okay is there any tree surgens on this board

My father is building a extension to a garage and there is a small tree about 1ft in diameter that is just going to get in the way instead of chopping tree down is there anyway of bending it over.

We have a 5 ton winch and a chain saw Can we cut half way through the tree without killing it ?

use the winch to pull the garage to one side

the garage is a good bit bigger and heavier than the tree being aout 4 cars long and on a solid concret base and attached to a house

[deep thought]mmmmm. tricky.[/deep thought]

maybe you'll need to employ some of the big engines you work with.


Unless the tree is really tall, you *should* be able to 'prune' one side of it. It's height will have much effect tho. If it's tall, it may get unbalanced.
A better solution would be to remove the tree entirely and plant a grove of them in replacement.

Don't under estimate the weight of the tree either. one tonne of wood is surprisingly short lengths when you see it as a tree. I've seen a video of a guy chainsawing a tree to drop into the back of his pickup. He landed it perfectly into the tray but the tree was over two metres high and 5 foot in diameter. Broke the suspension, the rear tyres, bent the tray and the chassis too I imagine and started rolling down a slight hill.

We have a 5 ton winch and a chain saw Can we cut half way through the tree without killing it ?

I've no idea, but if you try it, you so should video the attempt and make a website called www.extremebonsai.com...

Peter

Half way through a tree would really be pushing it - For one thing you'd be halving the bark's circumference at that point, which means only half the capacity for nutrients to reach the part of the tree above the cut.

A better idea, (which is untested, and still might not work!) would be to offset smaller cuts, small wedge cuts on the compression side (inside of the bend), with small straight cuts on the tensile side (outside). By doing this you could effectively ensure that the amount of bark cut at any point doesn't exceed 1/3 of the circumference. By using multiple cuts you can spread the bend out across a longer section of the trunk, which should be easier with less stress on the core of the trunk. (Think of bending a plank - if you try to enforce a 45 degree bend right at the center the plank is likely to snap, but if you try to bend if so that the 45 degree bend is spread across it's length, you're more likely to be successful.)

But still, with a 12" diameter tree, that would still leave a lot ot thickness to bend. What kind of tree is it? I'd imagine that is relevant.

Another thing you need to consider - how will you fix the tree in position. I imagine that it will take many months for the tree to heal to the point where it's happy to grow with the bend. A metal stake in the ground would have potential to shift over that long a timeframe, so you'd need to make sure it was secure. Securing the tether to the tree might also pose a problem. Tying a cable around the trunk leads to the risk of cutting into the bark at that point, especially with the size of tree and forces involved, and I'm not sure that protecting the bark with hessian is going to work for such force and time. It might be preferable to use a nice big eye screw on the inside of the trunk.

And don't forget the risks with tensile ropes/cables. The last thing you need is for a storm to cause the rope or cable to snap and whip someones arm off.

...and if the bend is significant then it's probably a good idea to do it a few degrees at a time, allowing a few weeks between each bend for the tree's core to adapt.

but the tree was over two metres high and 5 foot in diameter. Broke the suspension, the rear tyres, bent the tray and the chassis too

I can believe that... that's about 130 cubic feet of wood. Figure the tree at about 75% the density of water and that would be, ummm... 130x62.5x.75 a bit over 6,000 pounds dropping into that truck. Probably more than half again the weight of the truck itself.

tanstaafl.