Hope clients plant new trees. If you enjoy the trees and know they are on the way out, the best thing you can do is get the next trees started while enjoying what is left of the current trees 😃
Really appreciate the diversity of what you talk about including the area and I don’t know if most people know that Saratoga is in California so many people live all over the world watch these videos. Thanks for another great information share Mr. Blair . Joe
I’ve got a topped silver maple in my yard, (Not my Doing), It sheds small limbs every week. Every little windy day it’s sheds medium sized green limbs. It’s been topped for 10+ years but I believe it’s on its final years, it’s hollowing out fast. Always upsets me to see a healthy tree topped.
So appreciate a tree service that knows how trees grow and values them. My state,Missouri can grow magnificent trees but tree butchering companies are a dime a dozen as are property owners who are won’t see the benefits trees bring them and will sacrifice decades of growth because some wood gets dropped during severe storms.
Hi Blair, this topic comes up a lot with trees located directly under high voltage power lines. Property owners are usually adamantly against "topping", but they are unwilling to accept that the tree was planted in a location where it would be unable to grow to it's full potential and will require constant pruning in a less than ideal manner. Oftentimes property owners and landscape contractors will plant fast growing large species or trees with excurrent growth forms directly under power lines because they think the edges of their property are the ideal locations for trees due to aesthetics. This problem gets even worse in areas like southern California where palm "trees" are common. Unlike real trees, palm trees cannot be stopped from growing vertically and any trimming of new fronds is usually not aesthetically pleasing and is only a temporary safety measure as it will grow new fronds and put on additional height within 6 months. Most Palm species under power lines will eventually grow to the point where they become a safety issue due to contacting the high voltage lines and need to be removed by the utility. Some owners are even unwilling to the understand the severity of the hazard at this point and will reject attempts by the utility to remove the palms(usually at no cost) which results in the utility killing the palm tree as a final resort to keep it from starting a fire or a down wire situation from arching.
I have a power pole on a big lean and lots of cracking. The power company came and looked at it and said the pole was put there in 1969. They said they will let it be until it falls down. I said why wait and create a big power failure since there is a transformer on it. They had no answer.
If they're not watering the lawn anyway (and good on them for that), they might as well hire someone to cover it in a truckload of mulch. The trees would thank them as well
Those sweet gums are native to the SE US where they avg alot of rain soo.. also they are typically the pioneer tree so they aren't particularly long lived as oaks and maples will take there place in the forest or other hardwoods
We maintain a property right outside of Boston Ma. The client has a large Hemlock, at least 80' and during dry seasons we'll have it watered and it makes a huge difference as far as disease or stress the following years.
I'm assuming, if the tops have broken themselves off, I should go ahead and give that a clean cut off? Ice storms broke a bunch of tops this winter. Just want to do what's right for the tree
I work as a tree inspector and that's what i had to think about this week, but it was a horse chestnut! I was thinking about pollarding the tree because its canopy was already rotting away but then i noticed the insect holes in the rest if the trunk so yeah i didn't want it to continue growing like that on a parking lot so I've let him be cut down and replanted.
Gread video as always. Topping is often the best option for retaining 'unsafe' urban trees and lots of examples of thriving and lovely historically topped trees. I like it when arborists aknowledge it for what it is and not mis-identifing it as pollarding or crown reduction.
One of the sales arborists I work for prescribes topping on occasion. I acquired a topped red maple when I purchased my home 3 years ago - it's helping me hone my restoration pruning skills. Those liquid amber's look to me like a gum tree? same?
If I were a tree I'd rather have fungus nibbling on my roots that drought. Drought is the worst. Also, I wouldn't call it topping. I'd call it "retrenchment" pruning or deadwooding.
In this case yes but my point was more about how a topping cut may have been a part of the problem from the start. Decline is usually from a combination of problems but the initial top cuts was like lighting a fuse.
@@arboristBlairGlenn Topping may have caused sunscald, which then accelerates drying out. But the bark on that species isn't thin. I think the drought came first, then someone might've cut it back hard thinking it was dying back due to a disease. Also, the drought may have weakened the wood and made it easier for fungi to colonize. Drier wood means more oxygen can enter and activate the dormant fungal spores.
My Pomegranate bloomed for the first time this year! It's almost five years old. I don't expect fruit, but the flowers were lovely! I'm giving up on Cherry trees. I've planted five and each has not thrived and all but one are gone. The last one is on it's way out. Northern Florida just doesn't work for Cherries, or is it me?
Did you try fig trees? Afaik they should do great in warm climates and don’t require any treatment. Cherry trees (the cultivated fruit varieties) are prone to an endless list of diseases and them dying is far from unusual. There’s pomegranate that are bred for flowers and don’t produce fruits. Look for fruit trees that grow well in your area and are low maintenance. Keep in mind that there’s usually many varieties available for each fruit tree and that’s important to consider too. I planted a handful of pomegranate trees, all different varieties with slightly different ripening season and I’d say “wonderful” is the best: big fruits with blood red grains and very sweet. Search online and ask advice from local nursery people. If you have the space growing fruit trees is great. Cheers!
