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Half a tree

Spiffy1

Huh?
SUPER Site Supporter
Bobcat reminded me to dig up some pictures of our summer projects; this one is rather interesting.

My mother claimed lightning, but I'm pretty sure it was the result of damage when third branch badly needing to be trimmed back broke off between the two. Regardless the split was nearly to the ground this year, so we weighed the options:

Leave it...until one or both sides break on their own [didn't seem very logical]
Cut it down [but such a nice shade tree]
Chain it together and hope for the best [the split looked too rotten]
Pick a side and try to save it.....I'm probably nuts or optimistic, but had to try:
 

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Spiffy1

Huh?
SUPER Site Supporter
Note in the previous picture, power line, swing set, house, etc..... no easy direction to just drop it. Branch by branch and a few feet at a time on the larger stuff made it several evenings worth even though we were able to nab a 40ft telehandler for a couple days.
 

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thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
Chain it together and hope for the best [the split looked too rotten]
Pick a side and try to save it.....I'm probably nuts or optimistic, but had to try:

We had a large tree at our cabin split from lightning prior to me buying it. No one ever did anything about it until we had a large storm that made it split further. I drilled and installed some fairly large lags and then winched and cabled together. The tree is doing great. I also took some tar to the exposed area to prevent further rot.

murph
 

Spiffy1

Huh?
SUPER Site Supporter
We kept the side with the largest canopy, best chance to recover [note wrap around staring before we even cut it], and the right direction to tether to a nearby tree - but also the smaller trunk section.
 

thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
After seeing your 2nd pic I think I would cut the whole thing down. JMO that's all
 

Spiffy1

Huh?
SUPER Site Supporter
Aside from being cabled to a nearby tree, this is the result. I plan to slowly tension it (maybe 1 inch per growing month) and as well as prune some of the heavy side next spring [figured it needed all the leaves it could get this year] until it balances.

So any bets?
 

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Spiffy1

Huh?
SUPER Site Supporter
After seeing your 2nd pic I think I would cut the whole thing down. JMO that's all

You're likely right, and I hadn't even mentioned the ugly looking wood borers I found in the split. Either I found them all or the imidocloprid seems to have got the best of them, as no new signs.

But I had to try the optimistic side; glad to read yours is doing well after cableing! :thumb:
 
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