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Two climbers in my crew argue about whether spikes should ever touch a prune job, and I want to hear where you all land
Watched a guy spike up a 60 foot silver maple in Rochester last Tuesday just to reach two dead limbs, and my foreman said nothing. Half the crew says it's fine if the tree comes down later anyway, the other half says it wrecks the cambium and invites rot, no exceptions. What's your rule on this, is there any job where spiking a keeper tree is actually okay?
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betty_coleman582d ago
I once watched a buddy spike a big old oak just to set a rig line for a dead leader over a driveway, and he swore it was fine because the tree was getting cabled anyway. Two years later that same oak had a nasty streak of rot running right down from the spike holes, and the owner blamed us for it. We ended up eating the cost of a removal that should have paid us triple. Lesson learned the hard way. Now I won't let spikes near any tree we plan to keep, no matter how tempting it is. If it's coming down, spike away. If it's staying, rope in or climb it clean.
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