Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Is Sweet Gum worth saving?
Barry Irby
One of my rental houses has a Sweetgum tree that is offending the tenant and they want it removed. It's about 24 to 28" DBH and probably has three good 8' logs in it. Is it worth having the wood sawed up? How about slabbing it?
Re: Is Sweet Gum worth saving?
Kevin French
Get rid of the tenants
Re: I agree!
Re: Is Sweet Gum worth saving?
Tom Dunlap
What Kevin said!
What's offending them about the tree?
I had a guy call to get a price on removing an oak because leaves got into his little plastic pond. After asking a few more questions i knew his neighborhood and the old trees. 300+ year old Burr Oaks which are suburban remnants of the Oak Savanna on the west side of Minneapolis. I told him that he had no right to remove the tree. It belonged to everyone from 300 years ago and to the future. Told him that I didn't do work that left blood on my hands.
Gotta be more pressing reasons than just 'I don't like' or the gum balls are hard to rake up.
If the gum balls are an issue check into using Florel on the flowers. Bery effective but the application is super time sensitive
Re: Is Sweet Gum worth saving?
Kevin French
What Tom said,
I made my wife prove to me that the best place for our Solar Array was right where a Three Leader Butternut Tree stood before I'd let her have it cut. We had 2 different Solar Companies Check our property.
Sweet Gum is such a nice tree also with its purple or orange leaves in the fall.
Re: Is Sweet Gum worth saving?
Yonak
There's scarce little to redeem sweet gum trees. They look good from afar and they provide good shade but, those prickly balls are a pain in the foot, especially for bare feet or shod with flip-flops. They'll fill up a lawn mower bag in a New York minute, even if you could find a sweet gum tree in New York. My experience is the wood is soft and lightweight, sort of yellowish, tending toward basswood and it has a bad habit of mildewing.
Re: Is Sweet Gum worth saving?
John K Jordan
I've sawn some sweetgum and dried for woodturning. Some of it is beautiful. It is softer than some woods but harder than others. I didn't have any trouble with staining/fungus.
I think it's worth saving the wood if the tree HAS to come down. I strongly prefer to not cut a tree casually.
JKJ
Re: Is Sweet Gum worth saving?
Hank Knight
Booo!
Yonak
What do you like about Sweetgum trees, Hank ? I could be convinced.