Still rooted fallen rubber tress - what to do ?

[oporhatch]

I am no farmer .....however after the recent rains and winds I have had about 40 10- year old  rubber trees fall over but not become unrooted.

 

What should I do with them. I understand taking the rubber might be a bit difficult !! - I was just wondering what other farmers do.

My plan was to leave them and just put all the soil back to cover the roots.

Should I 

1) Cut a lot of the branches off and let the tree grow further branches from the side upwords

2) leave as they are 

3) Just cut them up and remove them

 

any ideas and help would be appreciated

 

  

 

[Mosha]

Ask here   

 

[drtreelove]

A photo would help.  I don't know rubber trees well , but as a life long tree worker I have dealt with many fallen and tilted trees, from being wind thrown, or other types of structural failures.  

You say they are not uprooted, but I assume you mean not totally laying on the ground with all the roots out, but partially, one-sided root lifting and the tree trunk leaning.  What degree of lean? 

If they are just slightly tilted, 10% or so, with a major percentage of roots still intact, then you may be able to straighten them with manpower or a truck or winch pull, If the soil is still wet enough. But they would need to be supported with guy cables to stakes in the ground for a couple of years until they re-rooted and became stable.  With 40 trees that could be a formidable project and some money involved for time and materials. 

If the trees are stable and standing on their own, then your idea of covering the exposed roots and directional pruning of the branch structure, may be the most practical thing to do.   Prune off the lower branches on the under side of the tilted canopy and leave the branches growing more upright, select and favor the best upright growing branch to form a new central leader. This will take some weight off from the overall foliar canopy and help to prevent further tilting. 

 

Consider other preventive measures for further damage, like guying the trees against the direction of prevailing winds, and planting a windbreak.  

[kwonitoy]

If they are 10 years old they will need a good trimming to reduce weight, and then dig out around the roots as good as you can, and then you can stand the tree up by pulling with a tractor or a backhoe. (or a jeep, like I did)

 

Pound at least 4 sturdy posts into the ground and then tie rope from tree to post.

Let the ropes stay attached for at least year to give the roots time to regrow.

 

The other way is to build a framework around the tree, That's more Thai style

I always went with the ropes

 

We had a Typhoon several years ago and I've picked up hundreds of the #$#$ing things over the years

[oporhatch]

Thanks for the replies 

Most of the ones that are fallen are laying about 10 % of the floor  = where the top foliage has stopped them hitting the ground. as stated 75% of the roots  are still under the ground .  The real issue I have was there is a stream that runs through the farm - where the source of the water comes from a mountain a fair distance away.  Therefore the ground this time has got very very (with an flooded stream) , hence why 50% of  the trees are near the stream

 

I need to do some drainage work later in the year, which will require some heavy duty work, maybe I will address at this point 

 

Thanks again 

         

[kickstart]

 

I use to work for a landscaping firm, and we use to plant a lot of trees, and they where all double staked, as in the photos, , we only used a single top rail never two rails, these are only small trees ,we have done a lot bigger  and we never had a problem with them falling over . 

If you do double stake tree's problem is finding good wooden stakes, eucalyptus stakes will rot out in less than year if you can find some wood preservative  that might help,creosote would be nice, an old farm fitter once told me, soak the base of the posts in old sump oil and diesel, that will help preserve the posts.

 knocking the posts in, preferably with a post knocker, using a sledgehammer will split the post, the posts should be knocked in the best part of 2 foot.

The photos use tree belting to tie the trees, not available in Thailand, strips of motorcycle innertube raped around the tree and top rail will do the job .rubber blocks between the tree and rail should be used, again not available pieces of old motorcycle tyers will do the job.

My late old boss would be turning in his grave if he looked at Thai's tieing tree's.

 

 

 

How to Stake a Large Tree - YouTube

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