Managing tree suckers and water sprouts

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Tree sucker sprouts and water sprouts are vigorous, upright, epicormic shoots that grow from dormant buds on older wood. They are mostly a problem on fruit and landscape trees, can grow very large in one season and occur most often under stressful conditions like drought, after severe pruning and limb loss.

Both kinds of sprouts should be removed immediately while remembering that a water sprout can be used to develop a new main trunk if there is severe damage to the old trunk.

Water sprouts are easily pulled off and some people do just that but personally I find that this can cause damage to the tree. Better, in my view, to cut them off close to the tree and treat the wound.

Suckers are much harder to deal with as they are attached at or below ground level and should be removed with as much of the root or basal material as possible.

That, though, is the theory. In practice it is normally not possible to remove the sucker properly as normally people will deal with the issue far too late.

Root suckers do also occur when a tree feels – as strange as that may sound – that it is dying and tries in that way to perpetuate itself.

In most cases root suckers only appear on tress that also would be ideal coppicing material and should the tree that is producing such risers really be in the process of dying it is then a good idea to – if it is a woodland tree – to manage it as a coppice tree.

© 2011

Bristol Needs More Trees

The independent charity, Trees for Cities, launched a new campaign in November 2007 - Bristol Needs More Trees, to help raise funds for tree planting in Bristol.

Following the launch of the charity’s work in Bristol in 2006 and two successful volunteer planting events in partnership with Bristol City Council and with the support of HSBC and the Forest of Avon, Trees for Cities has teamed up with the creative agency Lunar, to kick off a media campaign which aims to encourage the planting of some 10,000 trees around Bristol by 2015.

Trees or Cities aims to get local people, involved in greening urban areas. The Bristol needs more trees campaign will aim to involve young people, local residents and businesses in doing their bit for the environment and encourage them to get their green fingers a little greener.

Graham Simmonds, Chief Executive for Trees for Cities, comments: “Through this campaign we are aiming to encourage residents to leave their mark in the city by sponsoring trees, as well as plant more trees in Bristol, which will make a big difference in tackling climate change, creating new wildlife habitats and adding beauty and calm to the busy urban landscape.”

Councillor Rosalie Walker, Bristol’s executive member for health, culture and leisure, added: “Trees and green spaces in urban areas are more important than ever and I hope this campaign will kick-start our drive to engage more proactively with the public and local businesses to plant more trees in Bristol.”

http://www.treesforcities.org/

Trees for Cities launch Bark for the Bark Campaign

With the start of a new planting season, the independent charity Trees for Cities has launched an awareness campaign, Bark for the Bark, calling for dog owners to be aware of the potentially fatal damage caused to trees by dogs chewing and gnawing tree bark.

By ripping off tree bark, dogs effectively starve the trees to death - water can still rise up through the middle of the tree, so the leaves may continue to look healthy through the summer - but the tree needs to store the sugar produced in the leaves down in the roots. The sugars travel down through a layer called the cambium, which is just under the bark. Once this is stripped, the tree’s reserves dwindle and it eventually dies - in a mature tree this can take several years.

Sadly there are dog owners who are unaware of this threat, and Trees for Cities’ landscaping staff sees evidence of the damage caused by dogs on a regular basis, particularly in parks.

Graham Simmonds, Chief Executive at Trees for Cities, says: “Through our Bark for the Bark campaign we want to raise awareness of the fatal damage that dogs can potentially inflict on trees. We know that dog owners love walking their dogs in attractive parks and woodlands and I am confident that when they realise the danger to the trees they will stop fido sinking his fangs into the wood bark.”

http://www.treesforcities.org/