@@pansepot1490 My Pomegranate came from Stark Nursery, but I don't remember the variety. I've planted five fig trees and only have one intact, two came up possibly from root stock, two dead. My Peaches are a treat for the animals, had two peaches and they disappeared while green. I'm so bummed out. I planted four Paw Paws and only two lived through this wet winter. I hate my garden/orchard. ;(
Thanks for the top tour :) Say I have a white oak (Pubescens) that has a dead top, if I were to trim it down, how to protect the top to keep the bottom alive ? (I'm thinking an upside down tin can, with a cork pad stuck in the center of the inside of the can to space out the wood from the can).
yes liquid amber needs water and can take lots of it. one of its main attribute in the California landscape is its fall color better tree for shade and local weather would be natives but not many of the have much fall color. California sycamore great shade but not much fall color for the home gardener nursing an old fruit tree way past it useful time if you do not need bushels of fruit can be kind of fun.
Would it be beneficial for the tree to somehow seal this kind of topping wound? As it is not going to close over anyway. The "pruning paste" seems to be controversial topic.
Blair, here's your Comment. Ah, I can't be so cruel, yes you find a long time resident and so generally little to no renovation or even shifts in well worn habits - you can see some obvious long play stories just below the surface.
Hope clients plant new trees. If you enjoy the trees and know they are on the way out, the best thing you can do is get the next trees started while enjoying what is left of the current trees 😃
Always love the educational pieces, Blair. Thanks!
That a for the video. Always good tree advice.
👍🏻✌🏼
Really appreciate the diversity of what you talk about including the area and I don’t know if most people know that Saratoga is in California so many people live all over the world watch these videos. Thanks for another great information share Mr. Blair .
Joe
Just Blair (first name) there is a Saratoga New York. Good point
That was a great tree tour, you are pretty dang amazing. I love your videos
Upper canopy tree tour AND sky view tour.👍🏻✌🏼
I’ve got a topped silver maple in my yard, (Not my Doing), It sheds small limbs every week. Every little windy day it’s sheds medium sized green limbs. It’s been topped for 10+ years but I believe it’s on its final years, it’s hollowing out fast. Always upsets me to see a healthy tree topped.
People see fruit trees and Linden trees in cities/towns often being topped, and they think it's a good practice.
So appreciate a tree service that knows how trees grow and values them. My state,Missouri can grow magnificent trees but tree butchering companies are a dime a dozen as are property owners who are won’t see the benefits trees bring them and will sacrifice decades of growth because some wood gets dropped during severe storms.
Here too
Hi Blair, this topic comes up a lot with trees located directly under high voltage power lines. Property owners are usually adamantly against "topping", but they are unwilling to accept that the tree was planted in a location where it would be unable to grow to it's full potential and will require constant pruning in a less than ideal manner. Oftentimes property owners and landscape contractors will plant fast growing large species or trees with excurrent growth forms directly under power lines because they think the edges of their property are the ideal locations for trees due to aesthetics.
This problem gets even worse in areas like southern California where palm "trees" are common. Unlike real trees, palm trees cannot be stopped from growing vertically and any trimming of new fronds is usually not aesthetically pleasing and is only a temporary safety measure as it will grow new fronds and put on additional height within 6 months. Most Palm species under power lines will eventually grow to the point where they become a safety issue due to contacting the high voltage lines and need to be removed by the utility. Some owners are even unwilling to the understand the severity of the hazard at this point and will reject attempts by the utility to remove the palms(usually at no cost) which results in the utility killing the palm tree as a final resort to keep it from starting a fire or a down wire situation from arching.
I have a power pole on a big lean and lots of cracking. The power company came and looked at it and said the pole was put there in 1969. They said they will let it be until it falls down. I said why wait and create a big power failure since there is a transformer on it. They had no answer.
Exactly what I was thinking with this pole
Maybe the name: Liquid Amber, is a hint that it needs a certain amount of 'liquid', to live...lol..!! Only teasing...couldn't resist that one...!!
One man’s oak root fungus is another man’s honey mushrooms. 🍄🟫
True, but still bad for the tree
Always appreciate your insight Blair! Thank you for sharing!
what a lovely pomegranate tree, thanks as always Blair!
If they're not watering the lawn anyway (and good on them for that), they might as well hire someone to cover it in a truckload of mulch. The trees would thank them as well
You Sir are a wellspring of knowledge. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Those sweet gums are native to the SE US where they avg alot of rain soo..
also they are typically the pioneer tree so they aren't particularly long lived as oaks and maples will take there place in the forest or other hardwoods
They grow very different in California
We maintain a property right outside of Boston Ma. The client has a large Hemlock, at least 80' and during dry seasons we'll have it watered and it makes a huge difference as far as disease or stress the following years.
