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Fallen tree
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Posted by shellyg CA (My Page) on Mon, Jun 29, 09 at 13:39
| This morning I woke up to find that a pipe had burst in my back yard, flooding the base of my fig tree and a large (almost half the tree) limb that was angled off the base of the main trunk had fallen. The funny thing is that I was going to cut this limb off later this year (after the Fall crop) because it was getting heavy, precarious, and well, I had banged my head trying to duck under it far too many times! But I had discovered this forum and was trying to learn how to do some air layering of branches before I chopped it off so that I could at least get some more trees out of it.
I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to salvage some of the fallen tree for saplings or if there's any chance the figs that are probably a week or two away from ripening will continue to ripen. I'm going to try to post a picture so you can see how it broke at the very root & therefore may still have roots of its own connected (she says naively/hopefully).
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Fallen tree
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| check to see if the roots are still connected. you can save the suckers by digging them up with roots attached if the ground below it is flooded. Them might end up drowning soon if they stay in water. Just repot them in drier soil and keep shaded until root growth rebounds. when it fell did the roots stay in the ground or did the roots pull the ground up with it. If the later then you could save it. you said that a pipe burst when would've weaken the ground not the tree. i hope the members here can help you |
RE: Fallen tree
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It's hard to see, but it looks as if the leaves on the fallen trunk are not wilted. If that's the case, it's a good sign. You might be able to hoist it back up, and secure it until the figs ripen. If you start to see minor wilting take off a few branches.
One interesting thing - injured fruit trees often produce the sweetest fruit.
Good luck. |
RE: Fallen tree
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- Posted by bjs496 9/Houston 7/NJ (My Page) on
Mon, Jun 29, 09 at 15:46
| It is not uncommon for people in the colder areas to cut half the roots and fold the tree down into a trench to protect the top from cold damage. This, however is done while the tree is dormant. There is still a chance that your tree will survive and even ripen a few of the remaining figs (although not likely). If you would like to remove this limb from the parent tree, but get have additional trees, there are at least two strategies you could employ.
First:
1) Build a brace out of some lumber to hold the limb up (about where it was before).
2) Cover the exposed roots with soil/mulch and keep watered.
3) begin to air layer the limbs from where the trunk splits into the main limbs. Layer a few now and they should be ready to remove by the end of the growing season. Then layer a few more in the spring, etc. Second:
1) Stand and brace the tree as described before.
2) Cover the exposed roots with soil/mulch
3) After the tree has finished fruiting begin cutting a 40+" diameter semi-circle trench around the tree over a five week period of time. Take about 20% per week
4) When the tree goes dormant, begin digging out the tree. Most of the roots should already be severed, so it is just a matter of removing the soil.
5) Root-prune the tree and pot up or transplant somewhere else. If you want to pot it, I would suggest 130+ gallon container (about 48"D X 18"H or about 19 cu ft volume). If you had to, 100 gallon would be the absolute minimum.
6) Once planted / potted, stake the tree to minimize movement. Leave it staked for a year.
7) Water as you would any newly planted tree. Either way, the suckers from around the base can be taken and potted. ~james |
RE: Fallen tree
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Shellyg, If it looks like you will lose this part of the tree entirely, you can still recover many cuttings for subsequent growth. Assume you found this tree being thrown out on the sidewalk. Drastic and immediate action to take: Take cuttings about a foot long. Remove leaves and fruit and bundle the twigs. Wrap in barely moist paper towelling, put into a ziploc bag and place in the vegetable crisper of the fridge for at least 1 week. This drives the cuttings into dormancy from a healthy state. After a week or two, or a month or two, whenever is convenient, remove from fridge and root as you would any other fig cutting.
By the way, what variety of fig is this? |
RE: Fallen tree
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| Thank you so much everyone! As mentioned, the leaves aren't wilting at all at this point, so I'm going to try to prop it up and mulch around the bottom and keep it watered. I'll start air layering some of the branches using the method described in this thread: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg070227508091.html Two questions:
1. is it possible to have too many air layerings going at once?
2. is there a size limit to what you can attempt to air layer? i.e. could I try to get roots growing from some of the bigger branches (say 2" diameter) so that the new tree would already be a pretty decent size? |
RE: Fallen tree
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You said the figs on that fallen limb are a week or two away from getting ripe and you would like to air layer some for more plants.
If it were mine and this is ionly me but for more idea's as the above posters gave some goos ideas as well.
I would leave limb where its at cover the weak spot at soil level with just dirt and see what it does so as not to move it and possibly disturb the roots even more.
Then after a few weeks when figs are ripe or not dig around the roots of that limb and transplant it while cutting the top part to propagate useing the baggie method or burying some piece horizontal to root, next year there is chance that that transplanted limb will grow if when dug up there are roots intact.
Just another idea to ponder.
Martin |
RE: Fallen tree
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1. If you use Leon's total bark removal method, only do one airlayer per leafed branch. The cut stops nutrients produced in the leaves from traveling to the roots. They "feed" the new airlayer roots. I don't see any problem starting as many as you'd like.
2. You can start the airlayer lower - on big, old leafless wood - but would have to make sure that the new roots produced had a big enough mass to support such a large plant when it comes off the mother tree. Six inches of roots are not going to support a six foot airlayer. |
RE: Fallen tree
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- Posted by bjs496 9/Houston 7/NJ (My Page) on
Mon, Jun 29, 09 at 19:33
| You can take a layer with minimal roots... if you time it correctly. If you time your layers to be removed once the top of the tree has gone (or is near) dormant, you do not need much of a root mass. I probably have a picture somewhere of a 4' long X 1.75" caliper sucker that had a single ~3" long piece of root on it. I planted it while dormant, and it produced the needed root mass during the dormant season. Obviously, the more the better. You can layer several limbs at the same time... you could layer all the limbs at the same time. The problem I find with too many layers is spacing. I can't usually fit all the layers, where I want them, at the same time. ~james
This is especially helpful when layering larger diameter limbs. |
RE: Fallen tree
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| Thanks to everyone here, the (very large) limb is propped up with a 2x4 & held by a ratchet tie & seems to be doing quite well. As you can see, it was at a precarious angle to begin with. Hopefully it will stay healthy long enough to harvest this crop and get some air layers before I take it down for good. 
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RE: Fallen tree
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| Looks like to me ya did good ;-) Good Luck Cecil |
RE: Fallen tree
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| I agree shellyg it looks like you did a great job. Just thought I would toss out another option. After the figs are harvested. Get a 5 gallon bucket and cut it down the side and to the center of the bottom with a Skill Saw. Then mark the bottom and cut a whole for the branch. Do the same for the lid and drill a 1 1/2 - 2" hole in the lid so you can add water.
Cut a 6" girdle around the whole fallen branch.
Next slip the bucket around the whole branch with the girdle near the bottom and fill the bucket with whatever soil or mix you choose to use and put the lid on.
Next tape the bucket with duct tape to hold it together and add water to the bucket. |
RE: Fallen tree
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| Thought I'd post another followup for posterity's sake. Not only is the tree still doing well, the crop is in full swing now, with upwards of 30 lbs a week being harvested! Once again, I'm going crazy every night, trying new recipes, canning, the works. I have no idea what kind of fig tree it is, but they are delicious!!! Green on the outside, a deep red/maroon on the inside, some of the really sweet ones almost start to taste like strawberry. Thanks again for all the help! 
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