Why Lutz oaks split
The failure we see most in Lutz is a codominant union — two leaders of similar size growing from the same point, with bark trapped in the seam instead of solid wood. On sandy Pasco soil, oaks root wide and shallow and put their energy into lateral limb extension, so those unions carry more leverage every year. A cable installed high in the canopy, roughly two-thirds of the way from the union to the limb tips, shares the load between leaders so a wind gust can't lever them apart.