# Trees broke with Ice



## Johnny9 (Sep 7, 2005)

How many of you lost trees that broke limbs or in half from the lastest ice stlorm? Neighbor said he lost several 12 foot red cedars he planted from 18 inch plants to block view of neighbors house and cattle sheds.


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## Muddskipper (Dec 29, 2004)

Limbs where down all over the neighborhood coming into work

All my trees are new and replanted after the drought so they are 5' tall

They are winged elms and were just staring to bud out

It's my blooms on all my citrus that I am bummed about..... Not all were in bloom though


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## Court (Jul 16, 2011)

Was out @ 5:00 AM feeding my horses & a huge branch came crashing down & luckily I was not in there because they went nuts-Scared the he77 out of me-Huge tree & probably will have to take it out.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

I think we lucked out...with the rain moving from west to east, by the time it got here to East Texas this morning we were right at 32 deg. Dodged a huge bullet, thankfully.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

I planted a Live Oak about 4 years ago in honor of my fathers passing. Believe it or not it doesn't look so good. Limbs are bent & its now looking deformed. Hopefully, it will pop back into place. 
The ice is now melting thank god. What a BLOW! Other than that I hope its all good. My garden looks terrible. Onions are laying over but they should pop back up. Greens are history I'll give them to the birds. It was a rough go with the just hatched birds & the breaker kept kicking off. Made for a long night back & forth to the brooder. Other than that its all good. LOL


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## goatchze (Aug 1, 2006)

We were lucky, this tree seems to have made it. I cringe every time the wind blows hard or they call for freezing rain. I need to get some rods/cables in it before the spring. It's only about 100' from the house and is the view from the master bedroom. It would be sad to lose.


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## w_r_ranch (Jan 14, 2005)

Yep, that one is could split pretty easily in bad weather...


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## Johnny9 (Sep 7, 2005)

goatchze said:


> We were lucky, this tree seems to have made it. I cringe every time the wind blows hard or they call for freezing rain. I need to get some rods/cables in it before the spring. It's only about 100' from the house and is the view from the master bedroom. It would be sad to lose.


Ike (2008) split one of my live oaks with that wind. Called an expert and he said to bore hole thru and put in alltread with washers on ends. Bought square washers and did the job then went up into the 2 sections and ran cables with turnbuckles and behold it is doing very well. Lots of work and worrying but I saved this tree we put in the ground in 1987.


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## goatchze (Aug 1, 2006)

juan said:


> Ike (2008) split one of my live oaks with that wind. Called an expert and he said to bore hole thru and put in alltread with washers on ends. Bought square washers and did the job then went up into the 2 sections and ran cables with turnbuckles and behold it is doing very well. Lots of work and worrying but I saved this tree we put in the ground in 1987.


Yeah, I would like to put in rods, but that tree is about 8' in diameter at the lowest point the rods would be effective. It's tough to find rods that long (or a drill bit). I'll have to drill in from each side and use a coupler in the middle (where the split is). I'm not sure if I've got the skills to drill that long of a hole with tolerance enough to get the coupler to mate.

So I may have to actually get the experts our here for this one, I'm just dreading the cost (but I'm sure saving the tree would be worth it).

I have no idea how long it's been split, but it doesn't look recent. When we built the house, that tree was covered with vines, some of which were 8" in diameter, and surrounded 20' on any side by yaupon. It wasn't until I cleared it out last fall that we realized how split it was.

But even knowing its been split for a while, it still worries me that tomorrow might be its last day.


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## castaway300 (Oct 6, 2007)

goatchze said:


> We were lucky, this tree seems to have made it. I cringe every time the wind blows hard or they call for freezing rain. I need to get some rods/cables in it before the spring. It's only about 100' from the house and is the view from the master bedroom. It would be sad to lose.


A proper pruning would not hurt the tree at all


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

castaway300 said:


> A proper pruning would not hurt the tree at all


YUP! Take some weight off those branches. Nows a good time to trim it the saps down.


