Storm Damage - Advice for large fallen trees

[Viking Guy]

It is with a sad an heavy heart that I must report massive damages in AKME properties due to taking a direct hit from hurricane Sally. Yes, that's my GPS shown in the eye of the storm as it made landfall on our shore.




Power is just getting restored to some areas around here.  Unfortunately, my Robust, Dwarf 8 and Semi-Dwarf 7 trees were annihilated.  The ones pictured are Michael, Zesty and Sunset, which have toppled.  We have countless others down, but still cannot access them due to fallen trees and power lines.

I would like to seek out advice of those who have handled and saved trees larger than 4 inch caliper which have toppled after such storms.

Typically, trees with 10"+ caliper trunks like these cannot be simply stood back up. 4" - 5" is normally the cutoff.

I am considering taking this time to dig them out and pot them in giant 100 to 300 gallon pots and hope for the best.

Has anyone tried this?  Perhaps root pruning and stumping them down to about 4 feet with some foliage?  My intent would be moving them further north to a more protected area later this year.

Obviously, after a week of laying down, there's not much chance of saving the canopy at this point.  Any advice on handling it in this fashion would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance. 

P.S) Before anyone asks, the Viking didn't so much as lose a branch. Still looking around as if to say, "Storm.  What storm?"

[Mike T]

There are some tough choices to be made and hard work. Don't give up on any. Stand up and stake smaller ones and trim what you have to. Dig out what you have to and replant but don't leave them lying down un the sun with their full canopy. For big stuff you might have to chop nearly all the canopy off and shelter from the sun. If you cant stand it up leave it leaning and trim right down. Shelter everything you can from the harsh sun and even some stumps will reprout. Seal and clean up rough breaks.

[Viking Guy]

There are some tough choices to be made and hard work. Don't give up on any. Stand up and stake smaller ones and trim what you have to. Dig out what you have to and replant but don't leave them lying down un the sun with their full canopy. For big stuff you might have to chop nearly all the canopy off and shelter from the sun. If you cant stand it up leave it leaning and trim right down. Shelter everything you can from the harsh sun and even some stumps will reprout. Seal and clean up rough breaks.

Unfortunately, pretty much all of the fallen trees are large.  5 to 16 years old and 10"+ calipers.

To attempt salvation of the cultivars here, I will have to break all rules of arboriculture and remove most of the canopy (including the dreaded topping), and prune back the root system, and then attempt to pot them. I already know from experience that standing them back up from this size never works due to the broken root system, and topping sends off a bunch of epicormic shoots.

At this point, my only goal would be to remove them from these coastal properties, and get them further north, and utilize them for scions for as long as possible for propagation to keep the varieties alive in the hobby. May keep containerized for some years until I see the potential to replant in a more secure area (provided they survive).

Fortunately, there hasn't been any direct sun since the hurricane, but unfortunately, two more hurricanes are facing our direction.  Doesn't appear we are going to catch a break from the rain just yet.  That may be the saving grace for these trees at the moment.

[ScottR]

Wow, sad to see the damage your place took from hurricane Sally. Looks like many of the trees shown in your pic most likely will come back if you can up rite them and stake down. Loquats, a very forgiving trees you can cut them way back and get them up rite as best as possible with roots covered up and they will come back. You've got a hard work ahead hope you've got some folks to help you out!!
Mike gave you excellent advice I think you best bet is to get them trees up and cut back and roots covered up.
Best of luck in your job. 

[Mike T]

Scott is on the right track here and a case by case basis may be needed. Yes trim roots also and tar sealant or paint helps. Remember when transporting to secure well and keep roots wet. Sometimes digging out in stages is best. Dig around, trim canopy and cut the roots one day, and let it rest and get it out another day. You will need volunteers and patience and some taproot breakages and stubbornness may mean there will be casualties with removals.

[achetadomestica]

I was worried about you. I hope your family and you were and are safe!

