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Pruning help

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  • 09-02-2019 12:10pm
    #1
    Holy Diver
    Registered Users Posts: 593 ✭✭✭


    Hi
    I moved into a house two years ago. Need some advice on how to trim/prune the tree in the pic. It is some type of variegated maple.
    It is about 12’ tall not including shoots at top. I want to maintain it at this height. Past two years I’ve just used my extended hedge trimmer and gave it a haircut at top and sides. Is this the correct approach?
    The pic shows the top part of the tree and I notice that everywhere it was cut in past few years it seems to be quite heavy shoot growth or the branches seem to terminate just where they seem to be branching out!

    Thanks


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    #2
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,435 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Its probably a variagated sycamore https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/90538/Acer-pseudoplatanus-f-variegatum-Simon-Louis-Freres-(v)/Details and like all sycamores is pretty tough, so you will not kill it. What you are doing though is pollarding it - cutting off branch ends that forces it to send out lots of artificial looking shoots. If you trim back the surface of a hedge you will get a thick hedge (usually, depending on type of hedging) and you cannot see the mass of branches. If you do it to a tree you get the knobbly, sprouty look that local councils achieve when savaging roadside trees. (Can you guess I do not like pollarding :) ).

    If you continue doing this you will achieve your aim of keeping the height down, and you will not kill the tree. You will end up with something that looks a bit like a tight lollipop though. If you are ok with that then carry on. The alternative might be to cut out a few of the branches below where they have gone into sprouty bunches and see if you can persuade some more normal branches to emerge, remove any new branches that are more than you need. If it works do a couple more the next year. It does depend what you are trying to achieve.

    I would personally be inclined to take it out and put in something that could be relied on to stay at 12 ft if that is the height you need. 12ft isn't very high for a tree, even smaller ones, you might be better with a large shrub.


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    #3
    Holy Diver
    Registered Users Posts: 593 ✭✭✭Holy Diver


    Thanks for the advice

    I think the previous owner was limiting its growth over the years. You can prob see from the pic the he main branches were cut back at some stage to a few feet long. The tree does resemble a thick lollipop alright but it was that way when we moved in!

    I think given its location I can’t really allow to grow unchecked tbh. I will try to reduce the mass of new growth in addition to trimming it back and see how it plays out maybe. Some of the new growth is very dense.


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