Had to climb a 90-foot oak in Austin last week with a 30-year-old crack in the trunk

I was pruning some deadwood up top when I spotted this vertical crack going down about 15 feet from a branch union. The homeowner said it's been there since they bought the place in 2010. Anyone else run into these old cracks that somehow haven't split open yet?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph_torres19d ago

Ngl gracewebb that nailed it, I've had similar luck monitoring old cracks that just stayed put.

mila_flores819d ago

Haven't you ever seen a crack that looked stable but ended up failing anyway though? I get the logic that 30 years without splitting means something, but a strong wind can change all that fast. I've had bigger oaks fail right next to smaller cracks that looked way worse... sometimes the tree just holds until the one bad day hits.

gracewebb20d ago

You ever had one of those moments where you realize you've been wrong for years? Because same here. I used to see a crack that old and automatically think "that tree's a ticking time bomb, take it out before someone gets hurt." But then I had a client with a big oak that had a crack from the 90s running through a major limb union, still holding strong with no movement. I checked it every year for five years and it never changed. Now I look at things like bark inclusions and old cracks differently, figure if it's been there 30 years without splitting during a Texas storm, maybe the tree's already adapted around it. Still wouldn't climb it without a solid inspection first though.