[delurk]

Hi all!

I have a couple of native cedars, one of which is bare up to about 10 feet.
I was considering planting a crossvine at the base and letting it climb.
It's not a twiner, so it shouldn't girdle the tree, and if what I've been
reading is accurate, if it gets out of control, I can just cut its main
vine back and kill everything above it.

Has anybody tried this? Advice? Informed opinions?
Alternate tree-friendly flowering vines?

Thanks,
Richard

[lurk]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 15:31:13 GMT, Richard Fowler
wrote:

I have a couple of native cedars, one of which is bare up to about 10 feet.
I was considering planting a crossvine at the base and letting it climb.

I think just keeping it out of the crown of the tree would be enough
to prevent any harm. I have never heard of a cedar with trunk
problems due to this. Even then you could fashion a cylinder of
chicken wire or such to fit loosely around the trunk and let it twine
on that.

On this track, I was working out in the woods SW of San Antonio and
ran across a landowner wanting to repair a live oak tree lost in the
woods on his property. The tree was at least 8 feet in diameter at
breast height (dbh) with broken limbs in the crown bigger than most
big live oaks. I am not a tree person but I bet it would cost $20,000
to have a good arborist fix the damage.

But to boot, it had a mustang grape vine growing in it that he was
cutting out a little at a time (see I am getting back to the original
topic). At ground level the grape vine itself was close to 2 feet in
diameter. I have never seen a vine anything even close to this.

Since then I have stumbled into at least one other huge live oak on
the order of 8 feet dbh down in the vicinity. These trees make Treaty
Oak look like a sapling.

Rusty Mase
Austin, Texas

Since then I have stumbled into at least one other huge live oak on
the order of 8 feet dbh down in the vicinity. These trees make Treaty
Oak look like a sapling.

Rusty Mase
Austin, Texas

Wow, I have never seen a tree that big!

Cindy