# sugar maple



## Evan629 (May 24, 2008)

hi, i have a 2 year old sugar maple, it has two co-dominant stems and i m going to prune one of them and leave the other the one that i m going to leave goes off to one side my question is how do you get it to grow straight up, tell me if you would like pix


----------



## ATS/TexasTree (Jun 19, 2008)

pictures would help. 

Trees grow primarily towards the longest photo period it has during the day. 

To get it to grow straight up, it needs to be in full sun morning, noon and night. 

If it receives shade during part of the day, it will lean away from it.


----------



## motoroilmccall (Jun 19, 2008)

If its still small and your cutting a main stem off of it already it'll probably throw the weight balance off. You'll need to stake it from both sides. I use bailing wire tied to the stakes, then looped 4x the thickness of the tree (in other words the loop is 4x the diameter of the tree). Then take a piece of old hose and use it as a buffer between the tree and the bailing wire, otherwise it'll chafe through. Do it on both sides, and pull it straight up (without damaging roots or the tree itself), if you don't the tree will develop a bow at the bottom of the trunk while it grows up straight. By staking it you'll help alleviate that bow. 

This is all I can recommend, and I might go completely against it when I see pics, but its generally a good idea.

Like ATS said, it'll want to lean away from the shade, there's nothing you can do to stop that.


----------



## jthutch (Jun 24, 2008)

Like previously stated if the tree is in full sun and the roots should be fairly well established being in for 2 years, the dominate limbs should be able to take over and start growing straight over the years. You could use the 3 cut method of only removing 1/3 of the limb you are wanting to remove. You will remove 1/3 of the limb each fall fro 3 years. Some feel this will reduce the stress of removing a major limb.


----------



## Evan629 (Jun 24, 2008)

i cut it a few weeks ago and staked it up right and it is already started to seal the cut


----------

