So we installed this truly massive, fully mature 8”+ caliper Apple tree for a client a few months ago.
While servicing the property the other day we noticed these holes in it. Turns out the homeowner’s kid shot it like 20+ times with a pellet gun…
The holes are not looking good. They’re staying wet, the wood inside is looking like it’s rotting. I was gently poking around trying to extract the pellets and there was a lot of soft spots and brown gooey pasty yuk in there.
Is there anything I can do to help this tree? What’s the prognosis? What should I be looking out for?
by AJSAudio1002
21 Comments
The fuck is a guy who installs mature trees asking for tree help on a casual tree forum for? Thats weak shit bro
Not good for the tree yeah but this tree will be fine
Copper is common in BBs and it can break down wood pretty quick if inserted. Grandpas used to put copper nails to break down stumps
Ideally you need to remove all the pellets. Assuming they’re lead? Lead will cause necrosis and can eventually kill a tree either by allowing disease to get into the tree or by disrupting the biological processes taking place in a tree
I’d be worried about the lead accumulating in the fruit, but it probably won’t matter since the kid is already stupid.
Can I ask how much they paid to have an 8”+ caliper tree planted?
Kids will be kids. How is this tree “brand new”?
Definitely not the first time a kid has shot at a tree with a BB gun or pellet gun, I think it will be fine. My son did the same thing with an apple tree in our backyard when he was younger and it’s still doing fine and producing delicious fruit a decade later.
Bummer. Now they’re gonna have to put the kid down.
Tell the owner if he’s willing to spring for an 8 year old apple tree then maybe he can get his kid some actual targets too.
Nice tight grouping.
Jesus the tree will be fine
Just fill the hole w silicone or cement once it sets out if you’re that worried. Pretty sure it will be fine regardless
As a former child one time I decided to practice my baseball swing on the trunk of a locust tree in my front yard. Took bark off of half the trunk, never considered why that would be an issue. Tree is still alive and so am I. Kids do dumb shit, I’ll bet the tree will be fine. Fruit IDK, would there be any vascular mechanism that could transport that to the fruit?
folks, bbs are ABS plastic, not lead. it isn’t 1952
Nbd
FYI ” are inches and ‘ are feet. I don’t believe you talking about a 8 inch tree that’s massive
I don’t think most pellets sold in major sporting good stores are lead anymore. And there’s only a handful of low end pellet rifles I know that can be over charged to send a pellet down with enough velocity to actually get deep into the wood….
It’ll be fine….look, talk to the parents have them get a big metal sheet for a target for him. When I was a kid, I was close with my elderly neighbor. He taught me how to do a lot of outdoorsy stuff and I remember when I got a pellet gun he gave me a bunch of old empty propane and butane canisters, told me to set them up at different distances in a little stretch of woods between our houses…I remember he kept me REALLY busy for an entire summer when he told me that if I could learn to shoot the head off of a matchstick at 20 yards with my pellet gun (consistently so that I could do it if he came over and watched) he’d give me $100.
I never was able to do it, but It kept me busy shooting at matches stuck in a fence post all summer and it did get me to have good enough discipline to be a decent shot with “real” guns when I got old enough.
Point im making is that it won’t take a lot of effort to redirect his shots in a way that’s more productive for the kid and less stressful for you. But also, the tree will be fine. there are bugs and bees that’ll do more damage than a hand pump .177 pellet rifle.
That is a brand new tree? Looks pretty old.
I would take the pellets out so the tree doesn’t grow around them. Not great for the tree, but the tree will live.
I can’t believe people still use lead pellets!