Irma did a number on my yard. I had one loquat I had planted as a seed that
was snapped off about 10" from the ground. It was 6 or 7 years old and had started
producing. What really took a hit was my annonas. Every single one of them was laying
sideways on the ground. I cut off some fruit on the Lisa and all the branches down to a minimum
on all the trees. staked everything up and every tree made it. My Lisa atemoya will always be
a twisted mess but it fruits. I lost the loqaut and I had a silas wood sapodilla the snapped off below the
graft. I would get a shovel and dig out a hole by the roots and get a come along and pull them straight
Cover the roots, put a stake in  and water every day. the trees in those picture should be able to be uprighted. I am
not famiiar with their roots. I had a 30' pine die 6 months later from Irma. I had a 20' Laurel Oak
go down and 15 feet away a garbage can lid got blown off 5 feet? Those tornados are so spotty.
We lost power for 10 days and I stayed at home. Too many people driving around on my dead end street with
trailers driving slow looking around. You know people that don't live on my street.

[bsbullie]

What made Sally different and more damaging to trees was the extreme rainfall (and constant surge due to slow movment) and length of time of winds due to slow movement.

[TonyinCC]

 I think you can save all the trees.
Irma's eye passed right through my neighborhood a few years back. She took down a neighbor's mango tree that was about 10 inch diameter at the base and over 15 feet tall. It was blown over mostly intact. We borrowed got a bunch of cinder blocks and some plywood scraps from a nearby construction site and progressively jacked the tree(protected by rags and scrap wood with an automotive jack up to maybe 35 degrees. We were then able to get a chain and some rope wrapped with a few towels to protect the wood at a point where the tree branched 6-8 feet up from ground and pull it up with a pickup truck. Total success. I did have to sever one root about an inch diameter a couple feet from the trunk that was keeping tension on the tree so it would stay upright. Tree is healthy years later with no lean. It can be done with the right leverage. My neighbor was amazed it worked. We left some weight on roots that were close to the surface after we re-buried them to keep them in place. Definitely worth a try if you can attempt something similar. Took us less than 2 hours.

[Seanny]

Roots going through rain soaked soil like hot knife going through butter.
Neither can go through rocks.

Straighten your trees.
Hammer down some rebars, at an angle away from tree, around tree and tie them to tree.
Put a ring of big rocks around the trunk to keep roots down.
If you can't get rocks get cinder blocks.

Next time your tree will snap instead of topping over.

[850FL]

Hey man don’t you live near Perdido or something? I’m on scenic hwy near the milton bridge. Maybe I should come out and see what ya got going on there?!
Btw just hammer stakes in the ground 5-15 ft away from all those trees and tie a rope to em and then to the stake, but have somebody on the opposite side push the tree while you tie it back good. Real simple. Just had to do that with my leylands.. Was up at the property all day chopping up pine trees.. a couple were tossed right onto my Mexican avocados and that pissed me off a bit but it’s whatever. One of those leylands fell on my biggest queen palm and did this




Also prune any snapped roots before you stake up your trees, then after you stake em, mound up with a layer of good compost mixed with sand around the roots, then after that some more sand, clay, mulch, n rocks, or really whatever you can get a hold of but the point is make sure theres a good bit of weight holding down those roots again. Also you may want to prune some upper branches so the tree as a whole won’t be overstressed trying to support a canopy that the roots can no longer fully handle. May also need to throw window screen over the trimmed canopies once the sun comes back out. Like the others were saying, loquats are pretty forgiving my dude. I tried to transplant a 12 ft satsuma (2-hand trunk girth) as well as a very similar size nectarine from people around town in the past, and neither one made it long term. Satsuma lasted a week and nectarine 6 months. Better off staking imo. Just watch out if you’re gonna use wire, so the trees don’t grow into it and get strangled.
Also may want to water them in with a mix of very light water-soluble nutes, pulverized limestone (the white kind), a good bit of rooting hormone, and throw in some more black compost to the tea for good luck

[850FL]

Just be thankful none of us were this guy

[odin.9]

hang in there!
we also sustained significant damage. we are located outside of pensacola. I didn't have any real mature trees, but i lost a lot of young fruit trees, citrus, seedlings, propagated muscadine vines. I'll start a thread and report back later.  we had 18inches of water in our apartment and inlaws had 4-5 ft. lots to clean up still.