How often do you trim.....?

[zacklaws]

So if tree surgeons recommend copper nails, do they really do any harm? may be 20 or 30 into a 4" diameter trunk may have an effect,

I tried copper nails in some bushes and trees that was in my way on a pond that i used to fish about 5 years ago and it never did them any harm, their still there today. But I have heard from a gamekeeper that if you drill a hole into the trunk and then inject some domestos into the hole and then cover the hole up with soil to hide it, the tree soon dies.

 

[buggi]

apparently it took the council 12 years to get his wall demolished. so he planted these fast growing conifers in retaliation. Pity the poor neighbours. i'd just hire a chainsaw and get sawing if it was my neighbour.

we've got some near us, they play havoc with foundations and the roots grow through pipes (my mum and dad had a large cost associated with water pipes thanks to neighbours who have these and refused to let the water company on to their land to sort the problem and no cost to them!

hmm... this has just given me an idea... maybe this is how i could get rid of my neighbours???

 

[sheddy]

and what are the secret events going on in that house that require a complete blackout ?

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

This would sort them out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girdling

No sap = dead tree

 

[wafflycat]

God I hate leylandii. And you can't trim it back as it'll look like a disaster for ever. It'll have to be rooted up one day and I pity the poor sod that has to do it.

Actually, you *can* trim back leylandii and it recovers. The bottom hedge at Chateau Wafflycat is a leylandii hedge. When we moved here it was very overgrown & unkempt. So we had it greaty reduced in height and cut right back to the trunk as far as branches went. It recovered and it is now a maintained thick hedge of a reasonable height. That's the key: maintenance and being a reasonable neighbour.

 

[Globalti]

Another bad thing is that you can't really burn the wood on your fire or in your woodburner as the high resin content produces a lot of tar, which clogs your flue. It's a crap tree really. We have a small one left by the previous owners and the only people who appreciate it are the cows in the field who love to come along and munch the foliage.

 

[wafflycat]

The only advantages to ours are that it is easily maintained by an annual trim, its foliage is very thick so it's an exceedingly effective windbreak and that it's much loved by birds as a place of refuge from inclement weather and as a nesting site.

 

[Davidc]

Tree surgeon recommend when putting up bird boxes etc to use copper nails, as the relatively soft copper would never cause future problems with chain saws, steel nails and screw will quickly blunt a chain. (they don't cause instant death to the chainsaw operator as some would have you believe. (i have used a chain saw for many years and have come across many nails and wires, nothing happens apart from a few sparks)

So if tree surgeons recommend copper nails, do they really do any harm? may be 20 or 30 into a 4" diameter trunk may have an effect,

I've only done it once. To quietly get rid of a tree at my in-laws house. The first attempt didn't work, using 1" nails. The second did using 4" nails. I can't remember how many, but single figures. I'll leave it to any experts on tree biology to explain why.

Quite why anyone would want a thing like the one in the news story growing in their garden I just don't undestand. I pity the neighbours.

 

[wafflycat]

If by very overgrown you mean a foot or so on top, it's possible. But the well established problem with these things is that they won't tolerate hard pruning from the top or the sides, and they won't grow back from wood where there is no growth already - that's why people should grow yew hedges, which although they take longer to establish, will grow back beautifully after being hacked right back to the bare branches. And it looks a lot nicer too!

No, I had over six feet taken off the top of a 12 foot high hedge and trimmed the sides back to bare trunk. The leylandii recovered and now the height is maintained at about 8 feet and the sides are thick & lush.

 

[byegad]

Copper Sulphate kills a lot of things. After having a large Sycamore tree felled in her garden a friend got me to drill multiple holes into the stump. She filled them with copper sulphate crystals and epoxied over the top to hold it in.

20 years later the stump is dead and no shoots, from the root system, have appeared.