The Forestry Forum

This winter sometime, a good sized pine tree snapped off behind the house. When the top came down some 20 feet or so from the the but, it kind of bent over a couple nice young white ash trees and smashed a little, not so nice cherry. I had cut the pine off the other trees a few days ago.

Today I took some rope and a come-a-long back there and pulled the nicer of the white ash, mostly upright. It is supported with rope and the come-a-long using a cherry tree for support. It is upright to about 75 to 80 degrees, so not perfectly straight but, better then it was. Now, am I helping or hindering the ash? How long should I let the support rope in place? Will it try to strengthen where it is or will it not make any difference? It is about three to four inches in diameter and a nice tree other then being bent this winter. Thanks.

It's possible there could be some fiber damage by being bent in an extreme manner for a prolonged time. But, since it was winter there was no reaction yet to the injury. There may have been some root damage to some degree as well on the opposite side of the lean. I would say anchor it as you have but the cable might bite into the tree bark as it grows. Maybe make a loose loop with plastic hose sleeved over an anchored nylon rope so it doesn't rub in the wind. Ash can bend further than some species without failure, so it might be fine. It will compartmentalize any failure with new wood eventually assuming the flow of sap won't be interrupted too badly. Wait and see. ;D

It will strengthen in the new position after some time.  Give it year; it should be strong enough then.

You did good to make it "straight with the world" again.

We did that with a nice young pine that was doubled over with snow when I was in high school.  We used high tension wire with a stiff plastic tube around the wire where it went around the tree to keep it from cutting into the bark.  We had some wire tensioners left over from our fencing projects, so we used one of those to tighten the wire.  Worked very well, and the tree did very well thereafter.  Four years ago, my folks sold the place.  I don't know if they ever removed the wire or not :D

Somebody will find that wire a hundred years from now with a sawmill  :D.