it's not snow...

[stuck]

...on these pine cones. It's not ice either, it's resin.

Ken

[HansV]

The streets here were covered in 2 cm (0.8") of hail tonight - it looked like snow...

(Beautiful picture, by the way)

[DocAElstein]

We got a lot of snow for the first time yesterday.

it's not snow... It's not ice either, it's resin.

I have both on mine, a light sprinkling of snow on the top and that dripping sticky resin stuff on the cones

Sticky Xmas Tree Seed things (cones).JPG

( I chopped the top half off, of a dozen or so of these 8 meter high
Xmas trees and
other pretty white bark trees , last Sunday, (as part of a plan I have to save “my” railway station area from global warming effects). I kept getting this sticky resin stuff on my hands and clothes. As a consolation, after, as I started chopping the wood up, I thought the top half with all the cones on, made great Xmas trees, which I have now at home in the garden scattered about. They look so pretty with these cones hanging from them, I think they don’t need much more decoration.
Apparently in the next county, Thuringham, they pay people to shin up these trees in the Forrest to get at these cones, so as to get the seeds. Most of the cones seem to be towards the top.
I got loads of them now, since I chopped the top half down. - I must get around to figure out how to get the seeds from them, and try and plant a few, - once again to do my bit to save the environment, - Sadly we lost a lot of these trees locally in the last few years, either because they died of thirst in a few recent too hot summers, or, in some cases, whole forests of these trees got blown down in storms in recent years, :(.
(That is why I decided to chopped the top half off – I figured they would not need as much water and be less susceptible to being blown down?, - just a theory.)

Alan

[stuck]

...just a theory...

Not a theory I can support even though I'm not an expert in conifer trees. In my limited experience of them, if they are cut back in to old wood, they do not regrow and green up again.

Trees have been around for a very long time, they know how to cope with dry spells and wind. Thus I'd expect having the top half cut off would simply weaken the tree and make it more prone to a slow death than if it had been left alone.

Ken

[DocAElstein]

I figured they still have deep roots which give them water and hold the tree, but now are not as stressed in wind and dry spells as they only have half as much to hold and feed. . The green is wider at the middle, ( the top now), so I guessed the photo symphysis still would be OK. I figured if I did nothing they would be dead, as half of them have become in recent years, which is weaker, ( well depending on your religion I guess. I don’t know if there is a tree heaven they go to. But even if they do, it makes it worse for us here when they go).
Worth a try I thought. Not so much to lose there. – every few years they cut back the biggest trees anyway in case they fall on the main line. They work a bit fast and are more aggressive with their chain saw, and massacre things more crudely.
I will try getting clued up on the seed and planting issue as well.