White Pine with a Strong Taper ???

[g_man]

I have been cutting out some poor quality pine. Every once in a while I come across one like this that has maybe a 20" dbh and a decent crown if you ignore the weevil but it is short for the diameter and has a rapid taper.

Very curious what causes this. Genetics, site factors, or disease/insect ??
Thanks



 

gg

[curdog]

Height growth is tied to your soils. Has there been any ice or storm damage in the past in this stand? That tree could have fared a little better since it was on the edge of that opening,  but I'd say you have poor soils on that site.

[g_man]

I never thought of ice!!  In 1998 we had a sever ice storm here. Hardwood took it very hard. It is quite possible the top broke on that tree. The soil isn't the greatest but most pines have the correct form at least. Like these



  

gg

[curdog]

After looking at the pictures again,  I'd say ice would be a good possibility.  I can't count the growth whirls in the picture, but you should be able to count the whirls of limbs from the top down to where the taper is or defect and see if it lines up with the 1998 ice storm.  Each whirl or layer of branches will be 1 year of growth.

[g_man]

Thanks - this is interesting.
I counted the whorls this morning and it seems that it would be a very good assumption that the crown damage occurred in the 1998 ice storm. Like you said it had good access to light. Must be why it recovered.

So that ice damage accounts for the extreme taper ?? Will it ever catch up and become more cylindrical  ??

[BaldBob]

So that ice damage accounts for the extreme taper ?? Will it ever catch up and become more cylindrical  ??

With the crown density that it has there will be some improvement in form, as the diameter will increase the most immediately below the crown. However it will be a LONG time before it would be a significant improvement.

[Clark]

Lots of big limbs in a conifer is a recipe for poor form/highly tapered logs. On some pine trees I have seen where the tree is visibly smaller above each whorl of branches. I don't know why that is...possibly there is a study out there that has it figured out.

The ice damage, if it broke out the top or portions of it, would encourage the lower limbs to grow more which would feed back to increasing the taper.

Clark

[g_man]

That all seems to fit together and make good sense.
Thank you gentlemen for the explanations.

[CJennings]

Trees grown in less dense conditions have more taper, dense stands produce straighter trees. Of course neither extreme is all that good since the trees of in excessively dense stands will be unstable. There could be multiple factors in play here though.