Damage is probably severe enough you will probably loose it or at the best surviving leaving you with a mis-shaped and undesirable tree.

You will have to remove the broken branch with a clean saw cut if you decide to give it a go.

Can you post a stand off photo so we can see the whole tree as it stands now for a more accurate assessment?

Dave

i need a pic of the whole ...

it will not heal.. it needs to go .... whether that is the branch or the whole tree i can not tell w/o a bigger pic of the whole ...

i would worry that what is left.. will no longer be safe ... it sounds like the tree would be all out of balance.. both aesthetically.. and literally ... is it leaning toward a structure ... is it safe for people to be around..

ken

Clickable links:

http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1977/12987677/23110424/400355055.jpg

http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1977/12987677/23110424/400354949.jpg

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daavv, I use the free BBCodeXtra add-on with my ancient version of Firefox. Highlight the url, right-click, choose xhtmlXtra, and voila! a working link.

I don't know Picturetrail, but here's the Hosta Forum's famous explanation of how to link from Photobucket:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hosta/msg0513322013993.html?14

Hi all, thanks for the replies so far.

Thanks for the clickable links, I'll take some pics of the whole tree as it is just now, if weather allows tomorrow. I won't guarantee I'll be able to get clickable links.

Just now the other large branch at that damaged section is fine with regards to stability. But there's that ripped section it's close to, so as mentioned it doesnt look good for it's future, which is a real shame as it looks good and healthy and has been blowing about happily without disaster in the 80 odd mph gales.

The extremely large "branch" that was ripped off fell through the front conifers and used to be behind and above and had been allowed to get like this by the previous owners. Approx 10m-12m high.

So it destroyed a section of the front conifers (The front conifers are approx. 5m high.) that I had to deal with also and this has caused a few gaps that weren't there before and pushed forward a load of branches that were more central (that I'll try to re-route with string at some point). It's not as bad as it could have been though, as it's a corner area it still looks green thankfully.

But have to say I didn't expect to be cutting a tree with a hand saw at 8.30am this morning after 1 and a half hours sleep due to the wind! The amount of branches kicking around that need to be re-cut is unbelievable. And the trunk of the "branch that fell off" can be dealt with at another time, I managed to pull it back through and get it to the ground so there are no other bits still in the front conifers, the trunk of the ripped off branch is probably about 3m to 3.5m diameter of a plate and heavy.But if whats left needs cut, it's easy compared to what I had to do today.

Thanks again

dave

Hi everyone, the weather was fine today and I was able to take more detailed pictures.

The tree is stable with nothing further damaged and about to fall off. If anything was going to fall off just now it would have done so last night as there were more really high winds and everything was ok today.

The damaged tree is situated behind the front conifers. The pics show behind these with the damaged tree in full view.

Any thoughts or info would be appreciated.

Thanks

dave

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the cut point is as close to the ground as you can cut.. and then the application of a stump killer ...

no part of that weed is fine ...

its gotta go ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:628341}}

i have a little more time today ....

a tree .. if properly pruned.. will develop a straight trunk ...

what happens when you trim a part.. is that multiple dormant buds break ... causing multiple new limbs ...

this is what happened to your tree.. many moon ago ... at the link above ... you can see.. right where the bark turns black.. two trunks... some damage occurred to lose single dominance ... and now damage has repeated itself.. and we are going to have another branched trunk a few feet higher ....

so if you were to make the cut you suggest ... picture 5 or 10 new branches .... and they will be weak.. and picture yourself.. or your successors.. trimming and pruning that thing FOREVER ...

further.. i dont understand all the independent pieces of fencing in the various pix ... are they all yours .. or are you going to be having to reimburse neighbors every time this thing loses branches????

have we ID's this plant.. because it does not look like a conifer .... but something makes me leery.. that it is NOT a heritage tree .... it looks like some fast growing.. fast to shed branches in storms... weed tree ... if so.. its just not worth investing in anything other than removal ....

good luck

ken

Hi thanks for the info.

Yes everything has been left to grow wild for the past 40 years or so with the tops being trimmed and the fronts of the trees that you see from the house looking towards them.

The other side of the trees have been cut back to trunk by the people living on the other side of the fence opposite. So hardly anything grows back that way towards their houses. (four in a block flats with basically junk in their back gardens)

So the whole point of this operation is to keep as much tree cover as possible.

This tree is in a corner area and is good for covering a direct view into peoples houses, hence I would cut at the yellow dotted mark or a bit below, as the other part of the tree is the part doing the covering. The bit that blew off and this bit that remains high up doesn't really do that much.

I'm thinking of cutting after the worst of winter and before growing season starts at around end of march/april. As I'm thinking the tree has had enough shock so far and to leave it alone over the rest of winter.

There are several houses behind mine that cover the same area as my one house. The brown slatted fence is at the edge of my boundary and the house next door. And running directly behind the trees on the boundary with the other houses is a variety of difference fencing for each.

I thought it was a leylandi conifer but I'm not sure.

Thanks again

dave