When a tempest tears through your town, it can inflict severe harm on your house and trees. Sometimes, this damage is fixable. However, in certain situations, you might have to get the tree taken down.
Below I will go through the different types of damage you can expect from storm-damaged trees1 and what are the best steps to repairing them.
A broken tree branch is very common and easy to fix. Depending on the size of the tree, you may need a qualified arborist to carry out the repairs.
- Identify broken branches and remove any still hanging in the tree.
- Cut the branch that has broken off back to the nearest collar.
Tree Broken in half
When a tree snaps in half, it can not be put back together, so you will need to decide whether to keep the tree or remove it completely. Here are some things to take into consideration2.
- How large is the tree – The larger the tree the more difficult it is to save. Smaller trees less than 15ft can recover and go onto being large healthy trees.
- Where has the tree snapped? – If it has broken off the top third of the tree, then there is a good chance you can just tidy up the damage and allow the tree to continue. Just as long as there are plenty of branches below the break. If it is all trunk, you might have to remove it.
Something you need to also bear in mind is if you decide to allow your tree to continue to grow, it might not grow healthy branches as before. In a lot of cases, it will send out suckers from the bark. When these develop into larger branches they will easily snap off under their own weight and can be very dangerous.
Repair split tree branch
Split tree branches can be repaired for small to medium-sized trees. The repair is quite crude but does the job.
- Measure the diameter of the tree branch and buy several stainless steel bolts.
- Drill through the broken section, being sure to place a bolt for every 6 inches of split branch.
- Insert the bolts and tighten them until the split closes up.
These will not be removed again. The tree will eventually grow around these bolts and continue to live a healthy life.
