treehouse tree care

ruel

TreeHouser
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
Messages
1,845
Location
Harpswell, Maine
This oak has suffered major decline. Cut back to live wood, and want to save it. Any care/ preservation recommendations? irrigation? Fertilizer? Cuts to promote suckers? What do y'all think?

#notmeinthetree


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What's going on with the roots? Hit it with some compost is my suggestion. Any signs of fungal or bacterial infection? Grade changes? Sever weather in the past few years? i.e. drought, extreme cold. Root damage?
 
No on the fertilizer, just the reduction you did will do all the tree can handle on producing regrowth. If it is even capable of doing so.

Anything beyond the playhouse itself going on that you suspect as causing the decline?
 
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  • #4
We've have a defoliating caterpillar, browntail moth. Pretty close to 100% defoliation in may/June a few years in a row. coupled with drought 3 years out of past 4. stemic injected last year.

Mostly the moths fault, luckily the population dropped last year.

Structure was actually really low impact, on posts, no root damage I could see.
 
Extended drought is probably main culprit, but a building of that size and in that location can change the dynamics in more ways than just root damage. Can water be added to the root zone?

Stemic insecticide injection? Was the tree showing as much stress at the time of injection?
 
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  • #6
First full year on site for me. Tree was def infested with caterpillars last spring prior to treatment. Root zone looks dry even in wet spring weather.

Probably recommend extending irrigation to cover this tree
 
Yes, appropriate water, an inch a week during dry spells. It is common for people to want to play catch up when told their tree is drought-stressed.

You will need to check that infiltration rate is adequate also. Construction, drought, and even lawn care practices, can all create enough compaction to be detrimental.
 
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  • #10
Do those actually work? That would probably make it <12" before hitting granite there. Was thinking drip snaked all around trunk.

How would you check infiltration rate?
 
By doing a perk test. Something the home owner can do. Dig a hole somewhere in the root zone, fill it up with water and let it drain. Fill it up again and time how long it takes to lower in inches. Half an inch or less in 60 min is slow, 1/2" to 1" is nomal, faster than 1" is highly porous.

In your case you will need to determine if the drainage is normal for your area or compacted. If you do a search worded, The Soils of Maine, you should find a (miscellaneous report 402) from the University of Maine. It will have a wealth of information on the soils in your area.

Your soils vary quite a bit. If you want, you could pm me the address of the tree's location and I could have my wife try and pull up that location's specifics. So much of what is going on is soil related. It can help to understand what you have.
 
I did one a few years ago ( actually two trees). The oak was the main support and was suffering root problems as well as the loss of cambium from those big sliding bolts the treehouse builders use. There were four bushings at about 3" diameter each, two ends on a 20ish inch diameter trunk area. You do the math. Also they ratchet strapped rubber roofing around the trunk to create a water barrier for the roof. We replaced the ratchet strap with a home made concoction that had a "bungee" in it, allowing some growth before girdling. That along with some air spade work and fertilizer. It hadn't completely mashed the 'panic button' yet but was well on its way.
The black cherry was basically a goner. We headed it back to to what was left of live wood and pumped it full of insecticide to kill off borers and fertilizer to promote sucker growth. Sort of thinking of it as a "living post". Interesting project that I wish I could go back and see how things are going.
 
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