Too big for its pot
I was called out to trim a large, 30 year old Pittosporum undulatum. From below I could see that there was some disease.
When I climbed into the canopy I found out that the disease was much worse than it seemed.
There was die back along the main branches. There were also mushrooms. Mushrooms in trees is a sign of rot on the inside of the tree.
The reason why is that this tree got too big for the pot in which it was planted. 30 years ago it was just a little tree. Today, it is massive.
We didn’t want to remove the tree right away. A most trees do, it has a lot of sentimental value (as well as aesthetic). Laura planted it herself 30 years ago when it was just a tiny sapling; when it was the only tree on the block. She had no idea that it would become so large. The tree will have to come down some day. We’ll keep an eye on it for now. Fortunately Laura also planted a sidewalk tree so that the space won’t be completely bare when the Pitto is gone.
These Pittosporums are very stubborn trees. They can take a lot of abuse, but we don’t want to risk a branch falling on a pedestrian on thesidewalk. So we removed some major limbs, reduced the weight of the diseased branches and made a commitment to monitor the disease over the next few years.
We also pruned a New Zealand Christmas Tree that was in the sidewalk. I did the pruning and Kent took care of the ground work. Here are some before and after photos:
