Gale Warning: Things It Is Too Late To Do To Save Your Native Trees
Here we are in September, just past the equinox, and your woodlands whether they are made up of native trees or foreign imports will be bracing themselves for the equinoctial gales due over the next three weeks. While you walk around, checking posts and tree ties and sawing off lopsided branches you can kick yourself about all the things it is too late to do this time. Rehearse them and save them for the next time you decide to plant a stand of native trees...
You might find yourself wishing you had chosen trees that take their time. Generally the slower the growth the stronger the wood and the better the wind resistance of the tree. Trees that grow fast usually do not like high winds. If you have a look at the UK's true native trees you will see that they are mainly slowcoaches such as yew, beech and oak. Even Scot's pine is not exactly a racehorse.
You will pat yourself on the back if you steered clear of planting trees that have shallow root runs. There is nothing like a good length of tap root on a tree to stop it falling over on a stormy night. You are also rightly chuffed that you took great care when planting not to damage your trees. no broken branches, no chipped bark; these wounds are all easy entry points for disease. They do happen though but you used a wound sealing compound to literally stop the rot.
As you stand in front of that sycamore that you planted as a specimen in the parkland in front of your mansion, you might reflect on the fact that groups of trees collectively withstand high winds better than ones on their own. Next time, 200 years from now, think about planting copses and groves rather than being flash and having "specimens". Just remember not to plant them too close together - start off with one tree per four square metres and thin them out every ten years or so.
Coming home for a well earned mid-morning cup of tea you might have cause to look at the giant cedar of lebanon on the front lawn. Gosh, if that fell the wrong way it might land on top of the ancestral seat. Actually, looking at it carefully, you realise that it most definitely would land on the ancestral seat. Fair and square. And to make matters worse, grandpa planted it due south west of the house; sort of right where the prevailing winds come from. Quick mental note - must remember that next time it would be a good idea to choose small varieties of tree to be planted "close to home" and that the taller stuff must be kept further away (and downwind).
Funnily enough trees are just as gluttonous and lazy as Billy Bunter. If you had made the mistake of digging a huge hole and filling it with lovely rich compost or well rotted horse manure, your average tree will have quickly worked out that it did not need as much of a root system to find food and drink as if it had been planted between a rock and a hard place. Tragically forgetting that the other use for its roots is to keep it in one place. Come the gale, even the toughest native tree will come straight out of an over-pampered hole.
Tea over you can now rush out, saw in hand to cut out weak and dead wood and remove outsize branches so as to help your trees to grow evenly and strongly. You will wish that you had started a very few years after you planted them because it is hard now to get rid of branches that are 6" thick and that cross and/or rub one another. You will also find huge ingrowing branches that only a few years ago were mere twigs you could have cut out with secateurs. While you are up the tree, take off any limbs that have, excuse the phrase, a weak crotch. These are the branches which are too close to vertical (where the angle between the trunk and the branch is less than 45 degrees). By now, of course it is too late to do anything about those trees that as a result of your neglect have been allowed to develop two leaders. If you had your time over, you would have removed the weaker one long ago.
A few of the trees you pass, as you feel the wind strengthening, have actually grown around the stakes that were used to support them. Actually you can see scars on the trunk where the tree ties that held them to the stakes first cut into the bark and then were enveloped by it. Your remember, dimly, that someone had once said the trick was to never tighten a tie or leave a stake in the ground longer than was essential. You can almost hear a distant voice, carried on the breeze saying "Two years - maximum."
Not so much of a breeze actually, more of a blow now, and storm clouds scudding over head. Fast.
Too late therefore to identify, mark and cut down those older trees that over the centuries have begun to suffer from the problems of old age. Some are diseased, some have begun to lean too much, some are just hollow. All, however are at risk of coming down in haste rather than being felled in an orderly fashion.
If only, if only you had spent a little more time, on gentler days, practising good husbandry amongst native trees that have graced the British landscape for millenia.
About the author
Julian Bosdari owns and runs a bare root hedging plant nursery, specialising in native trees and selling over 2 million plants per annum. He is an authority on the planting and care of hedging, fruit trees, soft fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs.
You can read his writings at the Ashridge Trees blog, in trade magazines and widely published around the internt
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