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## goatchze (Aug 1, 2006)

*Here's some extra pics*

To somewhat hijack the thread, if anyone has any recommendations, let me know. When you guys say prune it, you mean cut off some of the lower branches? This is a mature oak and is about 50-60' tall.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Here is what I would do (in conjunction with a pro tree guy):

1) Seal that open area between the two major trunks. There's stuff you can buy to give you a filler and sealer and over time the tree may very well cover it all. You must prevent any rotting there....mandatory

2) after sealing it, then put a heavy cable around the upper most portion of the split. I'm not talking about a wire...but a heavy cable securely fastened. Over time, this will support the tree to where it will strengthen itself and cover the cable and the seal job.

How do I know? Check my specimen live oak that this was done to about 50 years ago. If it had not been done, this tree wouldn't be here today...and that in my view would be a tragedy.

p.s. this is far more important than pruning...in fact I wouldn't worry about pruning until this was finished...and then only prune for shape.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Your tree is my tree 50 years ago....looking at your pictures closely, I can see where the tree has begun the slow process of closing that gap...but it will never ever be able to do so without help.

Get it the help it needs and generation after generation will appreciate it


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## chumy (Jul 13, 2012)

goatchze said:


> To somewhat hijack the thread, if anyone has any recommendations, let me know. When you guys say prune it, you mean cut off some of the lower branches? This is a mature oak and is about 50-60' tall.


I'd take a machette to those vines if not already done.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

Lark makes a lot of sense. But trim the junk or suckers out of it. No reason for the tree to grow this trash & use valuable energy on this. Don't scalp it just clean it up. It will help the tree grow where it needs to grow.
I would take larks advice but also trim it. I usually just trim the middle out. Branches that overlap each other & suckers. 
Yes, clean any rot out of it. There now saying that the pruning paint causes rot. More good advice is when you cut major branches off don't cut the branch even with the tree leave a few inches like a collar.
I know about this because my brother owns a tree company & I did some tree work in my day. Very hard work.
One valuable tool is a power pole I use mine all the time. Get a sthil.


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## chumy (Jul 13, 2012)

Meadowlark said:


> Here is what I would do (in conjunction with a pro tree guy):
> 
> 1) Seal that open area between the two major trunks. There's stuff you can buy to give you a filler and sealer and over time the tree may very well cover it all. You must prevent any rotting there....mandatory
> 
> ...


Good job trying to save an oak. Now, will the cable be an issue to the tree? Weakpoint, etc as the tree grows around it. Just asking.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

chumy said:


> I'd take a machette to those vines if not already done.


More good advice. The vines choke the tree & suck water where the tree is drinking from. Cut away anything thats taking water away from the tree. Always cut vines off your trees & weed eat around the tree from time to time.


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## goatchze (Aug 1, 2006)

OK, I think I see what you're getting at. The majority of what you see in there that is a candidate for pruning is dead vines (such as in the first pic). All the vines, including those big honkers in the last picture, have been cut and are dead. They ran up about 2/3 of the tree and were doing their best to choke it out. I didn't want to try pulling them out in the first year for fear of breaking branches or the tree itself. I figured I would let them die, rot a bit, and turn loose of the tree themselves.

Pruning might be a bit tough. I think I would have to climb to legitimately prune anything other than the lowest branches. The tree is quite tall (60'). Here's a photo of the tree while we were building. For reference, the orange fence is 4' tall. That said, I could cut off branches that originate 10' or less from the trunk. That would make shredding underneath it easier as well.

Lark, my concern with going with the cable instead of the rods is eventually choking the tree. Did the tree guy you worked with make any comments on this?


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

chumy said:


> Good job trying to save an oak. Now, will the cable be an issue to the tree? Weakpoint, etc as the tree grows around it. Just asking.


Is 50 years a good enough test? Does it look like it is choking the tree? Does it appear to have structural weaknesses?

That rake is off my bull dozer and gives some perspective on the tree which is at least 5 ft diameter...you can only see the cable now in spots, whereas it was once entirely visible.

I hate to see a great majestic tree lost when it can be saved.


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## chumy (Jul 13, 2012)

Meadowlark said:


> Is 50 years a good enough test? *I didn't realize you had it on that long *Does it look like it is choking the tree? *yes but not sure of the consequences of this. the tree looks healthy* Does it appear to have structural weaknesses? *I'm not a civil engineer so i wouldn't know*
> 
> That rake is off my bull dozer and gives some perspective on the tree which is at least 5 ft diameter...you can only see the cable now in spots, whereas it was once entirely visible.
> 
> I hate to see a great majestic tree lost when it can be saved.


 *i agree*


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