10/11/2024
In a big windstorm in the summer I had a call about a tree splitting in a relatively new community. The tree was maybe 15-20 years old.
Technically wasn’t even a big tree but it just goes to show how bad a codominant stem can be for your tree.
A codominant stem is where you have two or more tops growing up side by side. As a result they can have weaker attachment to the main trunk.
What you want is a one main dominant stem that just grows straight up. This increases how strong your tree is and it will reduce the chance of it snapping like this one.