Crotch Problems

Yes Pure Florida veterans, I am at it again. This laurel oak was allowed to stay years ago when the garden was new and the tree was small. As time passed the oaks roots sucked nutrients from the nearby garden and the tree grew rapidly ... and weakly.

Now, it shades the garden and my blueberries (picked the first ones yesterday!) and it needs to come down. It has a sister at the north end of the garden that also has overstayed her welcome.

The tree has a nasty V-Crotch in it that is already showing signs of decay at the notch and this tree was bound to get topped by a tropical storm or 'cane in some summer. I have a small barn nearby and that makes me nervous as it is within reach of the upper portion, should it fall.

Those are my reasons, tree huggers, for killing this tree. I have a list of about 10 trees near house and garden that must at least be pruned, and a few will go completely. Most of those are going to get away with some pruning to deshade the tiny dooryard and reduce hurricane damage potential.

One bold tree is rubbing it's branches across the fireplace chimney ... smart ash! I'll show him.

To do this job, I pulled out my very long ladder. This thing is a wonder of modern ladder science. It just reaches from the ground to the nearest cumulus cloud if you fully extend it. I love it.

I extended the ladder up to the first set of tree size branches, climbed up and ratchet strapped the ladder to the tree trunk. This eliminates the possibility of the ladder sliding and taking me with it, or the ladder sliding and leaving me stranded in the tree top.

After the ladder was strapped, I climbed up into the branches (my favorite part!) and sat for a while surveying my kingdom and deciding which limbs to take off first.

I needed to delimb an area to avoid damage to my barn since I will be dropping this oak within a few feet of the barn complex. This 'barn" is really a 12' X 16' shed, but it's the only "barn" I have and I am fond of it.

Once my limb attack plan was finalized, I used that little red pruning saw to take off limbs one at a time. I'm leaving handy limb portions for grabbing and perching as I work in the canopy. If you were just pruning this oak, you would never leave chunks of limb like this to rot and weaken the tree.

Generally, I encourage trees at Pure Florida, but I do need some open areas for gardening and a wee bit of a traditional yard around the house. You can see some of the shade situation in the picture above ... as well as my messy redneck barn area and required dead truck.

This oak will provide way more firewood than we can possibly use in a Florida winter along with lots of BBQ chunks for the grill/smoker. I will probably take it down this weekend as I've pruned all I can safely prune. If you need some free firewood, bring your pickup ... and your chainsaw.

I'll post the results so you can see I did not drop it on the barn.

Stop it!

I can hear you taking bets.

Have a little faith.