tree pic

[begleytree]

Pic of a couple of corkscrew willows I had the unfortunate task of deadwooding this week. made me almost come home and cut my small one down before it got like this. This is an after pic, but we chipped nearly a half a chipdump of dead out of them both.

-Ralph

 

[Timberhauler]

I pruned a few of those trees last summer...You couldn't do much walking around on the limbs.It was mainly all polesaw work,and it was a nightmare to do in the heat.

 

[treeseer]

Nice work, Ralph. Hard to estimate the amount of time to do a good job, so it's always better to do it by the hour. That pruning will last the client a long time, so the $/year is a good investment.

Thanks for posting pics of good trees well-managed.

 

[Grace Tree]

Around here they almost need to be on a yearly prune schedule. There's generally so much entangled debris that the snow loading is brutal. We did one last year that hadn't been touched in 15 years. Even after hours of snip and saw it looked cared for but certainly not eye pleasing. We did a job yesterday and the neighbor had a 5 ft. high corkscrew stump covered with epicomics. He came to the fence and asked me how to prune it. I told him to prune it 3" from the ground and put roundup on it to make sure it stayed pruned.
Phil

 

[begleytree]

Thanks gentelmen. they are beautiful trees on a beautiful property and it was a joy to see them completed, in more ways than one! the amount of dead stuff and watersprouts along each lead was tremendous. I wish I had a before pic. you weren't able to see through them when we started. we also went through the orchard trees and there were 3 (silver) maples that were near the home that we thinned a bit, deadwooded and removed the crossing/rubbing limbs. they also needed a soft cut back off the chimneys, but they are is great shape (and were before really) the man is an avid anti-topper ( rare in these parts) so thats a great thing. topped out these, imo, would become a nightmare and a liability. as they are they are nice shade and accents around the home. we are going back this fall to plant 10 baldcypress trees in 2-3 clumps on the far side of the pond, and also planting a dozen dogwoods as understory trees in a wooded area they have gotten cleaned up to make it look like a natural area instead of a cleaned out one. I am going to order a few redbuds as well, and convince them to allow me to install them in there as well. most areas around here have both dogwood and redbud as natural understorey species.
this property was a joy to work on, not often honestly that we get to do maintence prunings in my area. usually its removals and retopps of maples that are in pretty bad shape after years of cutting on them. in all, usually just work cutting wood for money. honestly, cutting wood for money gets a little (lot) old. it was a refreshing change. I usually get about 6-10 of these type jobs a year, and I live for them. unfortunately as much as I'd like to, theres no feasable way financially at this point to only do this type of pruning here. but every year we do more of this type of work, so the words getting out, tho slowly, that pruning is much more desireable to the hack and chip that is commonplace in my area. we'll keep trying to influence homeowners and talking with the public about proper tree care of course, but as you guys know, sometimes their mind is made up before they ever call you.
-Ralph

 

[John464]

Nice work. Looks great. What methods were used when pruning? Pole saw? Climb? Did you consider lifting the ends up off the ground a foot or so?

 

[treeseer]

T every year we do more of this type of work, so the words getting out, tho slowly, that pruning is much more desireable to the hack and chip that is commonplace in my area. we'll keep trying to influence homeowners and talking with the public about proper tree care

I just drove from Dayton to Ada and back today and the amount of trees ruined by topping was horrendous. thanks Ralph for making a difference.

 

[begleytree]

John, power pruner from ground, pruner, climbed them with chainsaw for some of the bigger stuff, I keep a 5' pruner for in tree work too, plus hand pruners for the small stuff and water sprouts.
could have maybe used a rake. kidding. but maybe.....lol

Guy, I don't now about really making a difference. perhaps a small one. maybe. if you drove that route you now see what I've been talking about. for some reason these trees in the midwest areas are not allowed to grow.,must be something about living in the Mlitary Operations Area and low flying jet aircraft? joke, but sometimes you really wonder. topping here is as common as drinking a glass of water. old habits and fears die slow and hard. rural midwest areas are pretty slow to change. topping trees has always been the way to handle them, so thats what the kids have done, and their kids have done.....
you get a chance to swing down 23 out of colombus (not too far out of your way really) gimme a yell. that and you can see some of the really beautiful country in Ohio. the south and east side in the appo foothills is some of the best looking parts of the state. the rest is too flat for me!
-Ralph

 

[treeman82]

Very nice.

This past week I spent 3? days doing removals. Some nice, big oaks, a big old sugar maple, and some other trees. Then yesterday rather than slaying the beasts I was able to work for a good friend just dead wood pruning a few nice, BIG black oaks. Very rewarding to look up at them after I get done and see the dramatic difference, versus looking at a huge mess which is all that's left of what were once some really nice trees.

