Wow, they topped that Mulberry and never came back to it. I have never seen one looking that bad but really love pollarding and coppicing here on my homestead. Those long thick sticks are amazing for building, basketry, waddle, chipping, leaf hay, and just fodder for my hogs. I am so glad you posted this video as it gives me a look into the future considerations of pollarding. Now I pollard about a foot higher than my hogs can scratch. That gives me easy access for upkeep and gives them a nibble when my mulberry flush back with a burst of shoots that come within hog nibbling heights. Fruitless Mulberry is also a new concept I shudder at. The fruit are the best part and another great reason to keep them low to shake onto canvas I lay on the ground or let the hogs hoover them up. Mulberry here in Ohio grows like weeds and I so thankful for it. It is really a great fodder for the hogs and wine for me and the lovely wife. The mulberry you showed seemed to be topped, let to flush and they never came back to tend it. The best pollards i have seen and I am sure you have seen many more but they seem to be cut at the trunk at a set height or just above the first split. Then depending on how high you want to harvest they would only pollard as high as they wanted to be on a ladder cutting them annually or every so many years in their rotation. I guess Like you said they would harvest when the rods were the right thickness for the right task they would be used for. I really like the look of pollards. I coppice a lot but now I am even pollarding my willow just to get them up above the Spring flush of grass and weeds that they compete against. I know I won't live long enough to see these lovely knuckles develop into those old wise pollard knuckles, but I can see hints of them as they slowly grow each year here. Moslty willow, mulberry, hackberry, silver and red maple as well as wild cherry to play with here. My black Walnuts do not like either coppice or pollarding but almost all others enjoy it and seem to thrive. The one thing I have heard is that a coppiced or pollarded tree can live well beyond its life expectancy if it can avoid like you said the rot issues. But if you have a succession of tenders to the trees, I believe they can live long lives and still keep producing. But I will never live long enough to prove that. Hey great channel, I enjoy your perspective.
Also in Ohio. Ive been coppicing and pollards for a few years. I did not know about hog fodder. The goats love the mulberry leaves. I read they have high protein. The long staves are useful materials. Our mulberry trees are very vigorous so strategic trimming is a must. Thank you for the channel. Loved the tip for cleaning the chainsaw.
I live in Bologna, Italy. In the hills around the city there was many huge and very very old pollard mulberry trees. Those trees were massively use during the '800 for silk production. Every years those mulberry were cut back for feeding the silkworms. Nowadays,sadly, these trees are slowly disappearing due to the lack of the correct care.
Coppice and pollarded trees when managed properly last for CENTURIES. I don't know what Blair is talking about when he says it is bad for the tree. His claim is that when properly done it minimizes the damage, but coppicing and pollarding keeps a tree young, perpetually.
We had an FM in Santa Clara when I was a teenager. I took the limbs removed on fall and wove a 5-foot x 5-foot wall for one side of our lowest tree platform, about 8-feet off of the ground. Then selecting 3 sprouts on one knob we encouraged those for a couple of years until they were big enough to support the next level platform, the tree branches tied into a triangular platform at the 14-foot level, rinse and repeat for a third platform at the 20-foot level. We had a blast climbing that tree, never had a fall. Subsequent owners removed the tree.
A lot of the sycamore trees here in So. Cal. get the Pollard treatment and it’s such a shame to constrict such magnificent trees. Great tip on the oven cleaner, thanks! I have a badly fouled saw from taking down a large ficus and I’m going to give it the “Easy-Off” treatment tomorrow. Lots of good information in this short video. Thanks Blair.
I love a fruitless mulberry that is planted in a space where it can be allowed to reach it's natural size and shape. They have beautiful branch structure. But if it's in a small yard then regular pollarding (the right way!) Is a good option- open and sunny in the winter and shady in summer. That Oak gunk seems pretty water soluble so I use a bucket of water, sometimes dish detergent, and a stiff bristle brush.
Wow, that was so interesting, the neighbor behind us has an unbelievably huge mulberry, it covers his whole yard and half the yards of his neighbors. We always thought he should have trimmed it or pollarded it, whoops, our bad, happy to know the history though! Thanks for the episode
Many folks are pollarding trees for building materials and tree hay/fodder... I'd love to know how to 'Properly' pollard and maintain a tree, apparently when it's done right, it can prolong the life of a tree.
Thanks, you might enjoy some of these other exciting jobs too! Check them out on this playlist. czcams.com/play/PLdq3KQ_xcH4B7yGHc9wcKxThfLRslgT9Q.html Arborist Blair Glenn
In the Livermore Valley, most folks pollard their mulberry trees since it (theoretically) makes it easier to clean up in the fall, foregoing all the raking/blowing in favor of just cutting and stacking in a truck for recycling. Others must pollard since the trees were planted in a poorly chosen location. I have 3 fruitless mulberry's on my property and wouldn't give them up for the world. The largest has a canopy about 40 feet in diameter and 25 feet tall. Yes, it's a real pain in the fall and spring, but a few weeks of pain is well worth the many months of beauty and shade they provide. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and tips!
