more tree

[psocoptera]

This is my tree,


And this is my five-minute photoshop of what the tree might look like after pruning. Probably not super accurate - it's hard to tell in the picture exactly which branches are which, and of course erasing parts of a 2-D picture is not the same as changing the 3-D object - but it's something to think about at least.

Comments

[glassonion]

I don't think you should prune your tree, because it will have a permanent blurry spot at the top that will give everyone who hangs out in your yard vertigo. No, wait, that may be an effect of the photoshop...

I guess one question is, why are the options now or 5 years? Because on the kinds of timescales you are talking about, "2 years" doesn't seem like very much. Like, if you cut bait in 2 years, then in 10 years you would have an 8-year-old tree instead of a 10-year-old tree, which doesn't sound that bad. Or is the point that it will take 5 years to find out whether or not the pruning succeeds in saving the tree?

Anyway, i am sorry to hear about this tree situation. It sounds really frustrating. Your yard is nice with a tree. :>(

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Also the sky is going to become permanently striped!

In fact the options are many and finely sliced, I've just been trying to simplify it in my head so I can think about it without feeling completely overwhelmed by possibilities. I think that among the things we don't know is exactly at what point it would become apparent that rescue had failed and The Cavity (apparently there is A Cavity) had progressed down far enough that the main trunk had to go - tree guy said that the linden is pretty soft and cavities can expand pretty quickly but I'm not actually sure what that means in years. (I think I didn't say this in the original post, but he had a theory that it might have gotten hit by lightning in a major local storm event four years ago, so the situation now would be four years of unchecked damage, I guess?)

[glynhogen.livejournal.com]

The weight of the remaining branches may exacerbate the problem, if I correctly recall what other tree guys, talking about other trees, have said. It sounds like it's not so much a choice between pruned-tree vs. new-tree, but pruning-and-ongoing-deathwatch vs. new-tree-sooner.

[uncleamos]

No advice here, but I'm about to be dealing with 60 year old oaks with minor dead branches (I think), and I just want to acknowledge/thank you for posting and reminding me that I really want trimming (or whatever) done before winter as well!