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Reducing tree height

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  • 28-06-2021 6:13pm
    #1
    Large bottle small glass
    Registered Users Posts: 1,796 ✭✭✭


    My mother has a 30 yr old or so silver birch in her lawn which is leaning towards house and house is in the fall zone.

    Anytime I've seen a cropped mature tree they look awful. Is there any guidance/advice on how to do it so tree looks somewhat ok after?

    The tree was a freebie along with two others which came from collecting Golden Olive margarine tops; horrible food leads to a few lovely trees 🙂


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    #2
    Accidentally
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭Accidentally


    If you're going to do it, wait until at least November, when it will be going into dormancy for the winter. You can cut it hard back, but expect shrubby rather than tree like growth


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    #3
    standardg60
    Registered Users Posts: 4,686 ✭✭✭standardg60


    Birch can look awful when pruned due to it's upright habit alright.
    If it's leaning is there a branch from the main trunk which has grown straighter?
    Could be cut back to that point where it becomes the new leader.


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    #4
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,464 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    We had a tree surgeon out to take a look at our silver birch last year. We wanted it reduced in height too but he strongly advised against it. Not sure why, something to do with a characteristic of silver birch that can cause reactive growth of pruned back too hard and you end up making the problem worse. Also an issue with the time of the year you do it as disease can get in to the cut surfaces if you time it wrong. In the end we went for a very conservative thinning and a very small amount off the top. It worked well in as much as it reduced the degree to which the wind caught it especially if it was still in leaf.

    Make sure you get a proper qualified tree surgeon though, someone who really understands trees, rather than someone only interested in chopping them down and selling them on as firewood.


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    #5
    ec_pc
    Registered Users Posts: 447 ✭✭ec_pc


    Alun wrote: »
    We had a tree surgeon out to take a look at our silver birch last year. We wanted it reduced in height too but he strongly advised against it. Not sure why, something to do with a characteristic of silver birch that can cause reactive growth of pruned back too hard and you end up making the problem worse. Also an issue with the time of the year you do it as disease can get in to the cut surfaces if you time it wrong. In the end we went for a very conservative thinning and a very small amount off the top. It worked well in as much as it reduced the degree to which the wind caught it especially if it was still in leaf.

    Make sure you get a proper qualified tree surgeon though, someone who really understands trees, rather than someone only interested in chopping them down and selling them on as firewood.

    That's good advice from my experience. We had 4 very large silver birch about 20 feet from the north side of the house, blocking a lot of light. I guess these were about 30 feet tall each. I cut them down leaving stumps of about 3 feet which I need to take down completely once I get my chainsaw back.

    I just noticed how strong the growth has been on those 3 foot stumps, they nearly resemble thick bushes now and that's just after 4 months.


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