GardenBanter.co.uk - Storms and Trees

"symplastless" wrote in message
. ..
Storms

Trees are often wounded by agents other than humans. Many trees in south
Florida were injured severely by hurricane Andrew several years ago.
After storm injury, work must be done first to reduce the risk of
fractures that could cause problems for property and people. Leaving
stubs would be acceptable as long as a scheduled treatment for making
final correct cuts is made. Next, the trees should be pruned for health.
This means cutting off torn roots and removing long, injured branches to
avoid sprouting that could lead to fractures. Trees do not move from
place to place, but they move or sway constantly in place. The swaying
can cause injured branches to weaken to the point of fracture. Small
branches falling on people can cause serious problems. We look most of
the time for overwhelming potential defects while the smaller defects are
frequently overlooked.

http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT20...ing/index.html

--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Tree Biologist
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.
Some people will buy products they do not understand and not buy books
that will give them understanding.

Not a negative reply here. Just food for thought. Know you don't know much
about central TX stuff, so here goes.

I built a house amongst native live oaks and ashe junipers. The closest
trees to the house that I could leave standing had a stand of both species
clumped all near each other. The ashe junipers are considered a potential
fire problem especially when the weather is dry for long period.

Instead of cutting the ashe junipers entirely out of the scheme, I simply
cut out all the lower branches to about 6 feet above the ground. A few, I
had to cut down entirely as there were so many. A couple of live oaks have
the normal branching. The other 3 live oaks literally grew horizontally.
That was 2 years ago. The horizontal oaks are showing signs of vertical
growth now, but, still look quite odd.

The leaves from the ashe juniper severely slow the growth of any surface
foliage. Its obvious, 2 years later, that the severe trimming cut down on
that. I've gotten some St. Augustine growing there now. I keep the fallen
live oak leaves mulched with the lawnmower.

End result, instead of a barren looking area with a few live oaks here and
there, I've gotten the best of both worlds. And, lots of shade.
--
Dave

Mankind, homo sapiens, 3rd chimpanzee
or whatever you choose, is not separate
from nature. Stop living and thinking
that way.