New branches on old trees

[cutterboy]

Hello all. About 10 years ago I thinned a section of my woods removing trees of lesser value and leaving some nice red oaks to grow bigger. A couple of oaks, now out in the open, grew branches out of their trunks.



 



 

My question is this..... How deep does the branch go into the tree? Does it just go in 10 growth rings because it only started growing 10 years ago, or does it go all the way in to the center? If I log that tree and saw the branchy log on my mill, will the knot come off with the slab, or am I stuck with a small knot all the way to the pith?

Thanks, Ralph

[Maine372]

the evidence of the know will show to the year the branch started growing. this is a common phenominon when the trunks are exposed to more sunlight. i beleive the term is epicormic branching.

[Okrafarmer]

Rednecks sometimes call it "suckering."  :

[ColeWilliams]

I believe this is pretty common when hardwoods are quickly exposed to more sunlight than they had before. I don't remember the exact science but it's got something to do with the little advantageous buds in the bark of hardwoods.

[Ianab]

In this situation the knot will start in the growth ring where it first formed, only 10 years ago. The wood under that is already formed and "fixed" at that time. Also it will only be the size that the branch was at the beginning, then getting larger as the branch got larger. So it may only be a tiny knot in the 8-9 year old rings.

So it's probably not going to ruin much of the wood in this case, and pretty much only show in the sapwood.

Ian

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah I believe the buds are kept alive out at the cambium layer and they don't go into the pith. So once they become active it's from that ring onward toward the bark. We don't see that happen up here with mature dominant hardwood. If it's one that was not dominant or pole wood and smaller it with epicormic branch. I have a 26" yellow birch that was cut all around it in a harvest and not one epicormic branch on it. This was a harvest back in 1993. Some smaller yellow birch that were released and not cut down did. They also died, but I believe from herbicide more an anything. Why they would have been left is anyone's guess. Some operators get sloppy when they have 100's of acres to cut and not watching the crews. But that's another topic. ;)

[MHineman]

  That's eactly why you need to be conservative when selecting trees to cut or kill in order to release the more valuable trees to grow.
  Remember that the best graded boards on a log are the outer boards.  These new branches do have a big impact on the grade of the lumber.
  Many species will respond with branches like that when they are stressed.  Especially from soil compaction.  When I see that on a tree, I look closely at the base of the tree and too often I find signs of decay when carpenter ants have started to hollow the tree.

[thecfarm]

I have a lot of them that look just like that. I have a grown up pasture and I try to leave some red oak for all the animals that like acorns. I do not plan on cutting these for logs. As soon as I clear out all the other trees away from the oak they start to go branches all over the trunk of the tree.

[Maine372]

if you can thin the canopy and still leave some shade on the stem it will discourage this. leave somthing thats not likely to compete with it. in the northeast balsam fir, hemlock or cedar work well.

[cutterboy]

Thank you all very much. Then it is as I hoped. The knots don't go in very far so if I log those trees (only two like that) within a couple of years I won't lose much clear wood.

That section of woods always seems to stay dry with firm ground. I go there to log oak when the rest of the farm is too wet. There is some nice red oak there and a tractor path runs through the middle of it.



 



 

I've always liked that part of the woods. When I was in my early teens I had a girlfriend who was an outdoors type and we used to go there sometimes. Of course when I was with her I wasn't looking at the trees.  ;D

[Clark]

Thank you all very much. Then it is as I hoped. The knots don't go in very far so if I log those trees (only two like that) within a couple of years I won't lose much clear wood.

Won't matter when you cut them, the damage is done.  Right now you are growing wood with more knots in it than is considered ideal.  The wood below those knots won't change unless the tree is wounded.

Clark