When you cut back green mulberry, PLEASE try to find livestock owners to take the fodder that results. Feed is becoming so expensive, many owners are turning to tree hay and cut fodder to help.
@@RICDirector I appreciate where you're coming from on the mulberry hay suggestion but something to keep in mind is protein content. Mulberry hay is really only viable if harvested at 5 weeks after leaf out then dried to 5-10% while only replacing approx 20-24% of the daily ration. That's fine if you have a dedicated crop but most fruitless mulberry are ornamental or shade trees, so people (like myself) aren't willing to give up their leaves that early in the season. I've had livestock and again, appreciate where you're coming from. Say you decide to wait until fall when most folks pollard or prune. Fall harvest mulberry hay just doesn't have the needed feed values due to protein leaching and re-absorption of carbohydrates. This has been studied in depth since the 1990's.
Pollarding is a form of coppicing and was used in areas that livestock would be so they would cut the tree off high enough the livestock couldn't eat the new growth killing the tree. Coppicing is where you cut off the tree at ground level then let the new growth grow for 10 or so years depending on how fast the trees grow back. Both would give access to firewood and building materials as it lets the stump live for thousands of years each year getting bigger so the next harvest is better then the last. You can still kill the trees in the normal ways so they learned over the generations of just when to harvest.
Pollards. I'm from the UK who also runs and fixes saws. Despite being a small crowded island, we have a significant proportion of the remaining ancient trees in Europe. Many of are pollards. But many of these trees are different from the pollard you show. That's a high pollard. We have these as street trees, notably London planes in, well, London and other cities. You can get the same result from a heavy crown reduction. I'd agree that in a domestic situation, it's not the best plan for just the reasons you state. Just like building a house right next to the canopy of an ancient oak pollard would be a bad plan - against all logic, I've seen it done. Traditional pollards are different. They started off with a young tree. It got repeatedly cut, which can actually extend the life of the tree beyond what would normally be expected of a maiden (an un-cut tree). You can see one here: czcams.com/video/FOXRiyAILQM/video.html They were always cut at the top of the trunk (the bolling). Growth (and trunk diameter expansion) is slower than for a tree with a full crown. This is an ash (Fraxinus excelsior) but you also see many oaks (usually Quercus robur, the pedunculate oak but Q. petraea the sessile oak also exist), poplar, hornbeam, beach and holly. Many oaks are ancient and have not been re-cut for centuries - which you can imagine brings problems - they have huge crown branches and can fail catastrophically. Out in the forest, this doesn't matter but if some clever clogs builds a house next to a pollard or maybe a car park, there can be consequences. Pollards in the UK context are a reservoir of nature conservation importance. They play host to dead wood flora and fauna and to a specialist suite of species that require dead wood within live timber and for those conditions to be stable in the long term. One issue on reserves where pollard oaks exist is that there is a lack of younger trees which are developing as pollards: the continuity of niches has been interrupted meaning that a number of species that rely on the niches that pollards (and veteran trees) provide are rare or threatened. The worry is that if those niches were to vanish, so would those species. So what do you do? Let it all go? Or induce veteran tree characteristics by cutting maidens (uncut trees) to deliberately provoke rot. Kind of works, but has been called tree mutilation. But pollards are complicated. They were used to produce usable timber on the same land as stock were grazed. Grazing would have been intensive and the pressure for timber would have been intense, or why would you have done it?. Imagine cutting the ash pollard in the vid with an axe. No MEWP/bucket truck, no harness. A rope if you were lucky maybe. Why no saw? Well pollarding goes back beyond the easy availability of saws with the Industrial Revolution. They were called 'widow makers' and with good reason. As well as timber, they were used for fodder including tree hay (cut on a very short rotation) and were sometimes cut in a summer drought for that reason. Stock will chew off the bark and eat the leaves and twigs. Okas were cut in spring with the sap rising for tanbark. Some of the best leather is still tanned with oak bark today. Then you have shreds, coppards/stob-cuts in hedgerows and coppice. That's another story or stories. Right, shutting up now.
Oven cleaner is caustic soda or lye...I googled so must be right. I watch all your videos...I like your tone. You are just a young whipper snapper to me but you are learning ;-).
I had plenty of “Old man mentors” in my life who are now long gone to this world. The teachings of those men have helped me become the person I am today. I will try and continue to add the bits of advice through all my videos. Thanks for commenting.
Thank you for that tip oven cleaner huh that worked great like you I was trying gas paint thinner alcohol and nothing was working the oven cleaner worked great thank you
I understand all the reasons from both sides. If someone buys a home with a problem tree, we try and give them the options but encourage the owners to do what is best. Sometimes, like this problem, it may be best to start the hard cutting all over below the decay. If it starts failing, then maybe that the best option if they want the shade. Cut it down and the shade is gone.
Hi! Just found you and I’m looking to learn how to properly prune our fruitless mulberry tree. It hardly put out any leaves last year😢 We don’t want it to die.
