That oak split on me Sunday, check your crotch unions

Pulled a 40 foot oak limb down near Austin and the crotch was 70% decayed inside, looked fine from the outside. Brought it down with a rope but it peeled a 6 foot strip off the trunk before I could stop it. Anyone else finding hidden rot in mature oaks this season?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel1401mo ago

Hold on, that's not exactly how the decay works. A crotch that's rotted 70% through usually shows signs way before it gets that bad, like mushrooms at the base or a flattened trunk line. You might be looking at a tree that looked fine because the bark had grown over the wound, but that doesn't mean the rot just appeared overnight. I've cut plenty of oaks here and the real killer is if the decay goes up into the main trunk, which changes how you should rig it down. You still gotta check the whole tree, not just the spot where the limb meets the trunk, cause that rot can travel both ways. Also, that 6 foot strip you peeled off, that tells me the wood was already soft way up the trunk, not just in the union.

allen.kai1mo ago

Six foot, huh? That's not just a soft spot, that's a whole damn column of mush holding that thing up. You keep rigging like that and you're basically gambling your crew's lives on a tree that was already dead on its feet.