urgent advice for very large loquat

marcusmucus

hello there,
Im writing about a very large loquat tree we have in the back yard. i would estimate its around 60 - 70 years old (going off the size of it and knowledge of the first owner).

Its over the height of a double story building.

over the course of the 5 years ive being living here it has dropped a few medium sized branches, usually due to the load of leaves and branches. recently it has dropped another two larger sized branches.

Landlord wont pay for a aborist , so im looking for any info on the chances it will drop one of its larger sized branches?..

do they drop without warning, or fracture ?

we are planning on building a shed pretter close to one side of the tree and it would be nice to hear seom advice on what should be done.

my landlord may show up this week with a chainsaw and try to prune it himself, but i was told probably better to leave it alone?

im ok with it dropping branches form time to time this size, but am worried one day a larger branch will go?

any thoughts or advice would be very very gladly acceped

thanks

marcus

mgarafillis@hotmail.com

Eric Frei

First of all, regarding the building of a shed in proximity to the tree, there's some distances that need to observed, trees need roots and the closer you get to the tree the more roots you interfere with.

AS4970 Draft| Australian Development Tree Protection

Dropping of branches, I've not really heard of that for the species. Usually (but not always) it's associated with heat, dryness and weight with possible defects in the limb or attachement of the limb itself. Without being there and looking things over I cannot say.

Regarding pruning, whilst there is an Australian Standard for pruning, fruit trees can be exepmt where they are conveniently hacked for picking access and production.

Australian Standards of Pruning AS4373 2006 draft

What is really wrong, I dont know but I suspect a combination of issues.

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dov

Loquats don't really have a reputation for sloughing limbs, so I suspect that the tree may be in poor condition. Check the trunk and the ground around the trunk for signs of fungus, bark falling away from the trunk or cracked, loss of leaves (should be a nice thick canopy) etc. If there really does seem to be a problem with the tree (perhaps making the tree dangerous), you may be able to use that as leverage to force the owner to take action.

stirmantrees

they dont really shed branches over hear much either. ofcourse theuy also dont get very big very often. Pics always help for discussion.
When you say big branches. how big do you mean?

dov

The biggest Loquat I've seen can't have been more than 4-5 metres high. Not exactly a giant.