Nice tip about cleaning bars and chains. I've had some success with soaking overnight in gasoline, diesel, or kerosene, or by using engine cleaner. Will give oven cleaner a try!
OMT ,-this new world of acronyms always throws me. My kids always text this way. I’m guessing “one more thing”? This unique dark drown, very hard substance that comes from our local coast live oak, is different from build up of most other trees. It is hard like hide glue. I need a solvent “like the oven cleaner”, to break it down for easy wipe off. Would like a less caustic solvent.
Oven cleaner has been great to clean pitch and gum off my circular/table saw blades. No doubt it would work well on chainsaws as well. Be really careful because you _will_ get chemical burns from contact or or overspray. Vinegar is a mild acid that will help neutralize it, and keep it from eating through your clothes.
Pollarding is a great way of maintaining tree size, but it should be done on young shoots and not established branches, so every year! Unfortunately in most cities they see pollarding/topping every few years as a great way to maintain size despite huge damage to the tree :/
Hi Blair. Great video. I know you are also into greenwoodworking when you get time. Here in the U.K. coppicing (and much more rarely, the similar practice of pollarding) is enjoying a revival. It is being used in the management of small woodlands to produce high yields of wood for a variety of products such as firewood, and raw materials for hedge laying, besom broom making, short-term management of stream erosion, garden poles, and a revival of wattle & daub construction. I am wondering, to what use was pollarded Mulberry put? Have you ever used it? Do you know what properties it has? Or was it primarily to increase fruit and leaf production, both of which I believe are good for human and animal consumption?
The “fruitless mulberry” here grows very different from fruiting varieties. Any species of tree that produces long straight shoots after a pollard, can produce wood for any of the early days needs.
When you say the trees produce long straight shoots after being pollarded, where do those shoots come from? I would imagine the new shoots would emerge from each split on every branch, but am I correct in thinking that?
Blair, are these fruitless mulberry? Many people also pollard mulberries to get lots of one year old wood for fruit. Pollard a mulberry, massive new growth. The following spring the crop will be huge. I agree it’s a bad management practice for the tree.
Yes, the fruitless variety does grow very different. Any fruit producing tree gets treated differently if fruit production is the goal. Understandable.
Wonderful video. Can you tell me what variety of Mulberry that was in the video?? We have very small Everbearing and Pakistani Mulberry trees. Thank you, Judi
@@edialbert8035 Thank goodness - do not want my Pakistani (which, by the way, is 7 feet tall now) or our Everbearing Mulberry trees to get THAT big. Thank for replying. Judi
Have you ever seen a mulberry tree with a large berl right below where its been pollarded for years? Saw one in Petaluma CA that must've been 6 feet in diameter while the root crown may have been 3
When I'm old, I'll pass on the oven cleaner tip and call it an old man tip. Hopefully I'll actually get to be old, which is quite an achievement given the nature of the job.
Yeah, when you’re old, every tip becomes “An Old Man Tip”. Here’s another one. For the younger crowd. Text in complete sentences and use proper punctuation!
Blair I'm a fellow arborist and I'm curious to know why after trees have been topped and there's obvious Decay Pockets do you talk your clients into not doing that again because from here on out you're just going to be adding weight to an already weak point
I have one massive mulberry tree in my yard I planted about 20 years ago. I am thinking about pollarding it to get multiple straight shoots to reroot and create a line of mulberry almost like a hedge. What would be your suggestions? I'm more concerned with the new trees than saving this one which will probably be removed after the others are established.
Pollarding is making the cut with the knowledge and expectation that new growth with come and need to be dealt with. Topping is making the same cut but thinking you are stopping the tree being tall 😄
A pollarded tree is supposed to be a continuation of removing the smaller branches creating bulbous ends. Topping is reckless abandon of stupidity by someone who does not understand (or care) about trees. That being said, if a tree is decayed or damaged, sometimes the decision to harshly reduce the tree to keep it safe becomes a decision to retain foliage.
I've got a 10 year old, white mulberry (came with the house, I didn't plant it) I've babied it since it was a tiny. This year it started flushing out new leaves and then we had a 2 day cold snap and now the poor thing is covered in fungus. I also (because I didn't know any better then) allowed it to form co-dominant trunks with lots of included bark. It's weeping and I see the bark cracking and peeling and forming cankers. Can I go ahead and prune out the diseased branches in late May? Or should I wait until fall/ winter? I'm sure with the inclusion damage I'm going to lose the tree at some point 😞 it IS still throwing out new shoots and leaves and branches everywhere.....we've never pruned much on it, we wanted it to be full and provide shade. Would love your expert advice 🙏😭
@@arboristBlairGlenn would....you be willing to look at any photos of it? 😅 I can take high resolution, DSLR photos.... just wondering. I can't seem to find an ISA arborist to come look at my stuff 😕 thank you for your reply!
Hello @arboristBlairGlenn Any thoughts in how to get rid of a 2in trunk wisteria that’s sent shoots underground 25ft and starving a 20 year old red leaf maple (leaves now only growing out of trunk)? Thank you.
