clothesline attached to oak tree?

ljgiblin

Hi we have a pulley system clothesline that we attached to our house & an oak tree that was already dead for many years. That oak tree finally had to come down about a year ago & now we want to reattach the clothesline to another oak tree. Our question is: does the bolt in the tree cause any damage to the tree? Previously the tree in question was dead when we attached it so we knew that we didn't hurt it. But in a live tree we were wondering what the damage might be. Thanks a lot!

Jeff Darby

Any injury to the tree has the potential to do harm, like us when our skin is cut, torn, riped, or something foreign is inserted into us it could lead to our demise.

With a tree it will provide an entry point for pathogens to enter and start eating away at the tree, the tree will try and lock out this injury by trying to compartmentalize the injury site, but how successful it will be, time can only tell.

I recommend you install a pole into the ground for the other end of your clothesline, this way you will not be responsible for the possible demise of your tree.

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Eric Frei

Pictures help, lets have a look at the tree.

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TreeSpecialist

Depends - size of tree, type of bolt, how it's placed.

Most trees can have an eye screw inserted in the trunk with no long trm or permanent damage. Drill a hole as deep and 1/16th of inch smaller than the eye screw. The weight of the wet clothes can pull a small tree over so it should be attached to a significantly large tree to support the weight.

One wonders why you would want to put a clothes line on a tree. The clothes will dry better in the sun and you won't have the likelihood of insects, tree debris, or bird crap on the clean clothes like you will when using a tree for support.

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