So I knocked down an 80 year old Hemlock this afternoon and had a question

[CalG]

Actually, over the past two years I've had occasion to knock down several "older" hemlocks around the place. All three took some wrestling to get them to fall where they would not hurt anything (like the house ;-)

Any way, the three in particular were good sized, a bit over 80 feet tall and more than an 18 inch bar across at the cut. (lots of clean up, Ain't done yet, It was a hot one today)

At any rate, three in particular showed decay at the butt. Normal enough at that age. I expect to show a bit of decay myself in ten years. But ....

These three all had the "weak side" on the SOUTH SIDE. The centers were gone, sure, but there was pronounced rot on the south side of each. The north side was sound wood in each case. For my needs, that put two out of three in the "Boy, I'm glad I got this one down before it fell on the house" category. The other one would have just hung up on it's neighbor and really messed up my life ;-)

Can anyone say if this is typical?

S. Vermont, Sugar bush, *** cul du sac of homes. 100 head of maple and a few red oak, pig nut hickory, a pine or two, and fifty head of hemlock all about 80-90 years old. run on a small holding ;-)

 

[Jstpssng]

If that side was adjacent to your lawn or someplace where you drive often, it may be that the roots on that side were compacted.
Hemlocks live to be 2-3 hundred years old, I wouldn't necessarily expect an 80 YO tree to be rotten.

 

[homesteader13]

Is it in a place it may have been getti g root rot?

 

[oosik]

We get a "condition" in our fruit/ornamental trees. It's called - South West Damage. Never bothers the Ponderosa pines - which are the prevalent tree here. It is thought to be because most all our weather comes from the SW. The bark dries out and peels off the trees on the SW side. The limbs on the SW side of the tree will wither and die. Makes for some very interesting pruning to keep a tree healthy and/or looking good.

This might explain why the old homesteads around these parts had their fruit trees in very selected locations. Protected hollows and locations downwind of stands of pines. SW damage can eventually kill a nice fruit tree. After some 30 years - I have finally cut down all my dead fruit trees. I didn't know about SW damage when I planted them where they where.