You should see how large, tangled, annoying, destructive mulberries become here in NJ. They don't follow traditional growth patterns of other trees. Here, I've never seen decay Like that. If there is dead, even the dead is so strong it lasts for years upon years. It's like there is steel cable in them instead of wood fibers. Dead lasts so long that wound wood grows significantly around everything. If enough growth happened past decay to break from weight, it won't separate at the break, it'll just keep growing. Damn near indestructible.
Here in Tennessee they are also very resistant to decay. The black mulberry has great berries to eat , but my neighbor ground a stump of one about 15 years ago and the erosion has caused it to be 3to4 inches high now and dead obviously but solid as a rock. They are in the Osage orange family and we know about bodock.
@@thomasmcdonald5887 I took one down about/over 3ft diameter, and was straight for over 20ft. I didn't know at the time that straight mulberry is almost nonexistent, or I'd have milled it. I accidentally threw out thousands of $ of straight, large diameter mulberry
I'm guilty. Way back in the early 80's before I knew better I cut back a few full size mulberries for future pollarding when they really needed a heavy pruning. But for those already pollarded, I would just keep doing it, but I was careful to make the proper kind of cuts after I knew better. Like sycamores, they do compartmentalize quite well. Even those decayed areas you showed here, I think the tree compartmentalized those areas much better than it seems. Still.... it's not good. I think I have photos of the first one I ever did.
I have and still do cut these trees back hard when there are no other options or if the location is too close. They can and do decay so understanding what you are doing, and why, is key.
@@arboristBlairGlenn - Agreed. The only mulberry trees that I didn't have to clean up bad cuts on were the ones that I had previously done myself. I did see plenty of decay, but compared to a liquidambar or many other trees the mulberries do compartmentalize better.
Do we know how long sweet gum trees live? I was surprised to see 80ft plus in North Carolina. I didn't know they grew that big. Best examples of pollarded trees I have found can be seen in the walk through videos of the Tower of London. These can be found on youtube if interested.
@@shanesouza4303 search for Yeoman Warder Thomas Trent and you will find my father in law. Before that, he served 22 years as Sargent Major in the Army. So, I come along and marry his only daughter. 😳
A Mulberry is a type of hardwood. Cone bearing trees (Pines, firs, Redwoods etc.) are called softwoods. Balsa wood is actually classified as s hardwood.
You have been my mentor for many years already , and I'm 62
Thank you😊
Wow, they topped that Mulberry and never came back to it. I have never seen one looking that bad but really love pollarding and coppicing here on my homestead. Those long thick sticks are amazing for building, basketry, waddle, chipping, leaf hay, and just fodder for my hogs. I am so glad you posted this video as it gives me a look into the future considerations of pollarding. Now I pollard about a foot higher than my hogs can scratch. That gives me easy access for upkeep and gives them a nibble when my mulberry flush back with a burst of shoots that come within hog nibbling heights. Fruitless Mulberry is also a new concept I shudder at. The fruit are the best part and another great reason to keep them low to shake onto canvas I lay on the ground or let the hogs hoover them up. Mulberry here in Ohio grows like weeds and I so thankful for it. It is really a great fodder for the hogs and wine for me and the lovely wife. The mulberry you showed seemed to be topped, let to flush and they never came back to tend it. The best pollards i have seen and I am sure you have seen many more but they seem to be cut at the trunk at a set height or just above the first split. Then depending on how high you want to harvest they would only pollard as high as they wanted to be on a ladder cutting them annually or every so many years in their rotation. I guess Like you said they would harvest when the rods were the right thickness for the right task they would be used for. I really like the look of pollards. I coppice a lot but now I am even pollarding my willow just to get them up above the Spring flush of grass and weeds that they compete against. I know I won't live long enough to see these lovely knuckles develop into those old wise pollard knuckles, but I can see hints of them as they slowly grow each year here. Moslty willow, mulberry, hackberry, silver and red maple as well as wild cherry to play with here. My black Walnuts do not like either coppice or pollarding but almost all others enjoy it and seem to thrive. The one thing I have heard is that a coppiced or pollarded tree can live well beyond its life expectancy if it can avoid like you said the rot issues. But if you have a succession of tenders to the trees, I believe they can live long lives and still keep producing. But I will never live long enough to prove that. Hey great channel, I enjoy your perspective.
Not being a hog farmer, it was interesting to read your comment. I’m afraid my client’s need for “tidy” means fruitless. Thanks for commenting.
Blair
Also in Ohio. Ive been coppicing and pollards for a few years. I did not know about hog fodder. The goats love the mulberry leaves. I read they have high protein. The long staves are useful materials. Our mulberry trees are very vigorous so strategic trimming is a must. Thank you for the channel. Loved the tip for cleaning the chainsaw.
Historical truth! Goats benefit from this home grown fodder too.
