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Hot take: I finally understood why my boss in Seattle always insisted on a 3-point cut for storm damage
Watched a big maple limb fail at the union last week after a clean flush cut from another crew. Anyone else see this happen with 'cleaner' cuts?
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karen3613mo ago
Left a stub, let the collar do its thing.
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diana5121mo ago
Three years ago I lopped off a branch flush with the trunk on a maple and it looked so clean I gave myself a pat on the back. Then that whole side of the tree started oozing sap like it was crying for help and a year later the bark just peeled off like an old sunburn. Now that branch stub is basically a permanent dead knot and every time I look at it I feel like the dumbest person in the yard. So yeah, I learned the hard way that leaving a stub isn't being lazy, it's giving the tree a fighting chance. I swear the tree judges me every spring when it leafs out around that ugly scar.
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Man, what finally made it click for you? I used to think those three-point cuts were just extra work for no reason. Then I watched a big branch, cut flush last year, just peel the bark right down the trunk when it fell this spring. It left this nasty wound. Now I get it, that collar isn't just extra wood, it's like the tree's bandage. A clean cut takes that away and the tree can't heal right.
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