Drop crotching pics for a newbie.

[Janner]

Evening all, im new to this line of work and am a little bit unsure of where i should make cuts to drop crotch. Im pretty sure i understand the principle of taking out the main leaders and letting a smaller branch take over apical dominance, but it would be really usefull if i could see a few pics of it done for real on trees. As i dont want to have a go at drop crotching myself and end up making a mess of it.

Ive tried googling it but only came up with a couple of diagrams which arent that great, a proper picture would be far more beneficial.

Thanks in advance.

Ian

 

[BigJon]

How about not drop crotching, not something you want to learn to do to healthy trees. If you have dead tops then take it back down the nex best suitable and viable lateral. That is drop crotching and can't make a mess of it. You just find the first green branch and cut. Don't go performing this on healthy trees because you will be just opening this tree up for inevidable decay. That's just bad and then some poor bloke is gonna have to come back and tie into one those weak sucker sprouts and have it break off and fall to his death do you really want that blood on your hands?

 

[Janner]

I understand what your saying Jon but unfortunately the company i work for tops allot of trees and i'd like to try and introduce a slightly lesser evil.

 

[Colin]

Oh, he's in England ... says it all.

 

[BigJon]

Well you know I would do look for another job. I prefer to work for more professional companies. You have choices.

 

[Toparboring]

They are right today I was asked to top a tree and rufused to do it, evetually inthe end i felled the tree do to the lack of comon sence af a dead pruning practice.

 

[Janner]

I understand why you guys are pissed but unfortunately at the minute work is scarce in my part of the country and as i said, i only want to keep a few more trees healthier and alive longer if at all possible. Im hoping once ive got a few more months with this company under my belt i'll be able to stop them topping and 'pollarding' trees altogether.

 

[Colin]

I ain't pissed at you, Janner. You just do what you gotta do!

 

[Nathan]

IMHO reductions are one of the most difficult things to do and do well. At times, it has to be done. It can be a good way to compromise between the tree's needs and the owner's needs without removal or topping.

.02

 

[treemann]

I will be posting some pictures of an oak that I had to reduce some of the branches over the house

 

[Colin]

[ QUOTE ]
I understand why you guys are pissed but unfortunately at the minute work is scarce in my part of the country and as i said, i only want to keep a few more trees healthier and alive longer if at all possible. Im hoping once ive got a few more months with this company under my belt i'll be able to stop them topping and 'pollarding' trees altogether.

[/ QUOTE ]

well heck yeah, I like a bloke with ambition but somehow i think you could be up against this in your colony.

 

[johnmeiszner]

I think so too Nathan. I drop crotched two silver maples yesterday. One was over fifty feet, and next to the house. It was way out in the country, about a thousand miles past where Jesus left his sandles. It gets super windy out there. Client has newly planted trees in place but wants shade for his dogs for as many years to come as he can get it.
He wanted me to top them , but told me to do whatever I thought was best. So I did what I'd have done if they were my trees, and reduced the crown about 15' to laterals. When I was done he said "perfect, and they still look good". Yeah, compared to the average topping job. It took almost five hours cuz I had to cut small pieces and pitch everything.