Before & After Tree Care

Shigo did recognize and accept the dilemma of doing work that a client wants that isn't good for the tree, vs. sending your kids to bed hungry 'cause the cupboard is bare. "I believe that like wound dressings, topping will never go away..."
 
Meanwhile in reality, wound dressings are commonplace in orchards around NA to prevent certain pests such as earwigs from inhabiting loose bark and cavities and then exploiting fruit. As well as in P. ramorum infected areas during summer time. I think the biggest thing that any arborist needs in order to be proficient is an open, critical mind. Also, an ability to understand other industries which work on trees goes a long way to overcoming dogma and understanding truth.

Isn't it somewhat ironic to criticize another arborist for removing 'too much' tissue from a tree when admittedly, you remove trees as 90% percent of your business? But, I'm sure all those trees had very good, sound reasons for removal. At least Guy's Liriodendron will continue to provide the benefits that it has done in the past.

I'm also of the opinion that an arborist's pruning shouldn't necessarily be judged immediately after it's performed, but prior to the next pruning cycle. Give it time!
 
There has been a number of very well thought out posts in this thread lately.
That is what I like about this here anthill, when you poke a stick into it, the members respond intelligently instead of getting mad and sprying muriatic acid.

Neat idea to hang those crabapples upside down before pruning them, BTW.

Absolutely no hangers that way, and your TIP is rock solid:lol:
 
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There has been a number of very well thought out posts in this thread lately.
That is what I like about this here anthill, when you poke a stick into it, the members respond intelligently instead of getting mad and sprying muriatic acid.

Neat idea to hang those crabapples upside down before pruning them, BTW.

Absolutely no hangers that way, and your TIP is rock solid:lol:

Shut up Stig, what do you know? Huh? Everything you do I can do 10x better! :)
 
I'm also of the opinion that an arborist's pruning shouldn't necessarily be judged immediately after it's performed, but prior to the next pruning cycle. Give it time!

Same opinion here.

An arborist should be his own first judge, and he is supposed to know very well how the tree will react to the job he is performing.

Pruning doesn't mean that a tree just have to look good. Too many factors involved, like we all know.

Discussing and sharing different opinions is nice.
Criticism good too, but claiming to be the righteous one only by looking at a picture....that's another game.

I'm never completely sure about the job I'm gonna do when I look at the tree from the ground.
Especially if someone else has been pruning that tree before.
You get a general idea for sure, but only when I climb the tree I'm completely sure of the job that needs to be done.
 
Isn't it somewhat ironic to criticize another arborist for removing 'too much' tissue from a tree when admittedly, you remove trees as 90% percent of your business? But, I'm sure all those trees had very good, sound reasons for removal. At least Guy's Liriodendron will continue to provide the benefits that it has done in the past.
!

My business activities reflect the geographic area I'm located in (rural, cottage properties; many trees).
I have tried to promote removal alternatives eg. Cabling/Bracing, Pruning, etc, it just doesn't fly. Servicing a demographic more emotionally attached to their trees would be a different story. And one doesn't "need" to be a certified arborist or an ISA member to perform removals where I am either....but I am, because I enjoy arboriculture as a profession not just a paycheque.

Re. The Liriodendron: Not one of us know what any benefits it will provide in years to come, and it is maybe a bit unrealistic to make any optimistic assumptions. Maybe it will flourish, maybe it will decline or fail. Time will tell, but the removal of far more of the canopy than industry guidelines suggest constitutes proper tree care struck me the wrong way.
Be the same thing if a NASCAR driver bombs along a highway at 190 MPH. Just because he is an expert driver, with lotsa experience. The rest of us are told that speeding is a no no, but here is this guy bending or breaking the rules.

I admittedly have no small difficulty seeing a client dump money into a futile effort to prolong something's life, be it a dog, a cow, or a tree. It's just the way I operate, imagining if I were in the client's position, and the tree or dog was actually mine. Guilty as charged.
 
One other quick comment is that Guy has explained the rationale behind the Liriodendron reduction in greater depth on AS, and I now have a much greater understanding and appreciation of his thoughts that supported the work performed.
 
Here's that cute lil canker; was my 50% circ, 80% hollow guess close? trunk has many other outbreaks. also the higher cavity looks to be caused by the original top tearing off; does not look like a saw did that.
 

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Here's that cute lil canker; was my 50% circ, 80% hollow guess close? trunk has many other outbreaks. also the higher cavity looks to be caused by the original top tearing off; does not look like a saw did that.

Some of those photos look like your tulip tree is on the losing side of Shigo's seesaw. And some look like it is putting up a good fight.
 
Just click "view unread posts," upper right hand corner.

o ok, only 1624 posts to catch up on...

seesaw metaphor i heard was root/shoot. but anyway the bark falling off the stem and the forks i take as a negatory type of sign, structurewise; hence the severity of the reduction. In 3 years we may take more off.
 
If a bit more gets lopped off that Liriodendron, it is gonna resemble a Saint Petersburg Special. :D
 
Haha.

But, I can see where Guy is coming from and I don't think that the practice was too harsh. Remember that the biggest threat to tree health is nothing short of human activities, and we tend not to react with well informed processes. Again, the tree is still alive and whether it sprouts, I can say with 100% certainty that it will provide a benefit to its particular environ for years to come.
 
it will provide a benefit to its particular environ for years to come.

Hopefully (for the sake of both the tree, and the human effort and financial resources expended in the endeavour) it is gonna flourish for decades yet. Ironically dissimilar to the fate of the trees in our avatars, and those in your photo gallery.
 
Cheers, Mate.
I had to get that little shot back at ya for the drubbing you gave me earlier!
 
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