Silver burches

Hi

Complete novice looking for some advise please. I have two silver birches which are sadly decaying in the trunk. Not sure if visible on the picture but the trunks are cracking as well and the decay is making them potentially dangerous so am going to take them down to stumps myself.

Can anyone advise if its possible to plant new birches next to the stumps or if I would need to wait for the stumps to decay first or advise of anything else I could plant next to the stumps that would grow quickly and help provide screening at the back.

 

I recommend that you cut them 1.5m above ground and then dig around the root, cutting below ground any large roots you find, while using the trunk as a lever to wriggle them out. The rootlets will quickly die and do not reshoot in my experience. The stumps if left alive will however rapidly develop a dense mass of twiggy growth.

 

They look surprisingly healthy in your pictures, although perhaps a bit large for the location.
They appear to have had the crowns cut back at some point in time.

 

It’s not obvious from your photos where any decay might be as we are too far away and they won’t enlarge on my iPad . Some species of silver birch naturally have patches of rougher, grey bark if that’s the areas you are concerned about?

 

Can you do a few close ups of the areas that you think are in trouble @Lpoole ?

I agree with the comments about many birches having that appearance on the trunks/bark, but it's not possible to see the ones in your pix clearly enough. It would also be quite unusual for both of them to be having major problems, especially if all the other planting nearby was healthy.

 

Your silver birch look pretty good to me. It is quite normal for older specimens to develop warty areas on the trunks with age. I would be inclined to thin out some of the thin twiggy stems to allow a good air circulation through the crown. As above comments, it looks as if the main leader stem was removed at some time which is why it has developed into a bushy top instead of being tall , slim and airy. I think I can see a couple more birch growing in the area on the other side of the fence and they look the same as yours.