I live in Bologna, Italy. In the hills around the city there was many huge and very very old pollard mulberry trees. Those trees were massively use during the '800 for silk production. Every years those mulberry were cut back for feeding the silkworms. Nowadays,sadly, these trees are slowly disappearing due to the lack of the correct care.
Coppice and pollarded trees when managed properly last for CENTURIES. I don't know what Blair is talking about when he says it is bad for the tree. His claim is that when properly done it minimizes the damage, but coppicing and pollarding keeps a tree young, perpetually.
We had an FM in Santa Clara when I was a teenager. I took the limbs removed on fall and wove a 5-foot x 5-foot wall for one side of our lowest tree platform, about 8-feet off of the ground. Then selecting 3 sprouts on one knob we encouraged those for a couple of years until they were big enough to support the next level platform, the tree branches tied into a triangular platform at the 14-foot level, rinse and repeat for a third platform at the 20-foot level. We had a blast climbing that tree, never had a fall. Subsequent owners removed the tree.
Sounds super cool cheers
What if you cut the decay out? One reason fruiting mulberries might be pollarded is because the mulberry’s grow on new foliage
wow super neat!!!!
In europe back in the times with early pollarding of Ash or Tilia was a it way to produce winterfood to the goats, sometimes sheep too.
A lot of the sycamore trees here in So. Cal. get the Pollard treatment and it’s such a shame to constrict such magnificent trees. Great tip on the oven cleaner, thanks! I have a badly fouled saw from taking down a large ficus and I’m going to give it the “Easy-Off” treatment tomorrow. Lots of good information in this short video. Thanks Blair.
When you see a natural Sycamore that has never been touched, you see what they are really like. Amazing trees.
My So Cal experience was that mow n blow guys butcher trees for cash. No coppicing or pollarding, just straight up butchery.
Oh, you mean PG/E apprentices....
Oven cleaner! I never would have thought of that.
I wonder if sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) would work just as well but cheaper.
I love a fruitless mulberry that is planted in a space where it can be allowed to reach it's natural size and shape. They have beautiful branch structure. But if it's in a small yard then regular pollarding (the right way!) Is a good option- open and sunny in the winter and shady in summer.
That Oak gunk seems pretty water soluble so I use a bucket of water, sometimes dish detergent, and a stiff bristle brush.
Thanks for your dedication, its appreciated!
Wow, that was so interesting, the neighbor behind us has an unbelievably huge mulberry, it covers his whole yard and half the yards of his neighbors. We always thought he should have trimmed it or pollarded it, whoops, our bad, happy to know the history though! Thanks for the episode
I just want folks to see what often happens when rash decisions are made.
Great video! Always learn something new from you.
Thanks
Many folks are pollarding trees for building materials and tree hay/fodder...
I'd love to know how to 'Properly' pollard and maintain a tree, apparently when it's done right, it can prolong the life of a tree.
Thanks, you might enjoy some of these other exciting jobs too! Check them out on this playlist.
czcams.com/play/PLdq3KQ_xcH4B7yGHc9wcKxThfLRslgT9Q.html
Arborist Blair Glenn
Thanks for sharing Blair 👊.
Thanks Jax
I love that cleaning tip
In the Livermore Valley, most folks pollard their mulberry trees since it (theoretically) makes it easier to clean up in the fall, foregoing all the raking/blowing in favor of just cutting and stacking in a truck for recycling. Others must pollard since the trees were planted in a poorly chosen location. I have 3 fruitless mulberry's on my property and wouldn't give them up for the world. The largest has a canopy about 40 feet in diameter and 25 feet tall. Yes, it's a real pain in the fall and spring, but a few weeks of pain is well worth the many months of beauty and shade they provide. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and tips!
One of the best shade trees. Yes a mess and yess needs to be planted in the right location. Many different ways to work on these giants.
When you cut back green mulberry, PLEASE try to find livestock owners to take the fodder that results. Feed is becoming so expensive, many owners are turning to tree hay and cut fodder to help.
@@RICDirector I appreciate where you're coming from on the mulberry hay suggestion but something to keep in mind is protein content. Mulberry hay is really only viable if harvested at 5 weeks after leaf out then dried to 5-10% while only replacing approx 20-24% of the daily ration. That's fine if you have a dedicated crop but most fruitless mulberry are ornamental or shade trees, so people (like myself) aren't willing to give up their leaves that early in the season. I've had livestock and again, appreciate where you're coming from. Say you decide to wait until fall when most folks pollard or prune. Fall harvest mulberry hay just doesn't have the needed feed values due to protein leaching and re-absorption of carbohydrates. This has been studied in depth since the 1990's.
Pollarding is a form of coppicing and was used in areas that livestock would be so they would cut the tree off high enough the livestock couldn't eat the new growth killing the tree. Coppicing is where you cut off the tree at ground level then let the new growth grow for 10 or so years depending on how fast the trees grow back.
Both would give access to firewood and building materials as it lets the stump live for thousands of years each year getting bigger so the next harvest is better then the last. You can still kill the trees in the normal ways so they learned over the generations of just when to harvest.
