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Watching a storm take down a maple in Charleston changed my pruning approach
Saw how the interior decay I'd ignored caused it to fail at a 45-degree angle. Now I'm way more aggressive with deadwood removal on mature trees, anyone else shift their methods after a specific storm?
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nora7352mo ago
That "interior decay I'd ignored" line hits hard. We had a huge old oak in the backyard that lost a major limb right over the patio. The break was clean through the middle and it was just... hollow and punky inside. I never even thought to check for that. Now I'm poking at every suspicious bump or mushroom cluster. It's not just about looks anymore, it's about what you can't see. That visual of your maple going down at an angle would stick with me forever.
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wyatt_fox6821d ago
Yeah, that hollow punchy wood is scary once you see it. I had a silver maple in my front yard, looked fine from the street, but after a big storm I noticed a little shelf fungus near the base. Tapped it with a screwdriver and my whole hand went in like a foot. Ended up having to take the whole tree down before it dropped on the driveway. Cost me about 400 bucks I didn't have, but it beat a new roof. Now I walk around every spring and fall with a pocket knife, just poking at any spot where the bark looks off or there's a funny bump. If you see any kind of mushroom growing right out of the trunk, especially near the ground, don't wait around. That tree's already dead, it just doesn't know it yet.
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