Anyone ever tried pollarding?

[capetrees]

http://www.wickedlocal.com/provincetown/news/x931232830/Town-Hall-pear-trees-cut-back

This happened in Provincetown while they rebuild Town Hall. The trees used to be pretty big, probably 30' diameter of foliage. They did the pollarding to reduce the roots as a result of not having as much foliage and branches to supply energy for. Can cutting it back this severe work and will the trees survive? They were pretty trees but the town wants to be able to see the building more. Usually it's the other way around, wanting to plant more and bigger trees to hide a building but remember where we're talkng here ....

 

[Tree Pig]

http://www.wickedlocal.com/provincetown/news/x931232830/Town-Hall-pear-trees-cut-back

This happened in Provincetown while they rebuild Town Hall. The trees used to be pretty big, probably 30' diameter of foliage. They did the pollarding to reduce the roots as a result of not having as much foliage and branches to supply energy for. Can cutting it back this severe work and will the trees survive? They were pretty trees but the town wants to be able to see the building more. Usually it's the other way around, wanting to plant more and bigger trees to hide a building but remember where we're talkng here ....

I scene it discussed never saw it in practice until now. To me that looks a little extreme and ugly. At that point why not remove and replant a new tree.

 

[treeslayer]

looks like all the trees ABC is pruning here under the power lines.:censored:

 

[yooper]

I have about 100 acres with mostly hard wood, I always thought about pollarding some various trees just to see there reaction and what happens. ......just out of curiosity. as if they are done every year, after about 5 years It would be intersting to see the defect. dont worry there are 1000's of trees there, and it would all be done in fun perhaps this week end would be a good time for the science project

 

[Mikecutstrees]

Isn't pollarding just a fancy european term for topping or Hat racking?.... Mike

 

[BC WetCoast]

Isn't pollarding just a fancy european term for topping or Hat racking?.... Mike

Maybe they know something you don't?

I've seen pollarding done on willow successfully. Not sure how the bradford pear will react.

I use pollarding on the hazelnut that provides privacy between my yard and my neighbour's patio. Cut off the whips in the winter and they all regrow in the spring.

 

[treeoperations]

no worrys

pollarding them pears is fine, it is hard on the trees to start with but they get used to it, it has to be done every year to the same point or it will mean there are bigger then needed wounds inflicted

 

[demographic]

Its quite common for old hardwood trees in the UK to have been pollarded at some point in their lives and the book I read that mentioned it went onto say that oaks which have been pollarded generally live a lot longer than those which have not.
It described pollarding as re-setting the oaks biological clock.
It also mentioned that its a method of having a crop simillar to copicing whilst still having grassland underneath where the animals (like deer) cannot damage the new growth.

 

[wigglesworth]

Some folks down the road from me had it done to all their yard trees. Not sure the variety, but pretty good size, prob 30' and they cut them back to 15'. They came back nice and full, just half size. It took a couple of years for them to come back around though, they were some ugly trees for a year or two.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Some folks down the road from me had it done to all their yard trees. Not sure the variety, but pretty good size, prob 30' and they cut them back to 15'. They came back nice and full, just half size. It took a couple of years for them to come back around though, they were some ugly trees for a year or two.

This is topping, not pollarding. The term comes from the practice of cutting the horns off of cattle, or dehorning, thus a cyclical process.

As is this "round over" hack job. Look at some of those cuts

Yes it will cause root dieback, but to be pollarding you have to come back to a node that will sprout out latter in the year. This is not arboriculture, with their reasoning, it would be cheaper to remove and replace with new stock so you do have to prune them back on a regular cycle.

I have read of 1-3 year cycles being successful, anything longer then that is problematic with compartmentalization.

With pollarding, your cuts should be relatively small, Shigo mentions 1 inch diameter being a nominal stopping point, once again CODIT is the concern (as with the 10 inch stub debate) larger limbs will get large decay pockets that do not allow the formation of a good pollard head.

The thinking is that the style developed from fodder management, trees were hacked up so that they could be easily trimmed for feed stock, and basket weaving material, and still be out of the reach of grazing animals.

