[site]

Yesterday I went to look at some trees we planted last year in the middle of town. It's a place where the kids like to hang out. One of the trees (3" cal.)was really looking bad, and when I got up close I noticed that it had been broken right off about 1' out of the ground. Whoever broke it made their best attempt to repair the damage. The repair consisted of duct tape wrapped around the trunk about 30 times, and a bungee cord holding the tree straight. It was a fantastic effort. I should have taken a picture.

[Stonehenge]

I knew I shoulda been using duct tape for my tree work!

[NCSULandscaper]

I have repaired damaged limbs using wide electrical tape. Anything that will hold a new break together will work IMO.

[agla]

This makes me think of when I worked in Idaho. My boss make quick fixes on equipment with duct tape, sprinkler marking flags (instead of bailing wire), and PVC piping.

My second favorite was the 4" PVC duct taped to the handle of a mini trencher to to push out on the tension cable instead of actually adjusting it.

My most favorite was the time he built a cold frame, full size mind you, out of PVC sprinkler pipe. It lasted about 48 hours. I can't remember if it rained or the wind blew, but it was like the second little pigs house after the wolf came knocking. How can you keep a straight face?

For any of you Idaho guys, he was not from Idaho.

[Slimber]

A lot of things in life is worth a try but in this case, the proper thing to do would be to have remove the broken branch with a cut. When a tree gets cut or broken off, it immediately starts to wall off or compartmentalize the wounding area and starts healing itself from within. By not removing the busted limb, the tree healing resources would have to work longer and harder to heal and this in turn would allow time for it to get infected by predators which could end up killing the tree in the long run.

[Nek]

I think the bigger question should be how the heck did they break the tree that way???? Its got to be tough to break a 3" caliper 1" above ground level.

[Slimber]

Nothing seems to be hard for kids to break anything nowadays.