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Lightning Performance

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Lightning strike maybe, direct or indirect...Doesn't appear to be direct as there are no signs.
found a few dead like that. One had burnt branch tips on one side. Found many with double and triple stripes deep into the sap wood and they blew the bark off most of them but not every one. Damn hard wood left behind. You feel it while cutting.
 

Wood Doctor

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The more we discuss this possibility of lightning, the more I think that's what happened. Trees and people don't stand a chance against several million volts. The lightning goes straight to the ground and probably knocks out the tap root and lots of others. Strong direct lightning strikes can take the tree right out of the ground, but the indirect strike is likely what caused this. No disease or root rot could possibly have killed this healthy tree in less than three months.

Could be that the tree saved my house that has no lightning rods. :eyebrow2:
 
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RedGas

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I have a tree in the corner of the yard that gets hit every year or so...the lightning seems to travel down the outside of it, down the branches to the ground that way (Sweet gum, and the branches hang down to the ground in the summer). Lots and lots of bad scars in the bark where you can see the current traveled, even the tops of the roots that radiate out from the tree are burned.

And every year it seems I see evidence of additional strikes. We're out in the middle of farmland, about a mile from Chesapeake Bay as the crow flies...lots of lightning here...and the house gets hit every few years. Fortunately there are lots of lightning rods, but that doesn't prevent the lightning from taking out Ethernet cable, telephone lines, even slagging the telephone itself...
 

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The more we discuss this possibility of lightning, the more I think that's what happened. Trees and people don't stand a chance against several million volts. The lightning goes straight to the ground and probably knocks out the tap root and lots of others. Strong direct lightning strikes can take the tree right out of the ground, but the indirect strike is likely what caused this. No disease or root rot could possibly have killed this healthy tree in less than three months.

Could be that the tree saved my house that has no lightning rods. :eyebrow2:

My neighbor had lightning hit his tree directly, which killed it and is now gone. The lightning went into the ground; then traveled into the sprinkler system, which blew up pipe and blew up the unit on the wall in the garage (had parts all over his cars). The lightning entered the house and fried microwave, 2 TVs, and DVD player. It appears the lightning traveled to a nearby tree, as it is now dying with no signs of a direct strike.
 

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My neighbor had lightning hit his tree directly, which killed it and is now gone. The lightning went into the ground; then traveled into the sprinkler system, which blew up pipe and blew up the unit on the wall in the garage (had parts all over his cars). The lightning entered the house and fried microwave, 2 TVs, and DVD player. It appears the lightning traveled to a nearby tree, as it is now dying with no signs of a direct strike.
Holy Cow! You have to wonder if the GFCI or even the main breakers could have prevented some of that, but it can happen so fast with high voltage that nothing would have worked. My tree is also located right next to sprinkler pipe. I guess I was darned lucky. The tree apparently took the brunt of the electrical energy. You neighbor was not as fortunate. Perhaps his hit was a direct hit, not indirect. Frankly, it's scary.
 

Lightning Performance

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Holy Cow! You have to wonder if the GFCI or even the main breakers could have prevented some of that, but it can happen so fast with high voltage that nothing would have worked. My tree is also located right next to sprinkler pipe. I guess I was darned lucky. The tree apparently took the brunt of the electrical energy. You neighbor was not as fortunate. Perhaps his hit was a direct hit, not indirect. Frankly, it's scary.
Only two things scare me, dead trees and lightning. You can quote that.
 

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Only two things scare me, dead trees and lightning. You can quote that.
And just when I thought that we had this cause of death solved, I received another written reply from a tree surgeon. He says the 20' diameter tree ring eventually killed the tree. He says, "I know it sounds absurd, but sometimes it takes five years, and the tree dies anyway, about 90% of the time. I have no clue why."

The tree ring was installed in early 2014 to help fight erosion. Therefore, guys, the big pin oak tree was healthy for 4 years after the tree ring was installed and then died two months after producing a full crown and lots of acorns in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017?

WDYT?
 

RedGas

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I'm not surprised by the tree ring theory. What's that old saying, "Plant them low, they grow slow; plant them high, they'll never die" ? By the same token, I doubt burying the roots deeper with a tree ring on an established tree does it any good. Sounds like a good way to deprive the roots of oxygen; to crush roots (those stacked blocks are HEAVY, and if driving a car over the roots damages the tree, imagine what those blocks do); to drown, suffocate or otherwise kill off mycorrhizae colonies; and in general to do all sorts of other things that are Not Recommended®...

On the lightning thing and GFCI: My mother had lightning destroy not one but TWO submersible well pumps (and these pumps were something like 100 feet deep in the ground) within one or two years. If lightning can get down there and wipe stuff out, I doubt GFCIs are going to do much more to protect against lightning than liberate Magic Smoke at best on a good day...
 
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Wood Doctor

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I'm not surprised by the tree ring theory. What's that old saying, "Plant them low, they grow slow; plant them high, they'll never die" ? By the same token, I doubt burying the roots deeper with a tree ring on an established tree does it any good. Sounds like a good way to deprive the roots of oxygen; to crush roots (those stacked blocks are HEAVY, and if driving a car over the roots damages the tree, imagine what those blocks do); to drown, suffocate or otherwise kill off mycorrhizae colonies; and in general to do all sorts of other things that are Not Recommended®...

