Your least favourite tree to climb, and why.

Just Came down from end weighting a 36" contorted willow over two houses. It's dark. Baaalllllls. Those are high on the list when they must be climbed and rigged
Otherwise Lombardy, tree of heaven, keawe, black cottonwood. Blue spruce. Callery pear. Leyland Cypress.
Jeez I'm a complainer
 
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I'd have to add anything that is dead. Have to agree on the Kentucky Coffee Tree, the bark is like razor blades.
 
My least favorite to climb with spikes is Elm; Even sharp spikes have a difficult time making a purchase.

I don't care for Bradford Pear, Willow Oak and Water Oak have cheese grater bark that is hard on rope and skin. Never had the displeasure of climbing one but I think Honey Locust would be all pins and needles. I have heard Monkey Puzzle is from Hell.
 
Water Oak and Pin Oak. Close second white pine. Always a sappy mess afterwards. Those oaks are like crawling naked through a briar patch. Talk about difficult time setting a line with a throwball. Sheesh. Mulberry and black walnut burn my skin but I'd still rather climb them.
 
Osage orange. Insanely strong, flexible, snaggy branches, and loaded with thorns. Not possible to prune without blood. And may God help you if you don't have a self feeder.

Agree about pin oak. Really frustrating. Nothing you cut reaches the ground without help.
 
Least favorite is def Ash. We call them sticky. Same reason no one seems to like the Pin Oak. Make a pile of ash branches the try to pull it apart...not fun. The ice storm of '98 bout topped all of them and the resulting growth patterns are kooky. 90degree bends all over the place. They hit the chipper feed bar all the time. We have lots of ash...and we know we better get used to cutting them down, cause eab is on its way.
We usually do not make big piles of the branches when staging for chipping, like we would with White Pine. We consider White Pine slippery, with respect to branch on branch action. I really try to steer people from full canopy prunes on Ash. I have not meet a rewarding one yet. The fall foliage sucks. Do not know why anyone would ever plant one in a yard.

Thankfully no one has ever had us climb/prune a Black Locust. They are nasty.

We do not have many Pin Oaks. We got to prune the largest one around a few months ago. Yea, more time spent getting the cut branches out and down then cutting. No poison ivy. Still a very rewarding tree to prune.
 
frashdog said:
Least favorite is def Ash. We call them sticky. Same reason no one seems to like the Pin Oak. Make a pile of ash branches the try to pull it apart...not fun. The ice storm of '98 bout topped all of them and the resulting growth patterns are kooky. 90degree bends all over the place. They hit the chipper feed bar all the time. We have lots of ash...and we know we better get used to cutting them down, cause eab is on its way.
We usually do not make big piles of the branches when staging for chipping, like we would with White Pine. We consider White Pine slippery, with respect to branch on branch action. I really try to steer people from full canopy prunes on Ash. I have not meet a rewarding one yet. The fall foliage sucks. Do not know why anyone would ever plant one in a yard.

Thankfully no one has ever had us climb/prune a Black Locust. They are nasty.

We do not have many Pin Oaks. We got to prune the largest one around a few months ago. Yea, more time spent getting the cut branches out and down then cutting. No poison ivy. Still a very rewarding tree to prune.
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I love climbing ash trees! you can get really high up in them and they often aren't straight making for a but of a challenge, not so much that its difficult but just enough to make it interesting. They can be really difficult to deadwood when dormant because its hard to tell what is live and whats dead before the buds swell.
 
Coral tree , african black locust , prickly paperbark and the best one of all L.Patersonia from the hibiscus family the norfolk island hibiscus or the pyramid tree also known locally as the itchy pod tree , it has pretty flowers :vomito::cry::berrinche:
 
JTSpear said:
I have never had to work on a thorned honey locust. I can only imagine the kind of carnage that would be...
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They suck for sure. I once watched an old foreman of mine years back chase a salesman through the office with a honey locust thorn because he underbid the tree. My least favorite are the western shit bid, also know as the "what the fuck were you thinking";)
 
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