Tree Damaged By Wind Storm

Xerxes

Hello there everyone, this is my first time posting in the treeworld forums, but it seems to be a very interesting place! However, I am somewhat upset because I just now found out that a beautiful apple tree on my front lawn has been damaged by a severe wind storm we had 11 days ago (on July 1st).

While walking across my property today I noticed that my apple tree had become horrendously crooked and upon further investigation I found that one of my 2 apple trees (unsure of the exact species) has lost its "footing" within the soil. I have attached several high resolution photographs to better explain the situation (I can resize the photographs if they are too large, I just thought the extra detail may be helpful).

The tree does not seem the most secure at the moment, but it seems to be stable enough that it will not fall down without high winds. Is my tree in danger? Is there anything I can to do perhaps save it, or is all hope lost? I hope that I will not have to see one of my few apple trees go, any advice would be very appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

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Brent Ferris

It almost seems like the grade has been raised around this tree. However, that can be addressed later.

Put in a couple of stakes (like 7-8' steel fence posts) and drive them in at about a 45' angle to a depth of 3 1/2 to 4 ft (sledge hammer best) -- the angle opposite to the lean of the tree. THe posts should be 3-4 feet from the base of the tree on the side away from the lean. And then use rope or wire from the steel posts, thru a piece of 1/2" - 3/4" hose around the tree trunk to support the tree. If you have a winch or comealong, you may be able to straighten the tree first, and then tighten the wire/rope. Rope tends to stretch, so wire is usually better. Try to set the hose 4 ft or higher in the crown (from the ground)

If you do nothing, the tree may well survive, but it will grow crooked, and will be predisposed to fall over with the weight of apples at a later date.

Eric Frei

Trees are definately buried (filled up around trunk, grade change) and likely the original root system is weakend and rotting whilst a newer adventitious root system high has evolved.

Trees that have been buried tend to fail like yours, like a mushroom they pop off/over.

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Brent Ferris

It is hard to say how much the grade has been raised Ekka, the base of the tree definitely swells, and grade raising may only be 2-3 inches -- still bad. But perhaps Xerxes can probe the hole and get an impression of how deep the roots at the trunk are. At a 2-3 inch depth, staking in the short term, with lots of aeration holes shortly afterwards may save the tree. But deeper than 6-8 inches usually better to remove and replant. Of course, if it were sand, those depths could likely be increased a bit. But not many people have sand....


On another thread, Tree Whisperer mentioned probing the trunk, and if rot is minimal, treating the tree with sucrose followed up with Liquid seaweed (no NPK) to enhance root tip growth with auxins and cytokinins. As usual we need more info.

I have often found it amazing how people think raising the grade will make no difference to a tree. But if you give them the analogy of a pillow in front of their mouth -- they get the idea a lot quicker.

Eric Frei

Well, trees will be inconsistent too.

I had a job not that long ago where a row of eucs were buried up to 1.5m deep, 15 years ago.

We had to remove the fill material and restore original grade closer to the trunks.

Now these trees were pretty healthy still, and they had bark in tact all the way down to their original root system with no adventitious roots at all, no decay etc. I will say that the fill was not compacted, just naturally settled.

Trunks can and do swell a little, the bark changes colour and goes weird too. I was sure they'd be pretty bad but they were pretty bloody good frankly.

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Brent Ferris

It looks like the soil was humped up on just one side, but the roadway could have meant more soil compaction. Apparently the roots extended well beyond excess soil and roadway? And that was red sand? over gravelly sand, over clay?

Eric Frei

That's red clay .... tough buggers these eucs.

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Davo The Terrible

Shouldn't the removal of fill from around those Eucs have been done by hand?

Eric Frei

LOL, yeah ... get your hand trowel out and remove 2m3 of soil.

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Brent Ferris

Good point Ekka. While Davo is correct, realistically the shovel was the economical way to go.

Obviously tough trees. What kind of eucs were they. Could you tell me a bit more about them?