Post by Tumbleweed on Jun 15, 2008 2:10:43 GMT -6
Do you have a tree you think may be dead? If you had a late frost it may have taken a toll on your tree but it may not be dead, even if it didn't leaf out.
There is a test you can do.
Scratch the branch bark with your thumb nail or knife to see if the cambium is still green(living) or brown (dead). Then do the stem
of the tree and if that is still green prune back the tree so it might have the energy to send out new shoots.
This happened to me but I didn't know this test at the time -well I knew that if it was green under the bark there was still life but my assumption was that since it didn't leaf out it was on it's way to death and didn't bother to really consider it may come back or to really examine the cambium so I cut it to the ground thinking I'd dig up the root system later. Boy did it surprise me as the following year it started growing again. It had no sign of life or growth that year.
I'll take a picture of it and post it here. Unfortunately, when I cut it to the ground, how it began to grow does not make for a desirable tree. Where it had a solitary straight trunk I now have two large branch=offs that make up the trunk area. Come a very heavy snow storm this may very well split down the middle. So I'm not sure if that tree stays or goes despite it's valiant effort to stay alive. But I better make up my mind quick because it isn't a small tree to get rid of so the longer I wait the more difficult it will be to do anything.
There is a test you can do.
Scratch the branch bark with your thumb nail or knife to see if the cambium is still green(living) or brown (dead). Then do the stem
of the tree and if that is still green prune back the tree so it might have the energy to send out new shoots.
This happened to me but I didn't know this test at the time -well I knew that if it was green under the bark there was still life but my assumption was that since it didn't leaf out it was on it's way to death and didn't bother to really consider it may come back or to really examine the cambium so I cut it to the ground thinking I'd dig up the root system later. Boy did it surprise me as the following year it started growing again. It had no sign of life or growth that year.
I'll take a picture of it and post it here. Unfortunately, when I cut it to the ground, how it began to grow does not make for a desirable tree. Where it had a solitary straight trunk I now have two large branch=offs that make up the trunk area. Come a very heavy snow storm this may very well split down the middle. So I'm not sure if that tree stays or goes despite it's valiant effort to stay alive. But I better make up my mind quick because it isn't a small tree to get rid of so the longer I wait the more difficult it will be to do anything.