Lindens

[dmonn]

I've never climbed or felled/trimmed a linden tree, but was spooked by what I recently saw from a silver maple. Thought I'd better checked with folks who are in the know before I start playing in/working on some linden trees. There's a beautiful mature woods nearby that has a mix of lindens and oaks (red?) that I would love to climb for fun (and I've got permission to do so). My stepson just bought a house with some big lindens on it that need some minor pruning (branches on the roof). Anything of specific note about lindens?

 

[oldoakman]

Soft wood bark tears easily. More bendy than breaky. Make sure you have as good solid TIP. Little Leaf Linden smells kinda nice when in bloom and it is a great honey flow tree at that point.

 

[Jonny]

The wood is soft but not crazy weak when green. Not very heavy. If it’s in good health I guess I’d tie in to 3” or 4” crotches in central stems. Hinges behave like softer maples, it holds a hinge well when done right.

A lot of them take a nice symmetrical shape naturally if they have room. Aesthetically pleasing, ya know? Not always, there’s different kinds. Can’t say what your step son’s lindens need, but if you can get it away the roof with a pole pruner it might look a lot nicer than removing limbs from the stem and possibly screwing up the shape and balance.

Anything more than a few clips should probably be done when dormant.

 

[dmonn]

Thanks for the info. Plenty of large limb unions for the recreational trees. Pole pruner should be all I need for my step son's lindens and maples.

 

[SamNQ]

They do tend to have tighter unions so I would suggest choosing carefully
friction savers, throwballs, & even spliced rope I've seen get stuck in their unions
Good Preclimb inspect too, I've witness some nicely hollowed out ones and some with basal rot

Cool trees though none the less

Have fun!

 

[ATH]

Basswood (American linden - likely what you are seeing in the woods) don't have as tight of Vs as is so common with the Little leaf lindens in the landscape.

Don't climb them in the spring or you'll knock the bark right off. Always use a friction saver if doing moving rope - but especially on Linden (and tulip-poplar is another). I'd probably even use on for stationary rope as the bark is really weak.

Can be very fun trees to climb.

Definitely check for hollows on big Basswood in the woods - both down low and higher in the canopy. They are pretty often hollow.

 

[JD3000]

Pleasure to prune after say pin oak. Bark can tear easily though for sure

 

[Tony]

Linden trees: Making dull handsaws cut like new again!

Just my slogan for them

Don’t over prune. They are suppose to be thick

Tony