welcome.. welcome.. welcome ...

please dont let my answer scare you away from becoming more active in the forum ...

first.. ID the perfect.. proper .... planting time... and then plant some new ones .. its rarely july/august ..

second.. go to town on your pruning theory ... whats to lose ...

as to hubby bridge safety ... i would vote to get rid of the tree .. period.. you can grow new trees for a minor fraction of the cost of bridge repair ...

from the looks of it.. this is a VERY OLD damage ... it shows signs of trying to heal .... it only showed up ... when the recent storms hit ...

in fact.. if it were mine.. the chainsaw would have taken care of it.. in less time than it took you to fire up the computer ...

but thats me... a broken tree is not to be cared for, nor worried about ...... it is to be removed ... and i favor mother earth.. by planting new ones.. usually more than one ...and i become happy about the future.. rather than focusing on the past ... goodbye old friend.. hello new ....

and if you replace.. do NOT go large ... but that is a topic for a new post ...

ken

If I had plenty of oaks I might concider loosing it, but not when it is one of few. I would rather repair the bridge if I had to. Loosing that tree will change the garden dramatically and probably not to the better. But I would also plant some new, drought tolerant trees as a backup plan if the condition of the oak gets worse.

I have plenty oaks , I guess, but I like the sense of the branches leaning in over the walkway and the sense of enclosure made around our shady place. This is Texas. Shade is desirable and not always where you want it and need it.. I am over 60 and growing trees on this 4" of dry alkaline limestone rubble on a slope and caliche will take a long while especially since I can only water the first year to establish then it is on its own. We live 100% on rain water for all our needs. Irrigating is kept at a minimum. We are all about drought hardy. No worry there. I do know that October - November are the months to plant trees here in Texas. There is a sucker coming up from a root, so there is that variable to the possibilities if I do cut it down. It will take off a lot quicker than a planted tree.

Below are what I left in the trimming. I did straighten it out and I took a weird crosswise branch that would have extended and started crowding a Madrone tree. The oak tree that we are talking about and the one on the other side of the Madrone had started to join their canopies and stunt the madrone a couple of years ago. Madrones are more than special and it is becoming an endangered tree. I clipped the branches back 2 years ago and the Madrone has rewarded me beautifully. The winds knocked the tree away from the madrone so Its space has really increased which is good. I do play favorites and I will butcher the other trees for that madrone.She's my baby. She takes precedence.

Things look airer and the birds are flying through.Things are not as closed in and I bet the clematis vine will get more light and bloom better. I l included a picture which shows the walkway/sitting area and why I like that tree. I also left a picture showing what MOst of the trees are like around my place. My taste run towards natives and a wild look. No lawn, no hybrids, everything is tough as nails. If things go dormant in the heat of summer, so be it. I do have a good deal of sun here. It was 94 degree sun today and it has been a cool summer..

Now I will keep my fingers crossed and see what happens. I might call an arborist and mine him for info.

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This post was edited by wantonamara on Sun, Jul 6, 14 at 23:41

Looks to be a old wound healing over, keep an eye on it, but I would see what it looks like next year. Those live oaks are very resilient.

You don't always have to take the most drastic measures as some here always seem to suggest. Trimming off the farthest branch(es) leaning over would be a compromise & lessen the weight-strain on the root-crown.

I guess my first instincts will be what I do. I have trimmed and I will wait and see what happens.

Live oaks are gnarly buggers full of voids, old bug homes, internal ingrown bark, shakes . the grain goes all sorts of ways. The "wound' in the base could be any one of those tendencies. This tree in central Texas hill country is a different animal from the one people are familiar with on the gulf coast and Southeast. but you guys know that, right?. Austin, East of here, has both kinds It is a different animal even from its brethren Q. fusiformis grown 20 miles to the east in better soil. I have one on my land that a biologist says is 100-200 years old and it is maybe 10 feet high and speaks of a very tough life with its feet in a sloping solid caliche shelf. I saved it from the attack of the cedars..

I build furniture and people bring me their fallen down live oak to work with and I roll my eyes and immediately put in a charge for sharpening planner blades , extra filler , and a LOT more time.

This post was edited by wantonamara on Wed, Jul 9, 14 at 0:09

I tried to butt out since my live oaks aren't growing large because of cold weather die-back. But, I love those trees, even if I never get a big one in my yard. If it can be saved, save it. They are beautiful trees, and the Fusi's grow so slow if you have a biggish one, SAVE IT.

I have never done a census on the land of my Live Oaks. I have quite a few so realistically, I can cut this down and not cry too hard too long..

It is the second most dominate tree that grows in the Hill Country. The developers slash ALL the other trees and keep the live oaks. In my opinion that is a dumb move considering LO decline is everywhere.

LO's are mostly in the part that has more soil than the back ravine effected part. Heights of the ones around the house are around 20' and less . some other areas have some 25 - 30 but most here we have on the slopes are 10' less to15 maybe. The topsoil went away during the big push for meat (WWI - II). There is some alkaline clay in the front field. The oaks have a tendency to grow smaller the farther west and sucker more from the roots. I think both ice storms and droughts trigger this. I could be wrong. Deer will chomp on them but they recover quickly unlike the Spanish Oaks, escarpment cherries, redbuds and such.
If I back off from that tree you see more small ones growing upwards
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This is the "very old one that never grows much. I had to stoop down to take the photo.

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The next two show a bank of them that extend down the edge of the field and the beginning of the caliche hill..

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These show the condition of many trees on the caliche that have been freed from cedars,
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I do Have some larger 35- 50' ones out by the road. They are really putting on the footage since I chopped the cedars from around them, even with some devastating ice storms. The live oaks do not loose their leaves till AFTER the time of ice storms. Live oaks are not designed for a northern winter.

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Yeah, tell me about it. Mine are like perennials here, unless we have a mild winter. I will likely never get a tree out of mine. I had one of the "spanish" ones grow about 3 1/2 ft then die back to the lower trunk last winter. I am going to plant zone 6 trees by them, they will never survive another winter like the last one. I am trying a new one from Joein mo, but we both realize it will LIKELY not make it to tree size, but it is worth a try. I would hate your climate, because I am used to regular rain, but I envy those live oaks!

That oak lost a third of its height during this storm several years back., and again in a couple of years later.. I ran a round with a link of metal conduit hitting on trees to get them to shed some ice. I have a lot of trees to beat on.

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