Kill a big pine tree

[Ortimber]

Dead or alive, it’s going to fall at some point. My vote would be to just drop it now in the general direction you want it to fall and be done.

 

[two_bit_score]

Sounds like you may have set a ticking time bomb without a set time.

 

[s219]

I think you went past the point of no return and there is no good way to fix it. Having a hinge is really the only predictable way to fell a tree and even that can go wrong sometimes. The situation you setup is now random and I doubt the wedges will do enough to bias the fall direction reliably. It may now also be unsafe to climb or even run a rope up for pulling over.

I have never met a tree that was too big for my saws to do a proper notch and back cut. It may take creative sawing in a non-optimal cut across the grain, but it's always been possible. If your bar length is at least 1/3 the tree diameter, it can be done. Maybe even 1/4. There are a few specialized cuts used for leaning and loaded trees that use very small bar penetration.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Karma lesson inbound in 5, 4, 3, ....

 

[RoyKing]

Trees fall in woods all the time, I was hoping to duplicate what a dead tree does, sort of self prune as parts fall off, then a rotten trunk breaks ups as it comes down. Rather than a green trunk hanging up on other trees, which if I drop there are no clear places to land.

So which is more dangerous a dead tree standing or one hung in another tree.

What I was hoping for was a person with knowledge of tree workings, will It stay alive a long time since the core is intact? Pines rot fast on the ground. The ones kill by lightning take about a year to fall.

 

[Jstpssng]

If you girdled it, the tree is already dead. You didn't even need to cut into the wood, once the cambium layer just below the bark is severed all around the tree it's going to die. It will take just a few weeks before it uses up the nutrients stored in the trunk and you will start seeing the change. Trees fall in the woods all of the time, but they can remain hung up for a long, long time. By leaving just a small core intact you have ensured that it will come down sooner and in bigger pieces than you hoped.

 

[kthompson]

We have two sweet gum trees that are somewhere about 20 to 24 inches in diameter that died over five years ago. I decided to leave them to fall on their own and it has amazed me how long they have been there. Over the years we have had a decent number of large trees to die and left them on their own due to being in safe area. A friend of mine who was a logger said remember the wildlife that depends on dead trees for their homes and food. But seldom do see them fall in sections. Some limbs but not much in the trunk doing sections. One thing about dead trees, they are like logs or light poles, with no limbs and foliage they fall fast when they fall and hit hard.

 

[RoyKing]

That darn pine is still growing, green as ever, the sap closed the cut. I thought it would die, why hasn't it!

 

[dragoneggs]

Pics? What is the full diameter of the tree? I will pile on here... get it down now. You want satellite reception but don't care when if ever??? :confused3:

 

[Richard]

I agree with the others.... you opted to NOT take it down on your terms.... from what I understand, killed it....to now, let it come down on its own terms. Not a situation I'd like to be in.

There was a hanging dead tree here. I actually posted a thread on TBN about it asking something like "any bets when it will fall" The tree was NOT on our property. It was on public land across the road from our land, leaning AWAY from the road. So it posed no real danger except had it fallen and someone or something just happened to be under it at that moment. I think it was a white oak.

It had been hanging for several years. Looked like a 45 degree angle but was hung in another tree....made my post here about it and I think ANOTHER 5-6 years passed and it was STILL hanging out.

So, a year ago, I took my backhoe over there (industrial) and dug around the root ball a bit and pushed it over. Now, it's not bugging me anymore but more important, it's no longer a possible hazard. We cut the very straight trunk, brother in law took it and about 5 other trunks to a sawmill and had some beautiful wood cut from it. Zero knots, 15/16 foot lengths.

We left the canopy so there is STILL a lot of good wood over there.

Smashed things near it but now all that can start the healing process.

In fact, we took TWO trees out that day, one leaning away from the road, the other was leaning towards the road. I saved us (primarily myself) a big headache later on when it would have fallen on its own, across the road.....probably during a rain storm.....probably when I'm leaving for work at 5:30 A.M. causing me to have to fix it on the spot in ugly conditions rather than on my/our terms.