On the lightning thing and GFCI: My mother had lightning destroy not one but TWO submersible well pumps (and these pumps were something like 100 feet deep in the ground) within one or two years. If lightning can get down there and wipe stuff out, I doubt GFCIs are going to do much more to protect against lightning than liberate Magic Smoke at best on a good day...
I still have to wonder how on earth the tree ring could kill it that fast. Usually a tree dies a few branches at a time as one or two roots fail and it takes several years before all are gone and no leaves appear. This tree went from being healthy with full leaf and no dead limbs to no leaves at all in 2.5 months?

It's just plain hard to believe. Not even strong systemic herbicides work that fast on a big mature tree this size and s disease like oak wilt takes a year or more to kill them.
 

Wood Doctor

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Yeah, that is hard to believe. How long has it been in the ring?
Since early spring, 2014. It leafed out and was healthy in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Not a dead branch on the tree in all those years. then 2018 showed up and now it's naked as a jay bird. Truly a tragedy, I planted the tree in 1988 when it was about 7 years old. It has always been a great performer until now, nicely shaped and it always established a leader branch as it reached skyward.

Oh, and it will not be "free" firewood. I'll have to hire a tree removal company with a good climber to take it down. Several of the hosta may die also in the process.
 

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Hoping against hope, I think I'd give it another spring, and in the meantime make not-so-subtle remarks to the tree about Doktor Six-Sixty and the great woodstove in the sky if it doesn't straighten up and fly right by this time next year...

ETA: Just saw this on Wikipedia:

Damaging agents
Although pin oak is very tolerant of dormant-season flooding, it is much less tolerant of growing-season flooding. Trees may be injured or killed by intermittent growing-season flooding over several successive years. The trees can usually survive one growing season of continuous flooding, but will be killed by continuous flooding over 2 or 3 consecutive years. Pin oak is rated as "intermediately tolerant" to growing-season flooding. Also, since the bark of pin oak is relatively thin, the species is especially susceptible to damage by fire and decay associated with fire wounds.
 
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Wood Doctor

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I am really glad that you guys bumped this thread and kept it alive -- the thread that is. My big pin oak tree continued to die in all of 2018, was naked since early March, and eventually the bark started to fall off in July. Not even a single branch or a twig was alive all year, even though it had a full crown in December, 2017.

I believe that the cause of death to this beautiful tree was indirect lightning from a low-lying stratus cloud produced by a storm on March 2, 2018. This same storm created winds that blew away and ruined my deck furniture. The tree was electrocuted by indirect lightning that may have hit the tree dozens of times. All the roots of this tree were also destroyed, so no water ever made it to the trunk since then.

I removed the tree a few days ago and asked the crew to leave the large pieces so that I could inspect them. All of this pin oak's tree's wood is almost dry as a bone. Much of the heartwood of the main branches and the trunk is almost black. Even the sapwood is dry.

No disease or root smothering killed this tree. It was electrocuted in early March.
 

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I am really glad that you guys bumped this thread and kept it alive -- the thread that is. My big pin oak tree continued to die in all of 2018, was naked since early March, and eventually the bark started to fall off in July. Not even a single branch or a twig was alive all year, even though it had a full crown in December, 2017.

I believe that the cause of death to this beautiful tree was indirect lightning from a low-lying stratus cloud produced by a storm on March 2, 2018. This same storm created winds that blew away and ruined my deck furniture. The tree was electrocuted by indirect lightning that may have hit the tree dozens of times. All the roots of this tree were also destroyed, so no water ever made it to the trunk since then.

I removed the tree a few days ago and asked the crew to leave the large pieces so that I could inspect them. All of this pin oak's tree's wood is almost dry as a bone. Much of the heartwood of the main branches and the trunk is almost black. Even the sapwood is dry.

No disease or root smothering killed this tree. It was electrocuted in early March.


I remember when a bolt nailed the neighbors elm across the street from me when I was a kid. You would of thought a bomb hit it:eek:
 

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I remember when a bolt nailed the neighbors elm across the street from me when I was a kid. You would of thought a bomb hit it:eek:
that scares the *s-word out of ya. had a bolt hit this locust about 100 feet from the house this summer. only about 25 feet from my brand new F-250. :eek:
20180527_085622_004.jpg 20180527_085713.jpg
 

Wood Doctor

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I saved as much of the tree as I could. As the branches were being dropped, they hit the ground and literally shattered. That's how dry they were. We bucked the rounds to 18" lengths for splitting. Several were so big that I had to noodle cut them into halves before loading them onto the trailer.

There was no sign of moisture in the wood anywhere, twigs to trunk. This tree was baked dry by that indirect lightning. I imagine it was hit dozens of times during the storm. Imagine this: an oak tree with full crown in December, cooked in early March, split for firewood in October. As I write, even the stump is dead dry on top, ready for the grinder.
 

WKEND LUMBERJAK

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I saved as much of the tree as I could. As the branches were being dropped, they hit the ground and literally shattered. That's how dry they were. We bucked the rounds to 18" lengths for splitting. Several were so big that I had to noodle cut them into halves before loading them onto the trailer.

There was no sign of moisture in the wood anywhere, twigs to trunk. This tree was baked dry by that indirect lightning. I imagine it was hit dozens of times during the storm. Imagine this: an oak tree with full crown in December, cooked in early March, split for firewood in October. As I write, even the stump is dead dry on top, ready for the grinder.
At least it wasn't a total loss.
 

Wood Doctor

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At least it wasn't a total loss.
I paid a climber and his crew about $1,200 to drop it and chip the small branches. I had no intention of going 50' up. Then I went to work on the large stuff for the firewood business. In all, I might get to sell five truckloads of splits and recoup half of my tree removal expenses.

That takes us back to the thread title. Free firewood does not exist, even when mother nature dries it extra fast.
 
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