Water Oaks are not a desirable tree in Florida for streets or near houses.
(They are fine for large properties well away from any structure). They are
VERY fast growing, they get massive very quickly, and they DIE relatively
young - (like at age 50) which means an expensive removal down the line.
Live oaks stand up to hurricanes better, although they will often drop one
of their massive limbs in a storm if the combination of sopping wet spanish
moss, leaves, and strong winds gets them all at one time. However, the tree
itself will usually be fine. Given the mass of those trees, I was surprised
in the 1984 hurricane in Tallahassee to see several live oaks uprooted with
telephone wire strung around them like a spool of thread - tornados of
course, spawned by the passage of the hurricane. Hard to imagine the
strength of a tornado sufficient to lift a 10 ton tree and spin it like a
top, but there was the evidence.
If you want to stay in the oak family, and are too impatient to wait for a
live oak to grow, you might consider something like a Shumard Oak - it even
colors up nicely in the fall - but slower growing than a water oak, so it
should stand up to storms better. Or perhaps go out of the oak family.
Liriodendrons (tulip poplars) are large shade trees which grow fast but are
much longer-lived on average than water oaks. You could also grow a bald
cypress. Many people are not aware that they can grow just fine on dry
ground. They favor swamps partly because they are very susceptible to fire.
"Roy" wrote in message
...
On 21 Sep 2004 18:28:16 -0700, (Patrick) wrote:
===Hello folks. I've been lurking in this NG for a while, but tonight
is
===the first time I've posted. I need your help. Here's my dilemma:
===
===Hurricane Ivan put a serious lean on a large Water Oak of mine. The
===Oak probably stands about 30 feet tall and has a trunk diameter of
===about 13 inches/circumference of 46-47 inches. It's leaning at
about
===a 10-degree angle. A smaller Water Oak (about half the
size/diameter)
===stands on my property line about 10-12 feet behind it. Would it be
===feasible to some how use the smaller Oak to right the larger one? I
===hate to lose this nice shade tree, but I can't leave it the way it
is.
=== It's now an eyesore and if it were to get blown over it would catch
a
===portion of my home's roof.
===
===- So, should I break out the chain saw?
===
===- Or should I, and is it possible to, straighten this tree back up?
===
===Thanks in advance for your help,
===
===Patrick
Tryiing to restraighten or hold a leaner tree is hard to do. Its
unknown if the root system on one side or the other may have suffered
damages, and you always have to worry about another good wind coming
along for quite some time to establish the fact that the tree is
firmly back in the ground. I have seen various attemps at saving
leaners, some work some did not. I also have a heap of trees leaning
from Ivan and noticeable loose soils around roots, and just to be on
the safe side any of them that if they fell could cause harm or damage
is getting removed........The few that are off to the one side that if
they fell would not pose a problem I intend to experiment with, but it
certainly gonna be a long time until I can truthfully trust them as to
being secured in place.
If you right the larger tree using the smaller tree, how are you gonna
hold it in place, or do you intend to use the small tree as a sort of
anchor? You really need more than one anchor point to secure a tree
back up vertically, as odds are it also has loose roots to the sides
as well.
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