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Old 26th January 2007, 02:38 PM   #1 (permalink)
Ekka
Eric Frei Administrator - Brisbane L5 (Dip) Hort Cert III Arb + some
 
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Brisbane
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Default Pruning cuts - collar, collarless and co-dominant

At the roadside again having a look at some pruned trees. This is the same place where the two stumps were so most likely the same contractors.

I took some pics of their finishing cuts.

This was a great opportunity for the 3 standard cuts that pretty much dominate our industry. When all is said and done these 3 cuts are about all you need to know.

There are 3 types of branch unions.

Collar
Collar-less
Co-dominant

And that's it! Hence only 3 cuts, so how easy is life really when pruning? Sure some people will complicate it and say there's a cent-time cut where you leave 3mm of stub to compensate for rot, there's others that say there's a heading cut on a slight angle just above a node etc like you'd do with a pair of secateurs to roses. But in trees work this is pretty much it .... and in this example you'll see what they did.

However do remember that you should try to keep the cuts small, so do this before branches get big. Rule of thumb they reckon is 4" dia or 100mm dia in the metric scale.

Remember, we are talking about finishing cuts, some argue that you can leave a stub for a year ... return then whack it again, prepares the collar for more defences, but eventually after many reductions and returns you are going to end up making a finishing cut.

In the next bunch of pic's you'll see the red line where they should have cut it.

In the second to last pic have a look at the epicormics that have decided to grow due to the poor cut made.

Link to stumps at same location.
Road side stump cut analysis - Tree World

Collarless union




Collar




Extended Collar



Codominant



Attached Images
File Type: jpg collarless union.JPG (55.9 KB, 423 views)
File Type: jpg collar.JPG (46.6 KB, 535 views)
File Type: jpg collar2.JPG (36.8 KB, 532 views)
File Type: jpg co-dominant1.JPG (64.2 KB, 535 views)
File Type: jpg co-dominant2.JPG (25.0 KB, 396 views)
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