Good follow up, thanks
Pollards. I'm from the UK who also runs and fixes saws. Despite being a small crowded island, we have a significant proportion of the remaining ancient trees in Europe. Many of are pollards. But many of these trees are different from the pollard you show. That's a high pollard. We have these as street trees, notably London planes in, well, London and other cities. You can get the same result from a heavy crown reduction. I'd agree that in a domestic situation, it's not the best plan for just the reasons you state. Just like building a house right next to the canopy of an ancient oak pollard would be a bad plan - against all logic, I've seen it done.
Traditional pollards are different. They started off with a young tree. It got repeatedly cut, which can actually extend the life of the tree beyond what would normally be expected of a maiden (an un-cut tree). You can see one here: czcams.com/video/FOXRiyAILQM/video.html They were always cut at the top of the trunk (the bolling). Growth (and trunk diameter expansion) is slower than for a tree with a full crown. This is an ash (Fraxinus excelsior) but you also see many oaks (usually Quercus robur, the pedunculate oak but Q. petraea the sessile oak also exist), poplar, hornbeam, beach and holly. Many oaks are ancient and have not been re-cut for centuries - which you can imagine brings problems - they have huge crown branches and can fail catastrophically. Out in the forest, this doesn't matter but if some clever clogs builds a house next to a pollard or maybe a car park, there can be consequences.
Pollards in the UK context are a reservoir of nature conservation importance. They play host to dead wood flora and fauna and to a specialist suite of species that require dead wood within live timber and for those conditions to be stable in the long term. One issue on reserves where pollard oaks exist is that there is a lack of younger trees which are developing as pollards: the continuity of niches has been interrupted meaning that a number of species that rely on the niches that pollards (and veteran trees) provide are rare or threatened. The worry is that if those niches were to vanish, so would those species. So what do you do? Let it all go? Or induce veteran tree characteristics by cutting maidens (uncut trees) to deliberately provoke rot. Kind of works, but has been called tree mutilation.
But pollards are complicated. They were used to produce usable timber on the same land as stock were grazed. Grazing would have been intensive and the pressure for timber would have been intense, or why would you have done it?. Imagine cutting the ash pollard in the vid with an axe. No MEWP/bucket truck, no harness. A rope if you were lucky maybe. Why no saw? Well pollarding goes back beyond the easy availability of saws with the Industrial Revolution. They were called 'widow makers' and with good reason. As well as timber, they were used for fodder including tree hay (cut on a very short rotation) and were sometimes cut in a summer drought for that reason. Stock will chew off the bark and eat the leaves and twigs. Okas were cut in spring with the sap rising for tanbark. Some of the best leather is still tanned with oak bark today. Then you have shreds, coppards/stob-cuts in hedgerows and coppice. That's another story or stories.
Right, shutting up now.
Good follow up. Watched your video. Thanks
Love all your content you are one of my mentors thank you keep up the good work 🌳👷💯
Thanks Fred.
Oven cleaner is caustic soda or lye...I googled so must be right. I watch all your videos...I like your tone. You are just a young whipper snapper to me but you are learning ;-).
Nice to have older friends to make me feel young
*OMTOTD* (Old Man Tip of the Day)
If it isn't already, *this* should be a channel unto itself!!
I had plenty of “Old man mentors” in my life who are now long gone to this world. The teachings of those men have helped me become the person I am today. I will try and continue to add the bits of advice through all my videos. Thanks for commenting.
@@arboristBlairGlenn You just made the day of this *ArboristBlairGlenn* fanboy.
Thank you for that tip oven cleaner huh that worked great like you I was trying gas paint thinner alcohol and nothing was working the oven cleaner worked great thank you
It would be great to form a “tips and tricks” group to share ideas.
1:09 Exactly, is someone keeps cutting a tree to keep it small, then don’t plant a tree that wants to get big in the first place!
I understand all the reasons from both sides. If someone buys a home with a problem tree, we try and give them the options but encourage the owners to do what is best. Sometimes, like this problem, it may be best to start the hard cutting all over below the decay. If it starts failing, then maybe that the best option if they want the shade. Cut it down and the shade is gone.
Thank you for the video 👍 great information as always!
Thanks
Hi! Just found you and I’m looking to learn how to properly prune our fruitless mulberry tree. It hardly put out any leaves last year😢 We don’t want it to die.
May be in trouble
Nice tip about cleaning bars and chains. I've had some success with soaking overnight in gasoline, diesel, or kerosene, or by using engine cleaner. Will give oven cleaner a try!
It surprised me
Nice video. I saw some 10 foot red maples with the top 5 feet taken off, even with no power lines nearby...
Not good
One more 'OMT', Blair, works so good, garage door lubricant, speciously for winter areas. it's a godsend!
OMT ,-this new world of acronyms always throws me. My kids always text this way. I’m guessing “one more thing”?
This unique dark drown, very hard substance that comes from our local coast live oak, is different from build up of most other trees. It is hard like hide glue. I need a solvent “like the oven cleaner”, to break it down for easy wipe off. Would like a less caustic solvent.
