estimating live limb & tree weight with foliage

[little trees]

I'm looking into a design for a cable guy for a suspect limb, and am attempting to run my own statics analysis of the proposed support.

I'm not finding much info on estimating live tree / branch weight (including the foliage)

the tree at issue is a mature catalpa in a high-desert climate, with about 2/5ths cambrium/bark gone due possibly to sun bleaching earlier. The limb branches 4 feet from ground, with a diameter of 18 inches and spaning approximately 20'x20' coverage. Obviously I could add more detail & pics, but I'm looking for best practices to estimate weight not necessarily an answer on this specimen.

Are there established practices for this, and what factors contribute beyond species / wood density, climate, condition, and snow load assumptions? A related question would of course be estimating wind load; I'm looking specifically at static weight here.

 

[mikewhite85]

This book will give you the answers https://wwv.isa-arbor.com/store/product/135/

There is a chart based on branch diameter.

I'd say you probably want a 5/16" EHS cable for that size limb, spanned 2/3 of the way up above the union.

Nick shows a quick picture of the chart somewhere after the middle of this video

 

[Zero_sum]

What he said......Second on the EHS cable.