FSburt
ArboristSite Operative
Here's a couple of before and after pics of a Black Oak that had some work done to it.
Crown thinning and Mistletoe removal in a Black Oak
- Thread starter FSburt
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FSburt
ArboristSite Operative
The after pic.
treeclimber165
Member A.K.A Skwerl
Yup- when that mistletoe gets thick in the tops of those oaks it can be difficult not taking too much. But the 'roots' of the mistletoe will grow back inside the oak limbs 2'-3' or more from the sprout. Hopefully you gave that tree a few more years by slowing down the mistletoe before the top dies back completely.
FSburt
ArboristSite Operative
I did not want to take it back too much but it was pretty loaded up and left me with little choice. Have to go back in FEB to do another days work and remove a bunch of broken limbs out of 7 more oak trees damaged during the heavy snow storm we had out here in 99'. This fellow just hire's me for the day and he takes care of all the cleanup so all I do is climb and trim. Cool Deal. These next set of photos are from the same day it was a Black oak that was cut back to 2 stubs about 5-6 yrs ago. It sprouted back as well as rotted around the weakly attached sprouts so I convinced the owner to at least take the worst one out and leave the other one since he wanted me to leave both. he had a plastic fence right below and his mobile off to the side so it was a piece job. Not thrilled about leaving the other stub but customer wanted it left. Ended up climbing 7 trees that day so was pretty sore the next day. Usually do 3 to 5 hrs in the saddle not 8 but it was a good learning experience about when to call it a day, arms started to cramp up a little so I figured the other trees could wait.
FSburt
ArboristSite Operative
Here's the other Pic
treeman82
Addicted to ArboristSite
I had looked at a couple of oaks like that last one a couple years ago. Probably 28" DBH and they had all been topped back to approximately 25' in height. They all wound up getting suckers coming up that re-created a crown... the suckers on some were 12" in diameter 
The beautiful part was that they were all going to be removed... 1 was completely enclosed by a flagstone patio, another was over a fence, walkway, lighting, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Really not fun job... Getting a crane in there would have been interesting. I wound up not getting it... should have bid a bit lower than $10,000 for that and some pruning and cabling work.
The beautiful part was that they were all going to be removed... 1 was completely enclosed by a flagstone patio, another was over a fence, walkway, lighting, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Really not fun job... Getting a crane in there would have been interesting. I wound up not getting it... should have bid a bit lower than $10,000 for that and some pruning and cabling work.
Frans
ArboristSite Operative
Any luck using the product 'Florel' to control the misteltoe?
frans
frans
FSburt
ArboristSite Operative
Hey Frans I have not tried it.
Stumper
One Man Band
FSBurt, ON the after pic of the mistletoed oak it appears as if you left a stub of the central leader. Is there a lateral we can't see? If not, why the stub?
budroe69moni
ArboristSite Operative
good question stumper......
that's the 1st thing i noticed.
budroe
that's the 1st thing i noticed.
budroe
FSburt
ArboristSite Operative
Good eyes on that one I was waiting for someone to bring that up. Yea there is a small lateral that is growing directly opposite of the camera. When I looked back up at the finished tree I was tempted to go back up and clip that off but the lateral will fill in nicely in a few years. Kinda surprised at how heavy a big chunk of this mistle was. I was shaking the limbs to get all the loose small pieces of mistletoe that broke off the clump as it fell to come out and in the process shook the leaves off.
budroe69moni
ArboristSite Operative
have you tried this instead of removing branches?????
i was reading up on the control of mistletoe
in oaks and heres what i found.......
instead of cutting of the "infested" branchs,
simple trim the mistletoe flush w/ the branch
then wrap the branch w/ a garbage bag and
tape it in place. make sure that you wrap a couple
of feet either side of the cut because the roots
will run inside of the tree bark. leave the bags
in place for the rest of the growing season.
the bags block the needed sunlight for the
mistletoe to come back and it ends up
starving to death. no sun, no photosynthesis.
i've never seen it done but sounds like it will
work to me.
budroe
i was reading up on the control of mistletoe
in oaks and heres what i found.......
instead of cutting of the "infested" branchs,
simple trim the mistletoe flush w/ the branch
then wrap the branch w/ a garbage bag and
tape it in place. make sure that you wrap a couple
of feet either side of the cut because the roots
will run inside of the tree bark. leave the bags
in place for the rest of the growing season.
the bags block the needed sunlight for the
mistletoe to come back and it ends up
starving to death. no sun, no photosynthesis.
i've never seen it done but sounds like it will
work to me.
budroe
FSburt
ArboristSite Operative
Seen it tried on a large Black Oak here on our compound and it did not work but maybe they did not leave it on place long enough.
