Noticed a split trunk on a 60 year old oak at a park in Austin

I was walking through Zilker Park last Tuesday and saw this massive live oak with a deep V-crotch crack that's been cabled at least twice. The new growth on one side is pushing against the old bark seam, and it got me thinking about how we often treat these splits as static problems instead of watching them rotate with the wind over decades. Has anyone else seen a trunk that's been cabled for 20 years and still holding, or do you all usually recommend a reduction instead?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

thomas_sanchez1mo ago

Cabled a big pecan back in 2006 that had a similar V-crotch split, and it's STILL holding up fine through all the storms we get. The key for me was putting the cable higher up than most folks do, right into the strong wood instead of the decayed seam area. I also did a light reduction on the heavy side to take some pressure off the connection, maybe 15 percent at most. It's not perfect but the tree is still alive and the crack hasn't grown an inch since.

7