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Trying to keep my trees from getting huge!

Have a 40ft maple tree I'd like to cut down to 20ft, but not sure if it will then stay that height or grow back to 40ft tall?

2007-08-27 10:13:19 · 4 answers · asked by joeflaherty 1 in Home & Garden Garden & Landscape

4 answers

Ask a tree-surgeon - but I think eventually it will grow again. A maple tree will react like most plants when trimmed - it will take on a new lease of life! 99% of gardening is about keeping things "under control" - and this usually involves loads of repetitive work.

2007-08-27 10:22:57 · answer #1 · answered by fluffyhead24 3 · 0 0

Don't you dare cut it like that! That's called topping and is the worst thing you can do for a tree. It's a great way to get decay all the way down thru the trunk thus making a very weak and dangerous tree.

Second you've ruined the tree's appearance. What grows back will be diffused sprouts that do not have the annual lamination that comes with proper limb development. Now you've got these quick growing limbs held on by a year's worth of thin wood. Don't put your children underneath these branches.......they tend to drop off easily.

Third, you've made a zillion terminal bud buds by this type of pruning and the tree responds to terminal bud removal by throwing out another zillion new sprouts that grow vigorously quickly back to original size. You haven't dwarfed the tree, but rather now made a tangled mess of overly long, lose sprouts with an every increasing diseased trunk.

Trees are not shrubs. They are tall (unless naturally dwarfed or grafted onto dwarfing root stock). You don't cut the tail off a whale because it gets too large, why mangle a tree?

If the problem is the tree is getting into overhead lines, then a well trained arborist, certified with NAA or ISA, can do some directional pruning to put the branches around the lines and not have sprouts form back towards the lines.

If you just don't want a tall tree, then cut it down and plant a lower growing tree that you don't have to mangle, butcher or deform every other year to keep in within your desired size.

There's one other possibility used in Europe but it calls for specialized pruning EVERY year and I doubt you want to hire an arborist every years. It's called pollarding.......when done properly requires removal of all the year's sprouts back to the callus.

2007-08-27 18:05:59 · answer #2 · answered by fluffernut 7 · 0 0

No, all plants and trees grow not from the bottom but from the top, it's called the apical meristem.

2007-08-27 19:57:12 · answer #3 · answered by dtwladyhawk 6 · 0 0

It will keep trying to grow to its natural height unless your trimming kills it.

2007-08-27 17:47:31 · answer #4 · answered by pontgranprix 3 · 0 0

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