Be careful not to girdle the tree!

--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Arborist
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
and www.treedictionary.com
Beware of so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions keep reminding us
that we are not the boss.

"jbclem" wrote in message
...
Tom,

I'm with you, I say give it a try. I see some good ideas here, to use a
proper sling and to find out when in the trees
annual growth cycle this should be attempted. I'd add this
suggestion...if you grab the tree too high , you might end
up with a double dogleg trunk as the top bends and then later tries to
grow straight up again. Since you want to lower
2/3rds of the trunk to be straight (the upper part will follow), and the
trunk is one solid piece up to where it splits
into two section, I'd grab it just below the split, just below the two
stubs. I'd use a very long cable or thick rope
on as flat(horizontal) an angle as possible...it would seem the flatter
the angle the less force that would be required
for the pull, and less force equals less danger. And I think the tree
would find it easier to conform to a near
horizontal pull.

If the solid trunk is too rigid and resists bending back, you might have
to go higher to find the right leverage, but I
think the high you go, and the thinner the trunk, the greater the chance
that the upper trunk will bend instead of the
lower trunk bending.

If you try it, post back with some photos.

jc





"Tom" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 29, 10:25 pm, Treedweller wrote:
On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 19:37:38 -0400, "symplastless"

wrote:

If the tree is large I might, I would have to see the tree, drill and
place
a bolt rod in. I would scribe just so round washers would sit flat on
the
wood. The a nut on one and the end to pull would have an amon nut.
If
interested I could make some drawings.

Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Arborist

I'm surprised at this, John. Even one of the Trade Advertising
Journals just ran an article explaining that scribing around washers
has been discredited, as it tends to lead to extensive decay. Simply
pulling the washer against the bark does the job better; the comressed
bark makes something like a cork washer to buffer the hardware and
reduce the long-term decay in the heartwood.

Keith Babberney
ISA Certified Arborist #TX-0236AT

I am confused as to what everyone is saying about the tree being
pruned too high. The tree always had a single narrow trunk. Only
after it was bent, did little shoots start coming out of the trunk all
along the curved surface. All of these little twigs were removed, but
I think only two other existing branches were removed. It has always
really looked like that. I am not too concerned about it falling on
my house, the tree is really not that big of a threat, not even to my
neighbors (Their tree was the start of all this, Oh and hurricane
Charley). What I find baffling is that a few people have said to
remove it. This seems like the "We need to burn this Village to save
it" mentality. Well if that is the case, then what harm can come
trying to winch it straight. I guess my original post was more
concerned with the engineering aspects, such as: Will the tree even
move if I was cranking it? and Lbs of force to use? and what would be
a good spot on the tree to attach a sling like thing to (High Middle
Low??)

Tom Kuhn