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Cabling talk with an old timer changed my mind on tree supports
Last month I was on a job in Madison with a 65 year old arborist named Hank. He told me I was over-cabling my red oaks and showed me his rig from a storm damaged tree 8 years ago. He said 'you're treating every crack like a broken bone, but some trees just need a brace, not a full cast.' That hit different because I realized I was wasting time and materials on stuff that didn't need it. Now I only cable when the union is less than 40% intact. Has anyone else had a mentor talk them out of a trade habit?
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xena_anderson2d ago
Old timers get hung up on percentages but miss the bigger picture. Hank's point about braces over casts is solid, but he's wrong to ignore decay pockets inside the trunk. Had a red oak fail on me last spring with a 50% intact union. Cleaned it up and found heart rot running six feet up the stem. Numbers on the outside don't tell you what's rotten inside.
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