pruning back to the collar

treesandsurf

treesandsurf

Treehouser
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I know this topic has been discussed at length at this and other forums. We have this fairly large valley oak with a large ~ 12" branch that failed in a storm the year before and the client wants a health assessment of the tree and any work that you recommend.

If there is little/no target below this tree would you remove that large branch back to the collar? Why/why not?

jp:D
 

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You mean that ugly stub sticking out the back of the tree? I'd remove it purely for aesthetics, but the tree would rather you'd leave it ALONE cuz it wants its food factories.
 
Id have to see it in person to make a certain answer. I dont know that the tree would ever heal that cut off in time before it became a bad spot. I dunno.
 
What collar? Even after a year it is still possible for that stub to produce green growth but even if it does not, the stub will do more for the tree and its associates in dealing with the consequences in " tree time ". Looks like a great location for easy monitoring and risk avoidance.

Dave
 
Cut the broken end cleanly out at the end. I'd leave it to sprout out, thin the sprouts over time, and try to establish a few main leads on the trunk over time. Keep the open wound farther away from the rest of the trunk. Hope the tree can compartmentalize the decay out in that trunk before it reaches the main trunk where it can undermine the integrity of the overall tree.

Is there a visible collar?
 
Depends on what the client wants there but i'd rather leave it. If it doesn't sprout, cut it off but i'd bet it will, theres alot of sugar stored in that old branch on an old tree that has such a high mass to energy ratio at this point
 
I agree with Sean, Willie and others who suggest cutting it off out just past that small sprout. I had a similar situation on the oak in my back yard when I bought the house 13 years ago. A couple months before I found the house, the owner cut all the limbs from over the roof. Horrible cuts, just hacked off as high as he could reach from standing on the roof. There were two lower stems hacked off about 2' clear of the roof, leaving about 12' stubs. I cut them back to the trunk after I moved in. The smaller one callused over but the larger one still hasn't closed over to this day. There is only about an inch and a half of callus wood around the old cut and almost none at the bottom of the cut.
 
I got my head handed to me on a platter by a certain tree preservation specialist of our aquaintance when I suggested a similar course of action, back awhile :).
 
If the client wants a clean cut then go for it. In that case I would make a clean cut to remove the broken end and not much more leaving the young growth. If you went and removed the whole thing it would take quite awhile for the tree to heal over your new cut. I would give the HO/PO as many options as possible. I find it frustrating when the HO/PO wants something different than what I know is in the best interest of the tree.
 
cleaning it back to the sprout makes sense--better closure, better branch in time. This 10" stub 10' long had NO laterals at all when i headed it back to a node. It did not sprout the first year; this is 7 years after. Closure is amazing; just a cone of rot; well-walled. If I'd've left a shaggy end it would not be so good.

. stub 10' restored.jpg
 
stig said:
Why would you cut the end off.
To make it look better.?

I'm thinking the fracture pruning devotees would advise you to just leave it alone.
Click to expand...

Not for looks. I agree with Brendon that the natural break would likely look better IMO.

It might be better to leave it be. With rereading the OP, I see that it is a year old, not fresh.

Hard to tell if the branches in the picture are on this broken trunk, or on other trunks, leaving this one bare of any branches.

If it were a fresh break, it would seem to me (not having read hardly anything about fracture pruning) that the tree would be able to callus over the end faster, and have less surface area with a smooth cut versus jagged break for spore colonization (maybe S.A. doesn't really matter, what do you think?). Faster wound closure coupled with the trees compartmentalization would seem to lead to better decay resistance. I think that most HO's are looking for this over microorganism diversity .



If there is a side branch to prune back to, from the bit I've read about storm damage pruning, the 1/3 lateral compared to parent branch guideline would not apply. If there are no minor branches nearby, then maybe it would be better just to leave it be, watch future growth and dieback, then see
 
AS an ex-fracture pruner, I say leave it as is. Unless it is a danger.
 
If it was mine I'd cut it off, even knowing what I know. I like the clean line look and it is an oak, it can handle it. For a customer, I'd probably counsel leaving it be or cutting back to a node. Weird huh? Its a compulsion thing really.
 
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