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 Post subject: Cottonwood removal?
PostPosted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:16 pm 
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Hi, I did a search but did not find a relevant answer to my problem. I have a large cottonwood along a creek lining my property that I want to remove, but I would like to keep the root system as it helps to keep the creek wall intact. This tree is probably 70' tall and sheds the awful 'cotton' all over my yard and into my pool (and filter...).

I can't afford the hundreds of dollars to have it professionally removed and I can't just topple it over. I would like to keep about the bottom 15' of the trunk as I have bird houses that my kids made attached to it.

Can I use a herbicide injected into it? I'm not big on getting poison into my yard or the creek, but I would like a gentle way to kill this tree as it is starting to bud again!

Thanks so much. Great forum!


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:47 am 
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I completely understand wanting to remove a Cottonwood.

Aside from the female cottonwood being such a nasty mess-maker, cottonwoods look pretty but tend to have fairly weak heavy wood.

However, you're kind of wanting to have your cake while eating it too. You can't cut 3/4 of a tree's body off and expect much of anything in the remaining 1/4. Even presuming it's a togh tree that doesn't outright die from shock and it begins growing again, you'd just be faced with doing it again in a number of years. Also it's not going to be appreciably cheaper to cutt 55 feet of a 70 foot tree off than it would be to cut it down entirely. You're really better off waiting until you can have the whole thing professionally cut down.

You CAN keep the root system there- that's take several years to rot out. In the mean time you can plant a new tree on either side of it- kinds that like wet feet next to a creek like a Willow or Birch.

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 Post subject: Thanks
PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 8:18 am 
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Yes, I agree I was hoping to have my cake and eat it too :P . Is it feasible to kill the tree now so that it stops budding and I can wait to have it removed at a later date?

Thanks so much for the advice.

Regards


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 10:58 am 
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Well you knid of want to watch 'killing' a still standing tree. Doing so is often done with toxic junk, or at the very least you're faced with a large dead tree with very heavy wood that can crack and break at any time.

Recall that you didn't want to just cut it down, I'm guessing due to stuff you do not wish it to fall upon. You'll have even less control upon where it falls if it's a big dead tree waiting for a stiff wind to break it.

You can always prune it back brutally to keep the new growth from spawing the cotton from hades. A tree that's been hacked to the bone is an eyesore, but if you're just cutting it down at a not too far off date, it'll do.

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Shepherd of the Trees
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.


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 Post subject: Thanks
PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:59 am 
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Thanks, I'll call someone to at least get an estimate on getting it cut down. I'm not to interested in using alot of toxic stuff to get rid of it for a short period.


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 Post subject: Re: Thanks
PostPosted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 2:05 pm 
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wireless2004 wrote:
Yes, I agree I was hoping to have my cake and eat it too :P . Is it feasible to kill the tree now so that it stops budding and I can wait to have it removed at a later date?


Cottonwood is a weak tree to start with.

When they are dead, hazard goes up and so does the price of removal

.02


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 8:02 pm 
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I hadn't thought of that Treefreak, thanks. I'll let it live till I can get someone to look at it.


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