 

[treevet]

Artists vs brush harvesters, caressing one day and destroying the next day. The yin and yang that is tree work. Emotions that are necessarily so contradicting. Nice pruning Ralph. I love this job.

 

[treeseer]

topping here is as common as drinking a glass of water. old habits and fears die slow and hard. rural midwest areas are pretty slow to change. topping trees has always been the way to handle them, so thats what the kids have done, and their kids have done.....

I'm thinking there must be a chance to dissect a tree that failed at an old topping wound, and publicize that. i hate to wish for it, but doing this with a tree that did some major damage or injury might open some eyes and minds. Right now I'm dissecting some trees that were properly reduced, to show strong response by the trees. Let's pick up where Shigo left off.

you get a chance to swing down 23 out of colombus (not too far out of your way really) gimme a yell. that and you can see some of the really beautiful country in Ohio. the south and east side in the appo foothills is some of the best looking parts of the state. the rest is too flat for me!
-Ralph

That is a nice drive; I usually go thru Logan and Lancaster on my way to Columbus. I'll definitely be back this winter for the CENTS show; hope to see you then.

 

[treevet]

On Sunday I took a little field trip I ve been planning. I ve been waiting for ash to foliate so I could take a 35 mile motorcycle trip to the Springboro exit on I 75 to see the Emerald ash borer infestation that Dr. Dan Hermes described to me as "established and heavy". I wanted to see what all the pictures and descriptions
looked like in reality. Immediately upon leaving the exit at the stop signal I scanned around and focused on a mostly dead green ash behind a bank on the left side of the road. I rode over to it and began to look around. There were half a dozen green ashes in various degrees of near death. The trees were apparantly quite healthy when something terrible happened to them. Upon closer inspection the one I was studying had sprouts (some dead and some barely alive) all over it. It had slits in the bark and sunken areas and lesions over virtually every inch. There were d shaped holes everywhere. Upon pulling back the bark you could see the gallery (ies) the larvae had created. In some spots there was only one gallery that had caused dieback maybe 2 full inches laterally and longitudenally beyond the wound before the tree futilly tried to compartmentalize it. It would never die back that much w just a few wounds.
To me this is the extreme example spoke of by Ralph and Treeseer. Cutting off all the top of the tree causes the tree (esp when making food in the spring) to starve to death and use stored food. This takes energy and triggers shoot production as a last ditch effort to survive also consuming energy. Also all the need to put out callus and then wound wood where the top cuts or larvae injury occurred. Very little energy left to compartment. the decay. This could also compare to how a tree has to handle the massive amount of wounds inflicted by someone spiking all over a tree.
Sorry to babble on but this was something I have never witnessed in my almost 40 year career and was very enlightening. Also, as Treeseer suggested, w out learnings from Al Shigo, I would not be able decipher what was going on and relate it to other forms of injury such as topping and spiking.

 

[ropensaddle]

Good job beg, I have same prob here and get about
same number of good clients! Sucks when they are shown
in books and still want topped and the only good thing is it
gives me a chance when their trees die to remove and suggest
better methods. They tend to listen better with a dead tree
someone topped, and you can tell them why it died! I have
lost a lot of work by telling customer I won't guarantee the
trees health if they insist on topping an untopped tree!
Trees that have been topped I usually try to recommend
taking down depending on their health but will head back
or pollard as damage is already done. Liability is one thing
I have been concerned about but also walking away from job
I hate the look of a topped tree and don't want my rep associated
with the practice. I have not had to top a tree since I started
my own biz but have lost work from instructing clients and telling
I will put a disclaimer in writing for not following recomendations!
I am usually kept busy on take downs of trees done this way
but I would top if they would hire me after disclaimer was signed
and understand why you have to do it a living must be made is
the disclaimer a good idea?

 

[treeseer]

is
the disclaimer a good idea?

I don't know; never thought of doing that. I aggressively sell proper reduction pruning to folks worried about size. The majority of clients here understand and accept the positive effect of shortening limbs that sprawl and retaining much if not all of the height in most cases.

Even in this market there are skeptics who still want major whacking. I tell them to hold off on that until they can see the tree move in a high wind after I reduce it. I remind them of the benefits of large trees as opposed to big rotting bushes (topped trees).

Some I've shown big hollow cylinders, which was all that was left of a topped limb. I think if we all do a more thorough job of documenting in a graphic way the effects of topping, and more importantly document the results of good pruning, the demand will start to dry up.

As for what to do with a previously topped tree, if anyone has before and afters on that I would love to see them. I have a 90-minute slot at TCI on Restoration Pruning, and I only need about half that to cover storm damage.