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Hing Cutting : a deer hunters technique we can use?

 
gardener
Posts: 5170
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio,Price Hill 45205
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I have poorly pruned/trained fruit trees that are too tall.
I found this idea of hinge cutting trees while looking for a way to bend these 4" trunks to the horizontal.
It's not suitable  for any tree you really need to survive, but it still could be  useful.

Hing cutting is almost exactly like laying a hedge.
The land manager cuts most of the way through an existing tree, felling it but leaving it attached to the roots with a small bit of truck, the hinge:



The point is to immediately  bring food and cover down to the deer's level, and also open up the canopy so more deer browse will grow.

So you keep the entire tree alive and yet bring it into reach, and allow sunlight in.
This seems like tool that could help feed livestock, establish a food forest and create massive barriers quickly.
We could even see it as humans replacing megafauna in the landscape.
 
I am transplanting a bunch of locust and other rando seedlings to the northern fence line of an urban property, with the idea that they will become the fence line.
I was planning on pollarding them when they got too high, but what if I hinge cut them instead?
I guess this would simply be laying a hedge, just on a larger scale than usual.
I imagine I'll be using a pully wheel and come-a-long, along with a push stick, when the time comes to bring down the tree.

 
pollinator
Posts: 193
Location: MD, USA. zone 7
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I'd be a little dubious about grafted trees? But I love the idea that someone's out there taking on the mammoth's role!
 
pollinator
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Location: Western MA, zone 6b
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I did something similar to this with the sumac thickets along my fenceline for my sheep.  They LOVED the stuff.   I'd pull the tops of the tallest ones down until the trunk snapped and then let it hang over the fence for the sheep to strip.    The shorter ones saplings would shoot up.  It was a nice regular supplement right at the fenceline.  
 
pollinator
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Location: Appalachian Foothills-Zone 7
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Interesting technique.  I have left wind blown trees, naturally hinged or still partially rooted, in my pasture for livestock browse.  Biggest problem is they make getting around difficult when I am trying to cut firewood.  If I had a larger property that had a matured canopy throughout, I’d certainly consider replicating a mini tornado to open the canopy a bit. Such properties are rare in these parts though, most have already been opened up in some form or fashion.
 
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Heat your home with the twigs that naturally fall of the trees in your yard
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