Green Falling Limbs

[oldballs]

This must be some phenomenon of nature. The past week two approx 12 foot limbs of about 3 inch diameter with fully green leaves have just fallen out of my 45 year old Sycamores. It has been unusually dry this spring and summer so far. One was a clean break the other sort of splinter at the break. What's with that?:confused3:

Cheers,
Mike

 

[smstonypoint]

A good question.

Late last Friday/early Saturday, I lost a large limb from a red oak (I'm guessing well over 100 years old) at my farm. The limb was about 25' feet long and +20" in diameter at the butt end when it splintered about 24" from the trunk. The butt end showed some deterioration, but it was fully laden with green leaves.:confused3:

Steve

 

[oosik]

The term "widow maker" comes to mind but that is in the logging industry. Where you are actively falling large trees and the limb comes from the fallen tree or one it fell into.

On my 80 acres - I have 3 or 4 large pines with big dead limbs - way up high. All are broken and hanging on to the tree by a splintered break in the limb.

All are big enough - that if they fell on me - would drive me into the ground like a T-133 fence post. I keep a close watch on these few trees and hope some day, the wind will bring these limbs down.

 

[oldballs]

Thanks oosik. These are not the classic "widow maker" . Usually they are hanging up there from a storm or some other tree falling.

These limbs are fresh green limbs that came down without any storm or other tree activity. And they do not have a rotten center from some disease. Of course, if i had been there at the time.........I too would have been in the "widow maker" class of 2018.

 

[MossRoad]

I've never been a fan of Sycamore trees... because... when I was young, we were playing tag or something. I was being chased, ran up a sycomore tree like a squirrel, went hand-over-hand out a pretty thick branch about 15' up, and swung my legs up to grip it with all 4's. As soon as my legs got around that branch, and with me hanging there upside down in classic tree sloth form, the branch snapped off the trunk and I came straight down onto my back with the branch plastering me into the dirt. Lights out. Next thing I know, some kids and my mom are staring down at me calling my name. Lights out again. They put me on a cot and carried me home...

 

[oosik]

Have you been able to come up with any explanations - now that you have had more time to look at the two limbs. I don't know the first thing about Sycamores but there is one common truth - healthy green limbs don't normally just fall out of trees. Actually, around here, a lot of my pines have dead limbs that stay with the tree as long as the tree is vertical. Its just the 3or 4 that the dead limbs are broken and hanging on by splintered break.

I don't imagine you have adventurous climbing beavers in your neighborhood either. And porcupines will only eat the underbark layer - never seen them chew thru an entire limb.

Or as in my situation - the dam porkies chewed on the wooden handles of my wheelbarrow - salty sweat soaked into the wooden handles.

 

[Thomas]

I've never been a fan of Sycamore trees... because... when I was young, we were playing tag or something. I was being chased, ran up a sycomore tree like a squirrel, went hand-over-hand out a pretty thick branch about 15' up, and swung my legs up to grip it with all 4's. As soon as my legs got around that branch, and with me hanging there upside down in classic tree sloth form, the branch snapped off the trunk and I came straight down onto my back with the branch plastering me into the dirt. Lights out. Next thing I know, some kids and my mom are staring down at me calling my name. Lights out again. They put me on a cot and carried me home...

..........................
Just a part of being kid growing up. :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, like licking the metal window frame in winter.... :laughing:

 

[rekees4300]

Sycamores are known to experience a phenomenon called "Summer Branch Drop". More information about this phenomenon can be found at this link from the Journal of Arboriculture. (http://bit.ly/1HormZb)

Big Sycamore Tree... Big Problem? - HOrT COCO-UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa - ANR Blogs

 

[oldballs]

Sycamores are known to experience a phenomenon called "Summer Branch Drop". More information about this phenomenon can be found at this link from the Journal of Arboriculture. (http://bit.ly/1HormZb)

Big Sycamore Tree... Big Problem? - HOrT COCO-UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa - ANR Blogs

Well, I never thought an answer would be forthcoming. " rekees4300", Thanks for your response and links. That must be it. The hot dry summer continues at my place. It has stormed and rained all around but not here. Maybe I'll take a pic of any new branches that drop.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[ruffdog]

Weird year here. The Black Walnut trees shedded their nuts way early (very small) and not many acorns either. The critters are going to have a tough year for sure.

 

[stevem5215]

I lost a 12" diameter 1/2 Pine tree where it split into two stems. One of them split off and fell about 10 feet down into the Y of another tree. And then it proceeded to teeter todder 25ft off the ground. It was weird how perfectly balanced it was too and was heavy enough I couldn't just pull it down either (thousands of pounds still way in the air). I ended up using my 15' Pole saw standing on a 20' ladder braced up against the other tree section and cut it slowly till it started to crack and got outta Dodge before it did. Broke into two sections on each side of the Y and then I just pulled it down with the Steiner outta there to cut up. Got about a cord of wood out of it and let it for the neighbors by the street took a week or so but it all went to a new firewood home somewhere for holiday fire pit burning.

Steve

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have a couple of small sycamore trees that are constantly shedding small limbs, so far no big ones have broken though. Some times limbs just grow too big for the tree to support. I was sitting on my porch one afternoon and heard a big womp from down in the pasture. I drove my Kubota down there and a huge limb from a 100+ year old oak tree had just split off the main trunk. The limb was over 24" at the base and extended out 40 feet or more. Absolutely no wind was blowing and the limb was solid with no rot.
A couple years later a storm got the rest of the tree up about 15 feet from the ground, just sheared it off.