Question on Spruce Tree Care

[fcwest14]

Hey there. New member and glad to have found you. A month ago I noticed one of my spruce trees (I have a line of 9-10 of them between my neighbor and my house) was dying at the top. Upon inspection it appears that whoever planted them many years back before I moved in, had forgotten to cut off the rope support that held it in place originally that was around the body, and it basically suffocated the tree as the body grew in width (the rope basically cut into the body of the tree killing everything above it). This is about 1/2 way up the tree. If I cut the top off slightly below where the rope cut into it, would the bottom of the tree keep growing and eventually grow back upwards over time? Any chance I can save this tree and return it to the height of the others around it, instead of replacing it, as these trees are 15 ft or higher in height now. Thanks so much!

 

[Jan_]

I'm not an expert on this, but I'm sure if you posted a few pictures so we can see the damage everyone here might be able to help you better.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Pics will help...do some good cropping oir composing. Too often pics are shared with lots of extra around the edge. Get pics that show the sizes of the trunk cut as well as the whorl of branches.

Sight unseen I'll share what I've done few times when I needed to make a new leader.

You'll put in a splint and brace system

Pick something for a splint. I've used round wooden closet rod...about 2" diameter...4x4...2x2...2x4. That gets secured to the trunk, overlap it down the trunk too so that you don't snap it off. I'd consider using a 2x4 flat n the trunk with another screwed into a T to keep it from flexing.

I've used quality duct tape most of the time since the installation was for clients and I didn't want to leave something permanent. Four wraps of duct tape around the trunk and splint space about 18-24" should work. The duct tape will fall apart in 2-3 years before it becomes a repeated girdling problem.

Pick one of the branches to bend up to become a new leader. Get a set of webbing straps with ratchets to winch up the branch. Do it over time so that you don't crack the limb. It wouldn't hurt to water in the tree so that the fibers are as wet as possible. Gradually tighten each ratchet strap. Once the branch is pulled up vertical you can use the duct tape wraps to hold it in place.

Be sure to take many before pics as well as the repair job too.

 

[ghostice]

A couple of thoughts about this . . . . I've been playing at busted spruce mechanic for a couple of years now:
- can you just take the rope/ trunk restriction off and see what happens for a year or two?
- if you do make a trunk cut (at a bit of an angle) and try and train/ splint a branch into a leader,
be prepared maybe for a "weaker trunk" going forward I think - so if the thing grows another 20-30 feet or more feet high down the road, are there any targets underneath if the trunk did ever fail at this point? I call them "tree wiggles". There's a probably a rule somewhere (TRAQ?), about how much a "safe" trunk offset is, if someone has that at hand. Yeah, there'll probably be reaction wood enough but . . . . . (pic - this wiggle's about half way up a 55-60 ft spruce, so now ~30 feet of snow laden tree above the "wiggle")
- be prepared to have to periodically loosen the tie(s) holding the splint so as not to choke growth off at the new "trunk end" - I've had to do this on a couple of trees every three months or so during the growing season - I was surprised how tight these got (the branches were small and I used black/ white 14/2 electrical wire I twisted)
- be prepared to have to prune the tree at the top if you do a splint job, as most of the times I've done this, about two to three years later, some of the branches lower down from the splinted branch you're making into a trunk may turn skyward and try and develop into leaders as well (i.e. the splinted branch doesn't have sufficient apical dominance to prevent competing branches from trying to become "trunk"). You don't want to see multiple tops develop - common with spruce around here that have either been topped in the past or damaged in fall "snowmageddon".

 

[fcwest14]

Here are pics of the tree from far, inside looking up and of the area the rope cut in. I have just successfully removed the whole rope that was inside the tree. Open to suggestions now but it seems the browning might have moved below the cut line now, when it was green before. Should I try to seal the cut line with duct tape and see if it fixes itself, or what else do you suggest?