some various questions from a job (with pics!)

[banshee67]

so im working at these peoples house down the street , doing some landscaping and some pruning of there bushes/trees etc. ive come across some real hack jobs and dont really know what to do about them, or recommend.
also some nice trees that im hoping you can help me I.D!

there is this one small ornamental cherry ( i think?) that has been HACKED to hell beyond saving im pretty sure,, ive tried to trim out some of the dead without totally cutting the thing down to nothing, which wouldnt be hard, but it seems like im wasting my time, look at this hack job the previous home owners did to this thing:

its tough to tell from the pictures, but the bark is peeling on half the main leads, all the branches that were trimmed were hacked off and peeled bark down the limbs, limbs are rotting and just break off by hand, the little canopy doesnt look that bad i guess, from the outside? standing on the inside its a mess, im not touching it anymore, you should see some of the crap they are trying to save, make this hacked up cherry look like a prize

 

[banshee67]

next up this beautiful flowering tree that just blossomed about a week or 2 ago. it has a weird pattern in the bark on all the big leads, perfect rings of dots going up the main leads:

any idea what it is?this thing is beautiful and seems like it was pruned pretty well in the past, no rotting limbs, no hack jobs, i took off maybe 10 little branches and just leaving it alone now, let me know if you think i should prune a bit more

 

[yooper]

are them dots natural or are they from a sap sucker?

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/SPFO/pubs/howtos/ht_sap/sap.htm

 

[banshee67]

next up, my first official climb!
well.. not really. but its the highest ive been in a tree since being a kid. im no climber.
i free climbed up about 3/4 the way with my little folding handsaw to get a bunch of sucker branches and dead limbs out of it, i did the best i could without having a pole saw/
looks like some type of maple to me. none in my property bud red like that though, seems very healthy and limited hack jobs, someone definitely climbed it in the past though, i was 20+ feet up and there were cut limbs still healing looks like they were trimmed 4=5 years ago, a couple peeled bark cuts, few are bad and found some ants coming out of one nub i flush cut., was up there for almost an hour and loved it,got a bunch of dead wood out and sucker branches, i like climbing these little ones with a hand saw, thats about the extent of any climbing ill do :greenchainsaw:

then we have this little ornamental tree, any clue?

one more small one, looks like cherry to me, but very tall and slender, not many branches, some type of cherry?

 

[banshee67]

ill try to get some pics of the hackjob some tree company did on this property maybe 5-6 years back from the looks of it, none of the large leads they trimmed are flush cut, uneven stumps left, tearing of bark. they have a huge beautiful black walnut that looks like its days are numbered from the wounds it has.

anyway, thanks for checkin out my thread, all help, criticism , anything , is all welcome

 

[yooper]

try this it may help

http://www.oplin.org/tree/

 

[banshee67]

are them dots natural or are they from a sap sucker?

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/SPFO/pubs/howtos/ht_sap/sap.htm

im not sure, they look natural, they are on every mature lead in almost perfect patterns going up each lead like that, it seems like it would be hard for an animal to replicate this pattern, on every single lead, but i guess is possible, i have no clue!

 

[Thillmaine1]

Starting fromt he top. THe first is a flowering crabapple, Malus sp. Secondly a saucer magnolia, thirdly a japenese maple, Acer palmatum Finally a Redbud, Cercis canadensis

 

[BC WetCoast]

One of the skills of being an arborist is taking a poorly pruned tree like those, and restoring them over a few years.

You don't always have the perfect tree to start with. You have to work with what you have.

This is the order I use.

Deadwood and diseased
Rubbing/crossing
Inward growing
Poorly structured large limbs
Thin our water sprout clusters
Work the tips to shape.

Stand back and view from various angles

Don't create holes in the canopy.

If you see a branch that bothers you (without being able to define why) every time you look at it, it probably should be removed.

 

[XJPete87]

I believe those dots are from woodpeckers.. I have a cherry tree that looks identical.. I've caught the little rascals making the holes..

