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by Rett Davis | |
Gardening Q&A by Rett Davis appears in
Alamance County's daily newspaper, The Times-News,
every Sunday in the Accent section. Each week's installment is
posted to this
website, beginning with January of this year. Scroll to the bottom of
this page to navigate to other Gardening Q&As. Please contact
Rett via e-mail with questions
or
comments in regard to this column.
It has been a long time since the Piedmont of North Carolina has
witnessed an ice storm. Growing up in this area I can remember many
over the years. Many of our worst ice storms have been in the sandhills
of this state and the southern Piedmont. I can remember seeing entire
pine forests torn to shreds. I can still lead you to a farm where there
are abandoned chicken houses pulled to the ground by the weight of ice.
Ice storms have a way of making us pay attention to trees. Even more
so than hurricanes and tornadoes. Our love affair with trees is often
ended after a storm like last week, Our friends become foes. Is there
anyway to prevent such a disruption in our lives and prevent this from
happening again?
Over my entire career (29 years plus) I have taught classes, workshops,
and made countless visits teaching professionals and homeowners proper
tree care. Trees need periodic checkups just like humans. So much of
what I have seen over the past week could have been prevented if we had
been more diligent in our efforts to keep trees healthy.
I have seen dead tops of trees fall out onto power lines. These dead
tops where never removed from the last storm. I have seen trees split
down the middle because they had two double leaders or codominate
stems. Many trees split at points in the tree that were decayed. Other
trees just fell over because they were leaning before the storm which is
the case for many pines. I could go on and on. The point is that a lot
of damage could have been prevented.
Some species of trees are more prone to damage naturally. Examples
would be Bradford pears and river birch. Unfortunately the Bradford
pears had not shed their leaves in time adding additional weight they
could not bear. In the past most of our ice storms come later in the
season.
This is not to say that we can prevent all damage from trees. Even the
healthiest and strongest trees will break and they did. But as
caretakers of these plants we can do a lot better job of storm proofing
them. Remove the questionable ones, keep them free of deadwood, prune
limbs off of roofs, and don't plant them under or near power lines.
Regardless of how much you love your trees, they will not love you back.
I have several cedars that are bent double form the ice.
Should I stake them to straighten them up?
Answer:
Cedars and other conifers that have strong bends in them will
straighten up naturally. As long as they did not uproot they will be
fine.
Question:
I have an elm tree that lost a very large limb. Almost half
of the tree is gone and it tore one side of the trunk down about 3
feet. Can it be saved?
Answer:
Large tears such as this will not heal. Uneven surfaces will
not allow callus tissue to form. In just a few years the wood will
begin to decay causing further problems. In addition the weight of the
tree is not evenly distributed. Remove the tree.
Question:
There are a lot of little limbs and branches broken in the top
of our willow oak. Because they are so high up and small should I still
get someone to cut them out?
Answer:
Small broken limbs in tops of trees will require the use of a
bucket truck to reach them. I would not worry about small limbs or a
few breaks. In many cases bucket trucks just cannot get into areas to
even reach them. If the tree has other limbs that need to come out or
deadwood removed, then it may be worth the effort to get them.
Question:
I have a leyland cypress that fell over and is laying on the
ground. It is almost 12 feet tall. My husband wants to pull it back up
and tie it to stakes. Will this save the tree?
Answer:
A large tree like this has too many broken and damage roots. It
will only fall over again in years to come. Put it on the street.
Question:
Several of my crapemyrtles have broken trunks that have
split. How is the best way to prune this?
Answer:
If a majority of the trunks are split, then prune all the trunks
back to a point below the break. Make your pruning cuts so that all the
trunks are the same height.
Therefore the size of the tree will be determined by the lowest split.
Question:
We have several river birches at work in which almost all
the tops have broken, bent over, and are touching the ground. Should we
try to save this tree by pruning?
Answer:
If a majority of the trunks have snapped and have fallen over I
would seriously consider taking the tree down. River birches are prone
to this type of damage. I don't find them to be a very desirable
landscape tree. For trees with minor damage, just prune the trees below
the break. They will be fine until the next storm.
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If you have any horticultural questions, please direct them to Rett Davis