Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Tree Growth
Gary Land
>I am not sure if this is the right area for this question but "Inquiring Minds Want To Know"
I have a friend that has a Cottonwood tree that the trunk is about 30 ft. tall and about 3 ft accross. He has trimmed the top of this tree off,and wants to make a Totem out of the tree. The tree is is still rooted. My question is, does he need to seal the top where the tree is exposed. He is worried that after the sculpture is done that there will be sprouts comming from the top
Rumors and old wives' tales
John Crissman
>have said that you can kill any tree by nailing a copper nail in the trunk.
Never tried it, nor had any reason to.
Re: Tree Growth
Guest
>Most likely it will sprout. There's no way to tell if it'll just die but probably it won't right away. I have some cottonwood limbs (among other species) that I cut off early last winter that sprouted and still have some leaves on them!
Of course, it might be cool to have some sprouting depending on what his totem designs are!
Re: Rumors and old wives' tales
Scott Thorburn
>The best way to kill a tree is to ring it at the base with a saw. Basically you want to interupt the life blood of the tree by cutting the sap wood
Re: Tree Growth
Peter Teubel
>Let it sprout then you'll have a chia-totem (grin).
Re: Tree Growth
John Lucas
>Gary
The electric company volunteered to trim our cottonwood tree. Were were shocked when we came home and it looked like a totem pole. Litterally. I cussed everyone out. However 2 years later it had limbs 20 feet long and looked great. Maybe I should have read up on those trees before jumping to conclusions.
Tree Growth
Michael Stadulis in New Jersey
>Seriously...it may look OK at the moment, but unfortunately your tree is doomed. The tree will resprout and grow new branches, but "Topping" a tree.....especially certain hardwood trees that have limited ability to compartmentalize wounds, leads to rotten stubs.....with a number of branch stubs that eventually grow into large heavy branches surrounding a rotten stub. Eventually the weight of the branches causes the rotten stub to tear itself apart....causing more trauma.
In ten years or so you forget how everything started, but have a 2 grand expenditure to take the tree down.
Michael Stadulis
Registered Landscape Architect