# Chop Down ~80 Year Old Male Ginkgo



## mknmike (Mar 19, 2022)

I am shamelessly to make the case to save this tree when everyone in today’s throwaway society says to chop it down. 

I am scheduled to have this tree taken down April 1. I have not done any assessments on it’s health. I searched the neighbor’s yard to see if they have recently cut out any roots, and I don’t see any evidence of this in the last ~2 years since the neighbors bought their property. So I have no reason to believe the tree is not healthy. It does have a split trunk with cleavage that begins at maybe 15 feet high but doesn’t actually become two trunks until it’s ~22 feet high. I may need to change these numbers after I take a better look. It does have a slight lean towards my house, and is growing under and addition that was apparently built right up to the trunk of the tree with perhaps only a little over a foot between the gutter and the trunk, another number I can measure. Here are two pictures I have.










The lean is accentuated in the second pic because you can see my phone was not straight when I took the picture. 

We’ve known that the tree is lifting the addition since we purchased the house June 2021. The doors in the picture were installed some time after 2003 yet, we can see that they are no longer square, but not yet a problem to close. It appears there have been multiple instances of repairs on the cinder block addition near the tree roots. 

Our insurance deductible is about the same as it will cost to remove the tree.

I am trying to teach my children to live as green as possible, yet there is probably financial benefit of taking this tree down now as opposed to later, perhaps beyond that of the ongoing repairs we will need to make to the addition over time.

We’ve owned the house about 9 months now. So why is this coming up as a question now? As you can see from the pictures with the blue tarp on the roof, we are replacing the roof on the porch / addition with standing seem copper. We see that the section of the addition nearest the tree which was built some time after 1970 (?) originally had a flat roof, which is now pitched back towards the house. Due to the roofer being a gambler, we had a leak in the house before he re-built the bridge from the pitched roof to the gutter (making his standing seam roofing work more complicated). This highlighted the issues that the tree is causing, or perhaps the short-sighted architecture of the block addition. ALSO, I made the assumption that it would be best to take the tree down before the copper went on. I’ve since discovered that the big tree companies with the cranes are less expensive and aren’t concerned with the roof below. 

So now it seems to me that the urgency is totally gone, yet the wheels are in motion.

Currently we are renting the house, and the tenant is away. So we have unfettered access, and my daughter and I took a walk to the house last night in which I was hoping my daughter would tell me to save the tree. Her main concern is the tree falling on the house though, but she understands how it’s best to save trees if we can. We decided that I should get an arborist to come out and take a look at the tree. 

In addition to the “green” aspect of wanting to save the tree, and wanting to maybe not spend the money to take it down, I believe it’s the nicest tree in the back yard, and also part of the home’s history. I purchased the home from a member of the DuPont family that owned it since 2003 and redid the kitchen and four bathrooms. He bought is from the Scott family (built addition) that he was friends with and owned the home since about 1970. They bought the home from David Stockwell, perhaps the most prominent in Wilmington who was an antiques dealer that helped to furnish the Winterthur Museum and installed lots of Chinese Chippendale antiques in the home including hand painted Chinese wallpaper supposedly from the mid-18th century taken from a home in Warwick, RI. The back yard features a Chinese Chippendale style gate near the pool that also has a dragon fountain at the end. There are many other items, but I wonder if he also chose the Ginkgo tree as part of the theme of the house. 

We are not sure that we will be able to preserve a lot of things in the house including the wallpaper, but the history does have a little special meaning to our family, in that my wife’s grandfather was a carpenter that handmade replicas of Chippendale furniture for David Stockwell and also made tons of furniture that he distributed throughout the family. His dream was to work for Winterthur Museum and was finally offered a job from then about a month after he died. There is a good chance that he did work for David Stockwell in this house. 

So you see, the cinder block addition built by the Scott family can be rebuilt and repaired, but the tree, once cut down, will no longer be part of the landscape, with the exception of the roots that have infiltrated the brick patio and will likely continue to be a problem.

Will the roots not die and continue to grow despite the tree being gone? 

How could I verify the health of this tree and have confidence that it will not fall on the house?

Edit: Here’s a link with pictures to the sale listing of the home from 2021. I can see some of the branches of the tree in the last picture. If we keep the tree, I will do my best to position a camera in the exact same spot and track the location of the branches to assure the tree does not lean closer towards the house tan it was in ~April/May 2021 when I believe these pictures were taken. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/...ssage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

Also, many of the curtains in the house when we purchased were also in the house when it was featured in a coffee table book made 1964 when owned by the Stockwell family. We took them down. The last two families were apparently even more interested in cherishing the history of the home. I respect that but must balance.


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## Brufab (Mar 19, 2022)

If you cut it down, liberally apply roundup with brush around the outer 3-6" of the fresh cut stump then get the stump ground out in fall. You may want to apply a few applications of round up. Use the full strength concentration and it will kill the roots and any shoots that will sprout after the tree is cut.


