I have a Kilmarnock willow that has, from some combination of wind,
rain, soggy ground or whatever, keeled over and is now resting
somewhat crazily on its "canopy". It's about 18 years old and looks
(otherwise) very healthy.

A brief examination reveals that it's still fairly firmly attached to
the ground as if there is some central tap root. However the roots on
the side from which it has tipped have lifted from the ground and seem
somewhat shallow. There is no evidence of roots ripping off -
everything looks very wholesome, just lacking in mud/quantity/depth if
you get my drift.

Nothing in any of my books answers my (I hope) simple question - does
a Kilmarnock send out a tap root? If it does then it might be worth
trying to "re-erect" it by attaching it to a stout stake for a few
years to re-root.

If there's no tap root as such then I'd guess that the tree is simply
attached to the ground because it has rooted more strongly on one side
for some reason and I suppose it would be better to dig it up and
replace it.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.

Aren't Kilmarnock willows normally grafted? So the question is - what are the characteristics of the willow on to which it has been grafted?

My observation of willows on our nature reserve is that the roots are shallow (as one might expect from something which grows where there is no water shortage, and where the soil at greater depths might be lacking in oxygen). When they reach a sufficiently large size, they keel over, then throw out a lot of vertical shoots which in turn put down roots, so that the original tree is replaced by a line of willows.

Presumably the process continues, with each of these falling down at right angles and throwing up new shoots ...

What about tipping it back upright, and putting a heavy weight of soil (or even a slab of rock) on the side that ripped out of the ground?

On 12/07/2012 21:49, Jake wrote:
I have a Kilmarnock willow that has, from some combination of wind,
rain, soggy ground or whatever, keeled over and is now resting
somewhat crazily on its "canopy". It's about 18 years old and looks
(otherwise) very healthy.

A brief examination reveals that it's still fairly firmly attached to
the ground as if there is some central tap root. However the roots on
the side from which it has tipped have lifted from the ground and seem
somewhat shallow. There is no evidence of roots ripping off -
everything looks very wholesome, just lacking in mud/quantity/depth if
you get my drift.

Nothing in any of my books answers my (I hope) simple question - does
a Kilmarnock send out a tap root? If it does then it might be worth
trying to "re-erect" it by attaching it to a stout stake for a few
years to re-root.

If there's no tap root as such then I'd guess that the tree is simply
attached to the ground because it has rooted more strongly on one side
for some reason and I suppose it would be better to dig it up and
replace it.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.




I've never come across this problem before but, presupposing that the
crown is grafted onto a willow rootstock, I would have expected it to
root itself again all too easily. Whether this will be in time to save
damage to the crown is unknown. Since the tree is resting on its crown,
it's worth checking if the graft is still intact, since damage to that
would be more disastrous.

In your position, I would try righting the tree, checking the graft and
seeing if it's worthwhile staking it - if you can stake it in saturated
earth!

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:27:59 +0100, Spider wrote:


I've never come across this problem before but, presupposing that the
crown is grafted onto a willow rootstock, I would have expected it to
root itself again all too easily. Whether this will be in time to save
damage to the crown is unknown. Since the tree is resting on its crown,
it's worth checking if the graft is still intact, since damage to that
would be more disastrous.

In your position, I would try righting the tree, checking the graft and
seeing if it's worthwhile staking it - if you can stake it in saturated
earth!

Thanks Spider. It's been dry today to I spent a bit of time this
afternoon looking at it. No problems with the graft point (bear in
mind the trunk was like a dahlia stake when planted but is now about
4" thick and topped off with a "Medusa's head" of snaking branches
from which the canopy emerges).

I explored a little around the roots and found there are essentially
two 2-3" thick ones running off opposite each other and forming a "T"
with the trunk. Apart from those, other roots are really short thin
things so it's as if the two thick roots formed a sort of pivot and
the tree just tipped over. I've dug under them where they join the
trunk and there's nothing else supporting that tree. I can lift the
tree, any effort being due to the weight of the crown, and notice the
roots are pivoting with it. So I doubt they extend that far from the
trunk.

