Monday, April 13, 2015

Pines before and after hail

Every time I go outside and expect the lushness of mid-April greenery, I see a lot of sparseness instead.  The dogwoods look pitiful.  The pines look skimpy.  There is a lot of openness where I normally see foliage.
The two pictures below show the pines across the street before and after the hail damage.
 
 
The yard is full of craters.
(This one looks like about 1 1/2" in diameter, almost golf ball size.)

 
It will be interesting to see how much the trees recover.  I have a fairly young dogwood that got barked pretty well.  The same with a red cedar I was trimming into a topiary.  I wonder if they have sustained enough damage to be life threatening.
 
 
Even the mailbox (plastic) has a hole in it!
 



1 comment:

  1. Wow. Hard to be sure only viewing one side but my guess is that the best course of action is to allow both trees to heal naturally. My rule of thumb for small quickly growing trees is that they can tolerate 50% cambium damage measured circumference wise at the greatest point on the main trunk. As they age, the percentage drops to around 30%. I know the cedar isn’t a rapidly growing tree but maybe the injury will give it character. The side limbs look like they have more than 50% damage but if necessary the side limbs can be pruned off.

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