JXSTERN
Good questions. When pruning I would suggest my site that I wrote for
people with questions like yourself. The site is free of course. Its my
way of paying my little debt to society. Once viewing the site if you have
any questions, I'm sure you will, please do not hesitate to contact me and I
will make the answer to your question a part of the website. Removing
symplastless (often called dead) branches is a health treatment for the tree
if done correctly. I call them symplastless to clearly address the living
content of symplastless wood in a tree farm or forest. A downed
symplastless tree could be made up of 30 some % fungi cells alone. Not very
dead. I take it your goal is the health of the tree. Sometimes in forest
management treatments not excepted for trees in an urban environment are
beneficial for the system. E.g., a flush cut with wound dressing applied
can cause rot or decay and a cavity for small wildlife. However it's not
the best treatment for a common specimen urban tree, for health
improvements. Great for the system though. So much to learn about nature,
its rules, and its exceptions to those rules.
Sorry for the bother.
I have put together a website on pruning. I am still
working on the section on branches and cracks. I will be getting some
pictures of cracks to add. Any feed back (productive positive criticism)
is welcome.
http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT20...ing/index.html
--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Forester & Tree Expert
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.
"JXStern" wrote in message
...
Have a big smoke tree in front of the house, but only the west-facing
main brances are still alive, couple of big branches are dead (hard to
tell from any distance!). Any chance of new growth there, when I cut
them off? Or do I have to replace the whole thing?
Thanks.
(Long Beach, CA 90807)
J.