 
In the powerline industry over here, if our inspectors find a stub they will send us back to re cut the span.
I have started doing some reading and the whole stub thing is starting to make some sense.
Does any have any links to online articles, discussions etc regarding pruning
 
Scheffa said:
I...Does any have any links to online articles, discussions etc regarding pruning
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How big stub are we talking about? Is this for Energex?
Some of this may be familiar if you read Arbor Age:

Restoration Pruning: After the Storm, Head for Better Form. Tree Care Industry April 2003

http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-...er-the-Storm-from-TCI-Magazine-April-2003.pdf

Selective Heading Cuts after Storm Damage. Arborist News, August 2004

http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/selective-heading-cuts.pdf

http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AA-Car-Canopy.pdf

Restoration Pruning; One Branch at a Time, Arborist News, June 2010 http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-cntent/uploads/2012/05/restore_2010_06.pdf

Biomechanics and Pruning, Australia’s Arbor Age, Sep/Oct 2010

http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Pruning-for-Preservation-1106-AN.pdf

http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-...ike-ORyza-and-the-Case-of-the-Vexing-View.pdf

Regeneration Pruning, and other research, 2016 http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/BiologyMechanicsandTreeCare-3.pdf
 
That's good stuff Guy. Thanks for posting links and sharing your knowledge. We've been slammed by two nor easters . Trees down everywhere. Power out since Friday.
Just got it back.

Too busy to read or re read but suggest the anyone interested in the subject dig in
 
http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/selective-heading-cuts.pdf

This one is the cat's meow, and basically the same thing you were teaching at the 2004 ISA conference in Pittsburgh..
If we take this teaching about restoration pruning after storm damage and apply it to pruning situations where the customer demands a large limb to be removed we are going to move this industry forward....

And then see what happens after large snow and ice storms.. We just had another blizzard with heavy wet snow and 60 MPH wind... Lots of big limbs down that could have been preserved with a little weight taken off the tips..
 
Daniel said:
If we take this teaching about restoration pruning after storm damage and apply it to pruning situations where the customer demands a large limb to be removed we are going to move this industry forward....
Click to expand...

You'd think so, but we've been doing that a long time but not seeing a whole lot of forward movement. Lots of backward pressure. Gotta keep pushin on!
 
Mountain birch at/near treeline (Norway central plateu, 60' north, 1000m altitude), crooked small <8m trees, hard -40 'C winters.
Nicest one we have, has mating owls, broke a large, low, upward branch, no shade, south side - didn't notice until now.
Stub channeled and kept water into the stem.
Sawed off stub, rot in stem.
Dug out rot with tip of the saw.
1) Correct?

I believe that if I'd cut it off a few years ago it would not have gotten rot (based on other trees nearby where I've close cut sickly branches - wounds not closed after 10 years but endgrain is hard, black).

2a) Is there anything more I can do for the owl tree? (It'll get the most compost from now on)
2b) Should I cover the wound with something? Beeswax? Paraffin wax (candle wax)?

On the discussion of leaving stubs after green cuts: When I've done that up there, the stubs rotted so I cut them off. Now I don't leave stubs any more.
 
Well, birch in my area don't compartmentalize well and can be quite prone to decay.
That said, I try to keep my cuts small on them and not leave stubs. Other species such as oak seem to deal with broken limbs and stubs quite well.
 
I left a few stubs in a large Doug fir crown clean. They had these cute epicormic bits of fluff on the cracked limbs. Sign of maturity to me
 
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