North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[rob hamilton <lostman_amiga@yahoo.com>]

Your tree might be to small for this, but this brings up the time my Loquat tree split in half from the weight of a big ice storm we had about 4 years ago. 
Some people from this list told be to bore hole through the middle of the tree trunk and put a large carriage bolt through it with some washers of each end and finish it with a nut to hold the trunk gather. I put some tape across the wound to keep the water out and braced the branches with a some cargo tie. 

I thought this was crazy, but the tree is healing quite nicely. The wood is growing around the the bolt, washers and the nut. A few more years, it will be covered. I need to make sure to mark it just in case I need attack it with a chain saw.

That crotch might always be a little weaker that the rest, but I read you can aways take some branches that are growing toward each other and twist them together. In time they will become one and may be a natural brace.

I have been thinking of this last
 method as a way of insuring rows of bushes from crown borer attacks. If a bushes crown gets girdled the bush can be nourished from the neighboring bushes, till it re-roots. Just a theory..
 
Steve <SDW12986@aol.com> wrote:
>  
> Hi Bill,
>  From what I'm picturing, here's what I would do. I would not cut that 
> entire huge branch off... yet. I would cut most of it off leaving the 
> base and one or two small side branches. If you cut it all off now, it 
> will be a huge defect that the small remaining trunk will have a hard 
> time healing.
> Wrap the split part tightly and hope it will grow back together. Maybe 
> use a little grafting wax or compound at the top to water proof it a 
> bit. Keep the remains of the branch alive as that will help the area 
> heal. Prune it like crazy for a couple of years so that branch
>  doesn't 
> increase much in diameter. In a couple of years, the trunk will be much 
> bigger in diameter than the branch and you can then saw it off 
> completely. It should heal over nicely then.
> Watch for other branches forming narrow crotch angles and either cut 
> them off or correct them early.
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> billg@inebraska.com wrote:
>
> >Well, I did it again. This is really dumb, but I suppose I'd better 
> >'fess up. I planted an Illinois Everbearing Mulberry this past spring, 
> >and it has grown like a weed. It was just a twig when I planted it, but 
> >now it's about twelve feet tall with a trunk maybe three inches in 
> >diameter at the base. OK, it's raining, so I'm just guessing, but the 
> >point is that it's really grown surprisingly big in just a few short 
> >months, even though I tried to do a little summer pruning (not much, 
> >since I'd just planted it).
> >
> >It doesn't have too many
>  branches, and those it does have tend to be 
> >very long - even summer pruning didn't seem to stop them from extending 
> >further. But one branch (the only one it had when I planted it) is 
> >really huge. In fact, it's bigger in diameter than the main trunk that 
> >rises above it. And it has a narrow crotch angle, though I've been 
> >trying to gently correct that. Yup, you guessed it,... except that I 
> >didn't snap the branch off (it was too big for that), I ended up 
> >splitting the main trunk of the tree in half (for about three or four 
> >inches below this branch).
> >
> >Have I killed the tree completely? I tied it up again right away - 
> >cursing my stupidity all the while - but I doubt this will work. Since 
> >the split is from the top down, I suppose it's almost certain to get 
> >moisture in it this winter, which will then freeze and pry it open. (We 
> >usually have fairly dry winters, but not
>  completely so.) Whatever 
> >happens, I imagine that this branch will have to go, right? But should I 
> >cut it off now, or wait until my normal late-winter pruning?
> >
> >This is going to make a horrible mess of the tree, whatever I do. But 
> >maybe it will still survive. And actually, I'd like the tree to stay 
> >small and bushy,... which is definitely NOT what it wants to do. I'd 
> >appreciate some suggestions. Do I let it go until spring or prune now? 
> >And how much? Do I cut off the whole branch, or maybe remove the split 
> >side of the trunk, too? Since the trunk is fairly small ABOVE this 
> >branch, the lower trunk is really split in half. It's just disgusting.
> >
> >I hadn't planned to keep most of the other branches on the tree. One is 
> >too low, and most of the others are higher than I'd like (next spring, I 
> >plan to prune the trunk below them to encourage more branching). But 
> >this
>  branch was perfect, except for the narrow crotch angle,... and 
> >being so big it nearly overwhelms the tree.
> >
> >Incidentally, there are a half-dozen green mulberries on the tree, which 
> >I thought was kind of funny for October. I've left them alone, since I 
> >figured they wouldn't take much energy from such a huge tree. Now, 
> >though, might be a different story.
> >
> >Bill
> >Lincoln, NE (zone 5)
> >
> >  
> >
>
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