I enjoy every video i have watched all the way back to the vegetable farmer.
The vegetable gardener videos were when I was learning how CZcams worked. Thanks for your long time support.
Oven cleaner has been great to clean pitch and gum off my circular/table saw blades.
No doubt it would work well on chainsaws as well.
Be really careful because you _will_ get chemical burns from contact or or overspray.
Vinegar is a mild acid that will help neutralize it, and keep it from eating through your clothes.
It is nasty stuff that you need to be careful with
TY 😊
Love your content!
It works in bathtubs too.
A garden book recommends cleaning out rotten bark then pack it with baby chicken wire an cement.
Oven cleaner...ha...I’ll try it:) my 461 bar needs it bad
Pollarding is a great way of maintaining tree size, but it should be done on young shoots and not established branches, so every year!
Unfortunately in most cities they see pollarding/topping every few years as a great way to maintain size despite huge damage to the tree :/
Pollarding is a very misunderstood concept
Hi Blair. Great video. I know you are also into greenwoodworking when you get time. Here in the U.K. coppicing (and much more rarely, the similar practice of pollarding) is enjoying a revival. It is being used in the management of small woodlands to produce high yields of wood for a variety of products such as firewood, and raw materials for hedge laying, besom broom making, short-term management of stream erosion, garden poles, and a revival of wattle & daub construction. I am wondering, to what use was pollarded Mulberry put? Have you ever used it? Do you know what properties it has? Or was it primarily to increase fruit and leaf production, both of which I believe are good for human and animal consumption?
The “fruitless mulberry” here grows very different from fruiting varieties. Any species of tree that produces long straight shoots after a pollard, can produce wood for any of the early days needs.
The black mulberry produced flexible staves, very hard to snap when green. Excellent for wattle projects.
When you say the trees produce long straight shoots after being pollarded, where do those shoots come from? I would imagine the new shoots would emerge from each split on every branch, but am I correct in thinking that?
Look up “epicormic shoots”
Blair, are these fruitless mulberry? Many people also pollard mulberries to get lots of one year old wood for fruit. Pollard a mulberry, massive new growth. The following spring the crop will be huge. I agree it’s a bad management practice for the tree.
Yes, the fruitless variety does grow very different. Any fruit producing tree gets treated differently if fruit production is the goal. Understandable.
Wonderful video. Can you tell me what variety of Mulberry that was in the video?? We have very small Everbearing and Pakistani Mulberry trees. Thank you, Judi
Hey Judith 👋 if I understood correctly, these are none flowering mulberry. Mr.Blair could probably give you more info...
@@edialbert8035 Thank goodness - do not want my Pakistani (which, by the way, is 7 feet tall now) or our Everbearing Mulberry trees to get THAT big. Thank for replying. Judi
This is a very common fruitless mulberry that is planted for shade. Grows very different from fruiting varieties.
@@arboristBlairGlenn Thank you so much. It is really sad what they did to that beautiful tree. Judi
So, if pollarding, it needs to be kept up on to avoid getting overstood and experiencing sudden death syndrome?
Not sudden, but long and slow. Decay is what you pay attention to. And make decisions on.
Have you ever seen a mulberry tree with a large berl right below where its been pollarded for years? Saw one in Petaluma CA that must've been 6 feet in diameter while the root crown may have been 3
Burl or large growth from being pollarded?
When I'm old, I'll pass on the oven cleaner tip and call it an old man tip.
Hopefully I'll actually get to be old, which is quite an achievement given the nature of the job.
Yeah, when you’re old, every tip becomes “An Old Man Tip”. Here’s another one. For the younger crowd. Text in complete sentences and use proper punctuation!
@@arboristBlairGlenn ye olde helping your uncle, Jack, off the horse vs helping your uncle jack-off the horse.
Blair I'm a fellow arborist and I'm curious to know why after trees have been topped and there's obvious Decay Pockets do you talk your clients into not doing that again because from here on out you're just going to be adding weight to an already weak point
I take each situation as I inspect it. Some trees decay very bad. Others, not as much. There are no “rules”.
would the decay in the mulberry tree eventually cause it to become hollow?
Yes or cause limb failure
I have one massive mulberry tree in my yard I planted about 20 years ago. I am thinking about pollarding it to get multiple straight shoots to reroot and create a line of mulberry almost like a hedge. What would be your suggestions? I'm more concerned with the new trees than saving this one which will probably be removed after the others are established.
Will they sprout from cuttings? Not sure. Might try air layering them before cutting.
Thanks. How severely would you be comfortable cutting it back to get the straight shoots.
I know there is a distinction but still not sure what it is between pollarding and topping.
Pollarding is making the cut with the knowledge and expectation that new growth with come and need to be dealt with.
Topping is making the same cut but thinking you are stopping the tree being tall 😄
A pollarded tree is supposed to be a continuation of removing the smaller branches creating bulbous ends. Topping is reckless abandon of stupidity by someone who does not understand (or care) about trees. That being said, if a tree is decayed or damaged, sometimes the decision to harshly reduce the tree to keep it safe becomes a decision to retain foliage.
