First Winter storm is a tree-killer

[Shdwdrgn]

Here in Colorado, we got hit with an early snow storm Tuesday-Wednesday. All of the trees still have their full leaves, and we got 9 inches of heavy wet snow. Needless to say, there was a LOT of tree damage! Fortunately for my pond, the tree in the back yard is a locust, which have very small leaves, so there were no branches raining down on my fish.

Unfortunately, my maple in the front yard wasn't so lucky...

What you can't see here is that what appears to be a center branch is actually the other half of the tree... It splits into two trunks almost immediately out of the ground, and then this side split into two main trunks again just above the ground.

This one branch is about 1/4 of the tree. If the remaining limb survives, then the tree should fill back in nicely again in a few years. If the limb does not survive, then I think the right side of the Y is going to fall over into the street. I'll have to see what happens with it next Summer, but this may determine if I keep the tree, or cut the whole thing down.

... And here I was so excited about getting our first snow. This just really ruined my day.

 

[sissy]

I was just saying that there was snow in colorado the other day and wow it must have been a heavy wet snow .I guess your really thankfull that tree was not by your pond.Tree's that have that kind of y in the truck are usually weaker ,I know from years of my father taking trees down .They should always have a strong center trunk and then branch out from that .I noticed the rot on that branch that water was getting into also .Wet snow will take down the hardest tree when it still has leaves on it

 

[fishin4cars]

Holy Smoke Batman, That's more snow than I'll probably see all year! Sorry to see the tree took a hard hit, hope the fishes are deep and warm, did you get the Dojo's in before the snow hit? Be interesting to see how they do through the winter if not. Still warm here, 80 degrees right now here, but that front is heading our way, Suppose to get down to a chilly 71 for a High Sunday and a low of frigid 39! I better go ride the bike this week before that get's here! LOLOLOL Living in the deep south does have it's advantages....

 

[addy1]

They are saying we might get a tiny amount of snow tomorrow or Saturday. At least my pond and all else is ready.

 

[sissy]

gosh it is 78 here windy as anything but warm out but did protect my plants and pond from old man winter .He has a lot of nerve arriving early

 

[Shdwdrgn]

fishin - Other than seeing a brief glimpse of the dojos through the Summer, I have no idea where they're hiding out. I don't know if that means they simply didn't do well, or if they just have REALLY good hiding spots (plenty of stacked rocks plus a couple inches of sand in the deep end for them). I was really counting on them to scavenge through the rocks and help keep them cleaned out. At this point the dojos are in the water for the Winter... hopefully they'll survive and be more friendly next Spring.

We're supposed to get back in the 60's this weekend. All the snow should be melted pretty quick, then I can see how bad the damage to my tree and bushes is. This storm has knocked loose all the leaves in back though, so I've been scooping out net-fuls of leaves todays. Probably take me all week to finish cleaning everything.

 

[addy1]

We were sitting outside, a wind gust took the leaves blew them over our house, one huge amount, luckily the wind kept them going right over the pond and out into the back field. We are doing the same thing, diving down then climbing back up in temperature.

 

[CometKeith]

Lucky the tree fell that way instead of toward the driveway!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Actually it did fall right to the edge of my driveway... The truck you see in the pic is my neighbor's.

 

[addy1]

Well your storm is supposed to hit here tonight, we are on the edge of the possible snow, so tomorrow will tell.

 

[herzausstahl]

At least it didn't hit anything shdwdrgn, and it looks like it had a clean break that would be easy to clean up. It looks like the remaining branch still has a lot of trunk to it so it should hold. Make sure you keep us updated on the Dojo's in spring, I would be curious to hear how they did too, they sound like they would be cool to add to the pond.

 

[sissy]

The best thing to do with the tree for now is bolt the branch and wire the tree together and protect the wound on the tree with a natural wrap or over the winter water freezing and thawing in the wound will cause it to rot .You can wrap the wound and then you should make it waterproof or at least as waterproof as you can .Treat it almost like a bonsai .

 

[Shdwdrgn]

@herzausstahl - We have golden dojos in a couple of our aquariums, and just love watching them. My understanding is that there are two types, native to Europe and Northern Asia. That alone should indicate that they are able to survive the Winters, however I've also seen reports from folks in Canada and Washington state who have them in their ponds, which completely freeze over during the Winter. However my main concern right now is still the question of whether they even survived the Summer? The ones we have inside are extremely active at all times, not the least bit shy, but since they went into hiding I have only seen one golden and one regular dojo - although they had both certainly grown a lot and looked healthy. So I just don't know. All I can do is wait and watch.

@sissy - yeah I'll be looking this weekend for something to wrap the tree up with. The wood was surprisingly dry when it broke. I would have expected a lot more sap or something, but I guess it varies between types of trees.

 

[stroppy]

ive got to ask what is a dojo ?

 

[HARO]

A.K.A. weather loach. Genus misgurnus. John