So conclusion is that I've been lucky that it's stayed up as long as
it has and, given the paucity of roots, I don't think it's going to
develop anything strong enough to support it. Whilst I can stake it, I
guess the feasible option is to dig it out and replace it with
something.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.

On 13/07/2012 17:29, Jake wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:27:59 +0100, wrote:


I've never come across this problem before but, presupposing that the
crown is grafted onto a willow rootstock, I would have expected it to
root itself again all too easily. Whether this will be in time to save
damage to the crown is unknown. Since the tree is resting on its crown,
it's worth checking if the graft is still intact, since damage to that
would be more disastrous.

In your position, I would try righting the tree, checking the graft and
seeing if it's worthwhile staking it - if you can stake it in saturated
earth!

Thanks Spider. It's been dry today to I spent a bit of time this
afternoon looking at it. No problems with the graft point (bear in
mind the trunk was like a dahlia stake when planted but is now about
4" thick and topped off with a "Medusa's head" of snaking branches
from which the canopy emerges).

I explored a little around the roots and found there are essentially
two 2-3" thick ones running off opposite each other and forming a "T"
with the trunk. Apart from those, other roots are really short thin
things so it's as if the two thick roots formed a sort of pivot and
the tree just tipped over. I've dug under them where they join the
trunk and there's nothing else supporting that tree. I can lift the
tree, any effort being due to the weight of the crown, and notice the
roots are pivoting with it. So I doubt they extend that far from the
trunk.

So conclusion is that I've been lucky that it's stayed up as long as
it has and, given the paucity of roots, I don't think it's going to
develop anything strong enough to support it. Whilst I can stake it, I
guess the feasible option is to dig it out and replace it with
something.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.



Yes, I think you're right. It's a pity. Willows katkins are very good
for bees and other insects early in the year. I'm sure you'll give a
lot of thought to what you replace it with. Good luck.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

In article ,
lid says...

On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:27:59 +0100, Spider wrote:


I've never come across this problem before but, presupposing that the
crown is grafted onto a willow rootstock, I would have expected it to
root itself again all too easily. Whether this will be in time to save
damage to the crown is unknown. Since the tree is resting on its crown,
it's worth checking if the graft is still intact, since damage to that
would be more disastrous.

In your position, I would try righting the tree, checking the graft and
seeing if it's worthwhile staking it - if you can stake it in saturated
earth!

Thanks Spider. It's been dry today to I spent a bit of time this
afternoon looking at it. No problems with the graft point (bear in
mind the trunk was like a dahlia stake when planted but is now about
4" thick and topped off with a "Medusa's head" of snaking branches
from which the canopy emerges).

I explored a little around the roots and found there are essentially
two 2-3" thick ones running off opposite each other and forming a "T"
with the trunk. Apart from those, other roots are really short thin
things so it's as if the two thick roots formed a sort of pivot and
the tree just tipped over.

I've seen that happen to Kilmarnock willows very often in west Scotland,
in waterlogged soil when wind catches the tree.

Probably what happens is that the head is so dense, wind pressure rocks
it easily in wet soil, snapping more and more of the finer roots, until
there's just not enough root anchorage left to support the weight of
topgrowth.

Janet

On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:50:59 +0100, Janet wrote:

I've seen that happen to Kilmarnock willows very often in west Scotland,
in waterlogged soil when wind catches the tree.

Probably what happens is that the head is so dense, wind pressure rocks
it easily in wet soil, snapping more and more of the finer roots, until
there's just not enough root anchorage left to support the weight of
topgrowth.

Janet

Thanks Janet. Must admit I hadn't appreciated that Kilmarnocks were so
shallow rooted as mine.

This one was sheltered though. What surprised me on digging was to
find only two big roots - nothing else was longer than about 4 inches
and when I cleaned the earth off the ends there was no sign of
breakage. I've now chopped off the top to uncover the plants it fell
on and the remaining trunk is like a door hinge with the two roots
freely pivoting. One runs for at least 2 feet as I've uncovered it
that far. Weird.

I'm not going to try planting anything else yet but am toying with
putting another Kilmarnock there in the autumn - as Spider says, the
catkins are a valuable food source in the spring. In the meantime I
can do a bit of soil replacement and try and improve drainage in the
hope of encouraging a few more big roots on the newbie.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.