Hurricane Sandy and my Loblolly Pine

tedley · October 29, 2012, 03:14:48 PM

You may well know as I do, Hurricane Sandy is bearing down upon the east coast as Irene did last year. I have a Loblolly Pine (and something I call a Sassafrass TREE) in my yard. Both are approximately 60' ?. Both (especially the "said" Sassafrass left us a lot of clean-up after Irene and no doubt the same will be true tomorrow or the next day after Sandy has moved on. My reason for joining you here is I was wondering if it would make sense to cut most of the lower branches off of the Loblolly like I used to see in my Grandparents' neighborhood as a kid... those trees were tall however people trimmed them three quarters or more of the way up and it kind of hit me with a "stately" charm, perhaps reminiscent of the tall Palms(think Old Hollywood) I grew up seeing on 70's TV.
It seems to me I might have a lot less debris should I crop it in this way.
Asside frome that my Sassafrass thing, I'd love to remove it but my neighbors each have one adjacent and I appreciate the shade and habitat. It's an older tree, it leaves me with a lot of clean-up but maybe someone may tell me what kind of tree it really is(leaves look just like Sassafrass and it sports relentless seedlings) and can I do any kind of trimming to promote it's health and worthiness.

Dan_Shade · October 29, 2012, 03:20:10 PM

where are you located? my loblolly pines all self pruned their lower branches. They probably have 50 feet or so with no branches. I don't know what one would look like if it grew up by itself

tedley · October 29, 2012, 03:23:18 PM

Delmarva. Salisbury, MD

Dan_Shade · October 29, 2012, 03:32:55 PM

How are you holding up over there? I'm across the bay from you in St. Mary's Co

tedley · October 29, 2012, 04:00:34 PM

It's good here, Dan. Calm for a few minutes, than, 30, 40, maybe 50 mph gusts. I lived in OC for 12-15 years and I'm sure there's a few people wondering if they should've stayed at this point but it's probably no worse than some folks further North will suffer tonight and tomorrow.
I just took a pic of the trees and resized them to make it easier but uh... I can't upload it.

Dan_Shade · October 29, 2012, 04:22:25 PM

There is a picture posting "how to" in the behind the forum section.

Autocar · October 30, 2012, 09:47:35 AM

Most generally the twigs are green in color and if you snap it off it will smell like Sassafrass then in the fall the leaves will be a bright red in color.