Can this tree just be pruned or should it come down?
It’s looks (looked?) really healthy, but then we had a series of really windy days and the top broke off. Looking at the lower break, there’s obviously something going on in the tree. I’m not sure if water was settling on that spot or it’s diseased.
The third picture doesn’t look great, but those are 2 separate logs that I believe forked off of the lower break. You can see the black and white spots where the break meets the bark.
by Uncontrollably_Happy
11 Comments
Cut
Cut it down and replace. It’ll never recover its form and look unsightly for the rest of its life.
Remove it and replant
Removal, can’t regrow, open to disease now
Remove
Definitely remove
Well contrary to everyone else I would wanna see if it dies or not. No harm in leaving it and seeing if it grows a leader.
If it dies it will weight less and easier removal.
Yeeeeaah no! Time to saw it over!!!
Remove entirely
Depends on your goals. From an arborists perspective we’ll all say remove it because the top ripped out and the wound will eventually invite rot and decline further. From a home owners perspective that “eventually” could be decades of that tree continuing to fill that visual space, so for you that may still have genuine value.
Aesthetically it has taken a serious hit. I could see trying to cut below the first wound and the trying to reduce to lengths of the upper branches to create the semblance of a taper. Alternatively you cut it down and take the opportunity to start over with a different tree.
Cut it down. It’s too big to be that close to the house anyway.