girdling pines

[murphy4trees]

I Am wondering if girdling white pines with chainsaw around the base will reduce sap flow.. I have to limb these trees outand will probably have to wait a day or more to rig down the spars...
I know logs will tend to spew sap when on the ground, but wonder if gravity will keep the sap from flowing if the tree stands..
Any one ever try this?
I would have liked to girdle them a couple days ahead, but they have to go tiomorrow...
thanks

 

[treeman82]

I have never tried doing that. I have brushed out pine trees before, and then come back a few days later to get the wood out. It sucks even more than doing it when you are up there for the brush, because the sap has had a bunch of time to bleed out. Then you go back up to start dropping wood, and you get your hands all in that bled sap. Possibly the best way to do a pine is from the top down? Like that you aren't climbing through sapped up areas.

 

[Lumberjack]

Originally posted by treeman82
IPossibly the best way to do a pine is from the top down? Like that you aren't climbing through sapped up areas.

Sounds like something I said

Top down workds well for me (I SRT pine removals) got up, knock off the top (best for when you can bomb everything), and then ride down witht my lanyard around the tree using my I'd. Zipping off limbs, and only slowing down to adjust my lanyard to the taper.

Stop to drop out the top log, and keep droppin, very very fast!

 

[murphy4trees]

Gotta lower everything!!!
Would like to try the SRT though!!
I'll set my intention to get em down but I have to split for another job..
Any one know the science of why the sap flows after the branch is removed???
Would girdling the tree change that???

 

[TreeJunkie]

Positive Pressure, same reason it's a pain trying to do injections on pines.

 

[murphy4trees]

POsitive pressure caused by what???

 

[TreeJunkie]

I have no idea, that's to the extent of this subject which i care to know.

 

[Gypo Logger]

It seems that it's the pressure of the sap that causes the buds to push out and form leaves. The sun on the crown warms the twigs, further causing a vaccum. In the trees infinite wisdom, it probably shuts off sap loss at some point so it doesn't bleed to death, although girdling will eventualy kill the tree if deep enough and two rings around the tree meet. Girdling trees to kill them is known as "hack & squirt", when a herbicide is sprayed into the cuts.
John

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Like brian said, they will use several years of growth for fluid transport, it will taper off as you move in, so you would have to cut in 4-6 rings for it to work, if it will at all. And then probably wait a while.

I've heard of girdling to kill several months ahead of schedule.

Back in the days of homesteading, they would girdle trees so that they would be aged firewood by the time they want to cut it down.

 

[murphy4trees]

I cut about 1" depth all the way around just before climbing and it worked REALLY WELL!!!!!!!!!!!
Almost no sap flow... cleanest I ever came out of a pine removal...

 

[okietreedude1]

Thanks for the info on what you tried. Im glad it worked out for you. Next time i have a similar situation, Ill try to remember this.

 

[murphy4trees]

Here are the trees 24 hrs later... some sap but not too bad..
Hope you can get a look in this pic..

 

[BigJohn]

I guess this is thread where I wanted to share my input. I know I was on the job 5 minutes and had gotten sap on my bicep and don't know how it got there. Anyway sure wish I had my boy TreesCo with me on that one the second day. I wasn't there for the first day. I working the ground and must say I don't like it much. I am sure TreesCo could have showed me the way. He would just have to realize it was Daniel up there and not Daddy.

 

[MasterBlaster]

...or me!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Would you have been puking chunks with him?

 

[BigJohn]

Puking chunks? I don't get it what did I miss? I don't have much to say about the pine job accept that I hate getting dirty.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I use all my Zen powers to ignore the sap.

In more ways than one...

:angel:

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

That was something that Trees Company liked to say how hard he worked humping big wood out of back yards.

He worjed so hard he was puking chunks.

 

[Rob Murphy]

Hey murph

Deep ringbarking (girdling) a pine before dismantling stops the sap flow...for real murph?

 

[murphy4trees]

Ya...
I'll take some close ups of the wood after its down...
The "scientific way to do this would have been to girdle one and leave the other and see the difference.. and I was more interested in being clean than being scientific...
Maybe next time when the logs can be felled without climbing....