# standing up blown over trees



## PTS (May 29, 2008)

I was reading the bad day thread and it got me thinking. What do you suppose the issues are in standing up a fallen tree. I am not a huge fan of this due to the uncertainty of root damage, stabilization an longevity of the tree, however I have done it for a couple of customers in the last couple of weeks. One was a apple tree that will not pull through however the customer insisted that we try. The tree was too damaged to survive. Yesterday a customer had a spruce go over in the tornado, and I used the log truck to tip it back up lines were already set in place and stakes ready to go, once it was back vertical the tree was anchored and looks great.

In both scenarios we used Super Thrive to boost the vitamins and hormones of the tree.

I am really curious on feedback as to the results of your experiences with this.

What kind of liability are we putting ourselves in if it falls over later and hurts something or someone, and what is the chances that when the tree dies that it could be construed as our fault

Also, is anyone else using Super Thrive? We have been using it for a few months and we have had some pretty amazing results.


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## TDunk (May 29, 2008)

Never stood up a fallen tree before. People around here would just assume have the tree disposed of. I'm not equipted to do that type of work (crane and all) but i've never had someone ask me to do that type of work either. Personally i don't think i would because of the liability issue, but that's just me.


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## arbor pro (May 29, 2008)

I've tried it a few times with spruce trees with mixed results. Usually, it's with newly-spaded trees and they get blown over before the roots get a chance to grow out of the root ball.

The biggest spruce trees I ever worked on were 25 footers (12" diameter)that were planted with a 90 inch spade. This was some 20 years ago. The trees were too big to transplant in my opinion but the homeowners had money to burn and went ahead and had them moved in anyways. The guy running the spade "staked" them with steel fence posts and 1/2 rope - a real genius.  He should have known it wouldn't hold. 

Three days later, all three were lying over. The homeowners were simply 'amazed' at how the top 12" of each root ball had peeled off of the bottom portions of the 5' deep cone-shaped plugs. We stood them back up with a boom and guyed each tree with 3 -1/4" cables secured to 4' long earth anchors (the kind you screw into the ground). I felt pretty good about the job until three days later when a strong wind caused all three of them to up-anchor and lay over again. 

We lifted them again and secured the cables to 8' long 6" diameter wooden posts driven in at an angle with a mechanized post pounder. Two out of the three stood the test of time and survived the ordeal. One fell back over and just didn't have the roots to substantiate setting it back up again. 

We didn't use any kind of anti-transpirant or microrhizae treatment but, it probably would have helped. This was when I was fresh out of college and relying on arboriculture skills taught in the classroom without the benefit of much field experience to rely on. If the same situation arose today, I wouldn't touch it for the liability reasons. I'd tell them to hire the tree transplanter guy to stake them. If he didn't want to do it, he shouldn't be transplanting that big of tree with that size spade.

But, that's the difference between an eager (and hungry) newbie and an experienced old fart. Old farts know when to walk away.


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## treemandan (May 29, 2008)

arbor pro said:


> I've tried it a few times with spruce trees with mixed results. Usually, it's with newly-spaded trees and they get blown over before the roots get a chance to grow out of the root ball.
> 
> The biggest spruce trees I ever worked on were 25 footers (12" diameter)that were planted with a 90 inch spade. This was some 20 years ago. The trees were too big to transplant in my opinion but the homeowners had money to burn and went ahead and had them moved in anyways. The guy running the spade "staked" them with steel fence posts and 1/2 rope - a real genius.  He should have known it wouldn't hold.
> 
> ...



I appluad your sermon it was good. If I got into some staking like that I would be sure to use overkill on the rigging. I Wouldn't get the job cause it would be so much. I am not to old but I am sure I know what and old fart knows and them some.


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## John Paul Sanborn (May 29, 2008)

A lot of it has to do with the severity of rood damage. You may need to guy with big deadman anchors in some cases.

If there is a chance of root development, I would want dynamic cabling so that the moving stresses will help stimulate root growth.

I've used Pan-A-Sea' from Emerald Isle on heavily damaged root systems, with good results, but not on windthrown threes.


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## Bermie (May 29, 2008)

Here in the sub tropics we stand trees back up quite often, usually after a hurricane. Many trees are worth trying to save and the effort often had good results if done with care.
It is important to cut shattered roots back to sound wood, usually you have to excavate a bit under the rootball to give it room to flop back down into again because on the way over it drags a lot of soil and rock into the hole.
Deep anchors are used, probably not as deep as yours because we average about 1' of soil before you hit the rock, but that makes for stable footing!
Some people just use rope to guy the tree, others use cable, a turnbuckle and chain, as long as there is some way to adjust the tension over the next couple of years.
We are heading into five years after our last bad storm and all the trees I saw stood back up are doing fine, including those that have not had any aftercare. Mind you our climate is conducive to this, avg. 56" rain per year, with winter temps never much below 50*...


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