I've got a 10 year old, white mulberry (came with the house, I didn't plant it) I've babied it since it was a tiny. This year it started flushing out new leaves and then we had a 2 day cold snap and now the poor thing is covered in fungus. I also (because I didn't know any better then) allowed it to form co-dominant trunks with lots of included bark. It's weeping and I see the bark cracking and peeling and forming cankers.
Can I go ahead and prune out the diseased branches in late May? Or should I wait until fall/ winter? I'm sure with the inclusion damage I'm going to lose the tree at some point 😞 it IS still throwing out new shoots and leaves and branches everywhere.....we've never pruned much on it, we wanted it to be full and provide shade. Would love your expert advice 🙏😭
Without seeing it, I can only guess
@@arboristBlairGlenn would....you be willing to look at any photos of it? 😅 I can take high resolution, DSLR photos.... just wondering. I can't seem to find an ISA arborist to come look at my stuff 😕 thank you for your reply!
Hello
@arboristBlairGlenn
Any thoughts in how to get rid of a 2in trunk wisteria that’s sent shoots underground 25ft and starving a 20 year old red leaf maple (leaves now only growing out of trunk)? Thank you.
Sounds like the maple may be too far gone. Dig out the wisteria is the best way.
You should see how large, tangled, annoying, destructive mulberries become here in NJ.
They don't follow traditional growth patterns of other trees. Here, I've never seen decay Like that. If there is dead, even the dead is so strong it lasts for years upon years. It's like there is steel cable in them instead of wood fibers. Dead lasts so long that wound wood grows significantly around everything. If enough growth happened past decay to break from weight, it won't separate at the break, it'll just keep growing.
Damn near indestructible.
Very different here. Odd
Here in Tennessee they are also very resistant to decay. The black mulberry has great berries to eat , but my neighbor ground a stump of one about 15 years ago and the erosion has caused it to be 3to4 inches high now and dead obviously but solid as a rock. They are in the Osage orange family and we know about bodock.
@@thomasmcdonald5887 I'm not sure which species we have here, but yes, it becomes almost petrified
@@thomasmcdonald5887 I took one down about/over 3ft diameter, and was straight for over 20ft.
I didn't know at the time that straight mulberry is almost nonexistent, or I'd have milled it.
I accidentally threw out thousands of $ of straight, large diameter mulberry
I'm guilty. Way back in the early 80's before I knew better I cut back a few full size mulberries for future pollarding when they really needed a heavy pruning. But for those already pollarded, I would just keep doing it, but I was careful to make the proper kind of cuts after I knew better. Like sycamores, they do compartmentalize quite well. Even those decayed areas you showed here, I think the tree compartmentalized those areas much better than it seems. Still.... it's not good. I think I have photos of the first one I ever did.
I have and still do cut these trees back hard when there are no other options or if the location is too close. They can and do decay so understanding what you are doing, and why, is key.
@@arboristBlairGlenn - Agreed. The only mulberry trees that I didn't have to clean up bad cuts on were the ones that I had previously done myself. I did see plenty of decay, but compared to a liquidambar or many other trees the mulberries do compartmentalize better.
the fruits of the sweet gum tree can be used in aquariums.
Never heard that. For what purpose?
Does that tree produce mulberries? It seems like that would be a disasterous tree to have in one's front yard - messy as hell!
This is a fruitless variety. But yes, fruit bearing mulberry’s are messy!!!
Pollarding So this could be the same function as Coppicing ?
Basically yes
I think cutting higher to put new shoots out of reach of grazing livestock was a consideration too
...hmmm...why are comments disabled on your 'older' posts...?
Did not know that they were disabled
Do we know how long sweet gum trees live? I was surprised to see 80ft plus in North Carolina. I didn't know they grew that big.
Best examples of pollarded trees I have found can be seen in the walk through videos of the Tower of London. These can be found on youtube if interested.
My father in law was a Beefeater and lived at the Tower. I have stayed there many times. I know those trees.
@@arboristBlairGlenn that's an amazing story. What a small world. I'm also glad that I know what a Beefeater is.😜
@@shanesouza4303 search for Yeoman Warder Thomas Trent and you will find my father in law. Before that, he served 22 years as Sargent Major in the Army. So, I come along and marry his only daughter. 😳
@@arboristBlairGlenn just an amazing story. I'll check it out. Interesting history.
I thing Pollarding is for hard wood trees
A Mulberry is a type of hardwood. Cone bearing trees (Pines, firs, Redwoods etc.) are called softwoods. Balsa wood is actually classified as s hardwood.
9:51 are you aware there is a noose over your shoulder
A rope swing with a tied off loop to put your foot into
Try some muck off bike cleaner does the same thing might be nicer on your hands it might work better give it a go let me know.
Have you tried it on this type of hard oak build up?
@@arboristBlairGlenn
Yes I have it would be interesting to see which one was quicker