 

[banshee67]

Starting fromt he top. THe first is a flowering crabapple, Malus sp. Secondly a saucer magnolia, thirdly a japenese maple, Acer palmatum Finally a Redbud, Cercis canadensis

thanks for the i.d help!

 

[banshee67]

One of the skills of being an arborist is taking a poorly pruned tree like those, and restoring them over a few years.

You don't always have the perfect tree to start with. You have to work with what you have.

This is the order I use.

Deadwood and diseased
Rubbing/crossing
Inward growing
Poorly structured large limbs
Thin our water sprout clusters
Work the tips to shape.

Stand back and view from various angles

Don't create holes in the canopy.

If you see a branch that bothers you (without being able to define why) every time you look at it, it probably should be removed.

that is something im still learning, to not over-prune all at once, ive been getting better, getting down from the tree or stepping back from them a distance to get an overall look, i used to watch my old boss,a certified arborist & climber, at the tree company i worked for, hed do it with his eyes clodes and make it look so easy, now i have much more respect for what an art it really is to trim/prune trees nicely , its so easy to go overboard and lion tail the #### outa everything! lol
i really like the ordered list you made for me about which limbs to start pruning with and how to progress from there, that will help lots!
- one question, about the water sprout clusters, i am thinking that i have been taught to call them "sucker branches" ? are they the ones that grow in clusters out of old cuts ,trunks, or wrongly topped limbs and end up growing straight up and look totally out of place, correct?
thanks for all the help!!

 

[banshee67]

I believe those dots are from woodpeckers.. I have a cherry tree that looks identical.. I've caught the little rascals making the holes..

thats crazy! these magnolias must have some nice sap huh? they did perfect rings around every main lead on the thing!probably dulled a few beaks on this sucker! but the tree appears to be beautifully healthy to me, anyway to stop them from boring in these peoples nice magnolia? its right next to their driveway and really sets off the property nicely

 

[BC WetCoast]

The holes are probably a sap sucker not a woodpecker. The rows of holes are very indicative. Sapsucker damage is not usually problematic for the tree.

Yes, watersprouts are the shoots, usually vertical, which grow from pruning cuts, topping cuts. I've always defined suckers as shoots growing from surface roots or the tree base.

There are a variety of opinions what to do with watersprouts. Some people choose to remove all of them, some people will leave 1. Some people will cut them right at the base, others will cut them part way up at a bud. I think it depends on how they affect the overall shape of the tree.

 

[Bermie]

You do know 'flush cuts' are a no-no right?
Did you mean target pruning to branch collars or ridges?

I echo your delight in a good pruning job, nothing quite as satisfying as leaving a poorly tree looking light and healthy again!
Take before and after pictures...

 

[banshee67]

You do know 'flush cuts' are a no-no right?
Did you mean target pruning to branch collars or ridges?

I echo your delight in a good pruning job, nothing quite as satisfying as leaving a poorly tree looking light and healthy again!
Take before and after pictures...

i doubt any of my terms are correct i am still very much learning
what i was trying to say, when talking about whoever did the past tree work at these peoples house, after they cut large branches off the stem of a couple big trees , ones that would need a climber, they left their hinge on every cut on every tree instead of making another cut to flatten the nub after. there is a black walnut in particular with about 5-6 big visible hacked up limbs off the main stem going up, its ugly as hell..left em like that with fibers from the hinge just hanging out rotting everywhere, total hack job, i cant fix em, im not climbin up there! i just cant figure out why someone would go through the time to climb up these trees and take these big leads off.. to just leave nasty looking hinges on every cut without cutting them flat. it makes no sense to me.. but i guess they got paid either way... kinda makes me wish i knew how to climb and had the gear to do it.
i really wana do some more small free climbs like that japanese maple in the pictures, perfect size for a nice folding hand saw, or ill go buy a pole saw if i need it, i really enjoy it