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## mknmike (Mar 19, 2022)

The house faces pretty much south. So I wonder if the winds from the west push it towards the house. The sun in the south would also give it reason to lean forward (also in the direction of the house).

Does anything about this tree scream “chop it down” to you pros?



























Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Brufab (Mar 19, 2022)

mknmike said:


> The house faces pretty much south. So I wonder if the winds from the west push it towards the house. The sun in the south would also give it reason to lean forward (also in the direction of the house).
> 
> Does anything about this tree scream “chop it down” to you pros?
> 
> ...


There might of been another tree somewhere which forced it to grow on a angle to search for sun


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## mknmike (Mar 19, 2022)

Some type of evergreen and another tree were in the back yard. I know one of them fell and bent the metal fence around the pool.


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## Brufab (Mar 19, 2022)

That tree looks crazy next to the house. I would probly cut it down. Even a big branch or limb could come down in a storm and mess something up. Probly a arborist is easier to deal with than insurance adjusters.


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## mknmike (Mar 19, 2022)

I contacted the son of the owners from ~1970-2003 that confirmed the tree was there before the addition was built, and it was there when his family purchased the home (~1970).


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## mknmike (Mar 19, 2022)

Oh, I forgot to mention that we did have some small branches cut away from the house, and also a dead one taken out, perhaps that was in the gap that’s on the side far from the house.


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## Tigwelder83 (Apr 24, 2022)

Too close to the house in my opinion to leave a split trunk. Better remove before decay makes a tight job harder.


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## mspropst (May 12, 2022)

Tigwelder83 said:


> Too close to the house in my opinion to leave a split trunk. Better remove before decay makes a tight job harder.



My concern as well.


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## Del_ (May 12, 2022)

I'd remove the Ginko.

I love trees but that is just to close to the house. Ginkos also get quite a bit larger than yours.


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## fishdrivel (Jun 8, 2022)

mknmike said:


> The house faces pretty much south. So I wonder if the winds from the west push it towards the house. The sun in the south would also give it reason to lean forward (also in the direction of the house).
> 
> Does anything about this tree scream “chop it down” to you pros?
> 
> ...


You list yourself as Wilmington. If it is Wilmington North Carolina, you are subject to hurricanes.
You have already disclosed damage to the foundation.
Your tree has a bark inclusion at the split. 
Very large tree - too close to house.

I'm never one to recommend landmark tree removal hastily but you know what the answer is.


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## Bill G (Jun 8, 2022)

It is an easy decision to remove it.


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## lone wolf (Jun 14, 2022)

TNTreeHugger said:


> Why the  @lone wolf ?
> 
> Shouldn't take more than a day to take down the French doors, windows, and then all that concrete block with a jackhammer, should it? Likely no plumbing, minor electrical.
> Install those doors on that inside wall and make a nice raised deck... above the mulch.


Come on! How about do all that then rebuild in pilings.


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## sean donato (Jun 14, 2022)

Personally that tree would have been gone right after I signed the purchase agreement...


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## sean donato (Jun 14, 2022)

TNTreeHugger said:


> Realistically, they should have taken it down before they built the addition.


True, but the op didn't build the addition, hence my thought.


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## Bill G (Jun 14, 2022)

It is a no brain decision to remove the tree. There really needs no debate. Not every tree can be saved nor should it be.


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## Seachaser (Oct 7, 2022)

Did you remove it, OP?
I don’t want trees that close to the house. Foundation issues and storm disasters.


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## ericylee (Nov 24, 2022)

mknmike said:


> I am shamelessly to make the case to save this tree when everyone in today’s throwaway society says to chop it down.
> 
> I am scheduled to have this tree taken down April 1. I have not done any assessments on it’s health. I searched the neighbor’s yard to see if they have recently cut out any roots, and I don’t see any evidence of this in the last ~2 years since the neighbors bought their property. So I have no reason to believe the tree is not healthy. It does have a split trunk with cleavage that begins at maybe 15 feet high but doesn’t actually become two trunks until it’s ~22 feet high. I may need to change these numbers after I take a better look. It does have a slight lean towards my house, and is growing under and addition that was apparently built right up to the trunk of the tree with perhaps only a little over a foot between the gutter and the trunk, another number I can measure. Here are two pictures I have.
> 
> ...


Sad if you can’t save it. If it has to come
down I’d be interested in a few chunks to pu on my lathe. Killing the root system, I’ve used epsom salt in holes drilled into the stump for stubborn tropical trees like banyan and schefflera


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## bucketofguts (Nov 26, 2022)

I heard you could drill holes and put nuts and corn in the stump and the pigs will dig it up for you. Maybe a 12x12 pig wire enclosure. A garden hose. A little less slop than they need and you will be golden.


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