Water is generally the answer
I'm assuming, if the tops have broken themselves off, I should go ahead and give that a clean cut off?
Ice storms broke a bunch of tops this winter. Just want to do what's right for the tree
Yup, no options.
I work as a tree inspector and that's what i had to think about this week, but it was a horse chestnut!
I was thinking about pollarding the tree because its canopy was already rotting away but then i noticed the insect holes in the rest if the trunk so yeah i didn't want it to continue growing like that on a parking lot so I've let him be cut down and replanted.
A tree inspector is an interesting job. Making decisions based on visuals can sometimes get sticky.
It doesn't count as topping if it's dead wood
Good video.
Gread video as always. Topping is often the best option for retaining 'unsafe' urban trees and lots of examples of thriving and lovely historically topped trees. I like it when arborists aknowledge it for what it is and not mis-identifing it as pollarding or crown reduction.
Sometimes, no option. Best not to start the problem though.
Beautiful pomegranate tree. Mine is much smaller and produces enough to provide for all the neighbors.
I also like to watch and identifying trees.
I am passioned with trees.
In North Greece we have very similar climate a bit more cold
👍🏻👍🏻
One of the sales arborists I work for prescribes topping on occasion. I acquired a topped red maple when I purchased my home 3 years ago - it's helping me hone my restoration pruning skills. Those liquid amber's look to me like a gum tree? same?
That’s what I thought too…sweetgum?
Sweet gum is another name, yes
If I were a tree I'd rather have fungus nibbling on my roots that drought. Drought is the worst.
Also, I wouldn't call it topping. I'd call it "retrenchment" pruning or deadwooding.
In this case yes but my point was more about how a topping cut may have been a part of the problem from the start. Decline is usually from a combination of problems but the initial top cuts was like lighting a fuse.
@@arboristBlairGlenn Topping may have caused sunscald, which then accelerates drying out. But the bark on that species isn't thin. I think the drought came first, then someone might've cut it back hard thinking it was dying back due to a disease. Also, the drought may have weakened the wood and made it easier for fungi to colonize. Drier wood means more oxygen can enter and activate the dormant fungal spores.
My Pomegranate bloomed for the first time this year! It's almost five years old. I don't expect fruit, but the flowers were lovely! I'm giving up on Cherry trees. I've planted five and each has not thrived and all but one are gone. The last one is on it's way out. Northern Florida just doesn't work for Cherries, or is it me?
Did you try fig trees? Afaik they should do great in warm climates and don’t require any treatment. Cherry trees (the cultivated fruit varieties) are prone to an endless list of diseases and them dying is far from unusual.
There’s pomegranate that are bred for flowers and don’t produce fruits.
Look for fruit trees that grow well in your area and are low maintenance. Keep in mind that there’s usually many varieties available for each fruit tree and that’s important to consider too. I planted a handful of pomegranate trees, all different varieties with slightly different ripening season and I’d say “wonderful” is the best: big fruits with blood red grains and very sweet.
Search online and ask advice from local nursery people. If you have the space growing fruit trees is great. Cheers!
@@pansepot1490 My Pomegranate came from Stark Nursery, but I don't remember the variety. I've planted five fig trees and only have one intact, two came up possibly from root stock, two dead. My Peaches are a treat for the animals, had two peaches and they disappeared while green. I'm so bummed out. I planted four Paw Paws and only two lived through this wet winter. I hate my garden/orchard. ;(
Thanks for the top tour :) Say I have a white oak (Pubescens) that has a dead top, if I were to trim it down, how to protect the top to keep the bottom alive ? (I'm thinking an upside down tin can, with a cork pad stuck in the center of the inside of the can to space out the wood from the can).
Grafting paste?
Bit rude giving the trees the two fingers!
Peace dude✌🏼
Love your videos 👍
Sometimes it's top it or stump it.
yes liquid amber needs water and can take lots of it. one of its main attribute in the California landscape is its fall color better tree for shade and local weather would be natives but not many of the have much fall color. California sycamore great shade but not much fall color
for the home gardener nursing an old fruit tree way past it useful time if you do not need bushels of fruit can be kind of fun.
Thanks for sharing!
Would it be beneficial for the tree to somehow seal this kind of topping wound? As it is not going to close over anyway. The "pruning paste" seems to be controversial topic.
Study Shigo’s work on the subject. No sealant.
Blair, here's your Comment.
Ah, I can't be so cruel, yes you find a long time resident and so generally little to no renovation or even shifts in well worn habits - you can see some obvious long play stories just below the surface.
This client was a challenge
💥❤💥❤💥❤💥