Later Europeans frequently used them as boundary markers, and were brought into estates and downtown areas where large trees are impractical. I've seen pictures from Shigo and Blair where Euro city workers are in large trees , six apiece, with using handpruners to trim sprouts off in the dormant season.

 

[Jovary]

Sounds like a good plan as tree warden, get the people off your back and then once the experiment doesn't work they can remove them like they wanted to in the first place.

Who likes callery pears anymore anyways? They're overplanted everywhere and the flowers smell awful

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Sounds like a good plan as tree warden, get the people off your back and then once the experiment doesn't work they can remove them like they wanted to in the first place.

Who likes callery pears anymore anyways? They're overplanted everywhere and the flowers smell awful

They were pretty trees but the town wants to be able to see the building more.

30 ft canopies means that they were the wrong cvs, and even when the sprout up there will be problems with views.

This calls for better situated stock chosen for the siting by a professional. How about some taller fastigiate trees?

 

[TreEmergencyB]

Nice trees?
them pears will prolly live but the sprouts that come back are gonna be wicked and that tree will never be nice again???

them trees are weak anyway i always laugh when i see someone toppin one

 

[Tree Dr.]

pollarding or topping?

I have cut a few trees back to pollards from full crown as a last resort vs. removal. It worked out ok but I specified bi-annual pruning must be maintained, also tried to cut at nodes.
True pollarding starts with a fresh specimen and is probably more asthetic,beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I personally think it is appropriate in some cases ie: good compartmentalizers as long as it is maintained it looks ok. Hard to guarantee bi-annual pruning but does give a regular pruning gig.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I personally think it is appropriate in some cases ie: good compartmentalizers as long as it is maintained it looks ok.

I think that good sprouting is more important than COD (-IT ) in pollarding. If you are working with a small branch on a willow you can get a great success.

I have a few in my yard I started a few years ago, mulberry, box elder, bur oak. Not much to look at right now, but the box elder looks like a very good candidate with the vigor and vitality the young trees can have.

I remember a discussion on pollards years ago on the ISA forum, where (i think) Stanford was having problems with the scaffold branches breaking on the 50 yer old ginkgo pollards. Seems that the did not put on much taper on the scaffolds and started becoming weak around the turn of the century. Looking at old European pollards I see that the scaffold limbs are usually kept somewhat short on annual cycle pollards.

I had some aspens that I worked on for 8 years with little luck, only to find that the client was hacking them back mid summer because they got too big. The never formed good heads, maybe because of the twice per year pruning.

 

[treevet]

I have read some posts from Europeans talking about budget cuts causing lack of maintenance of pollards and then they become an extreme hazard.

Good description by JPS.

 

[Bermie]

Cutting a 30' tree back to 15' is NOT pollarding, that is topping...aka hacking!

Pollarding is a tree maintenance technique that is planned and starts very early in the tree's lifetime. JPS's picture of mature pollards in a european setting is an example of well maintained pollards that were planned to be like that from before they were ever planted. They still have a reasonable scaffold and somewhat of a pleasing form.
Over the years they form those distinct 'cats heads', that is where starch is stored to supply the new growth, so cutting off the foliage annually does not continualy deplete the starch reserves as much as a topping cut either at a fresh node or mid branch.
The annual cuts are small, and callus over and compartmentalize much more easily than a large topping cut that is trying to be passed off as a pollard!

Trying to 'pollard' an already mature or oversize tree is an exercise in futility, decay pockets, excess watersprouts, labour intensive future management...

Pollards are PLANNED...!

 

[jefflovstrom]

If I was a 'grower,' I would pollard for profit. Pollard in the urban enviroment would compel me to recommend removal or if they persist a maintenance plan.
Jeff

 

[pdqdl]

We did exactly that to a couple of Callery pears in 2007, at the owners request. (probably not Bradfords, but they were along that line) I had previously advised them against that sort of thing, but other similar trees on the street got stripped down by another company. Then we got the request to do likewise the year after the neighboring trees survived.

I don't think there were even as many branches left on our trees as on the pics shown above. They were truly slaughtered. I would like to add, however, that our cuts were much done much better. The trees were butchered none-the-less.

These were trees that had simply outgrown the small area they were planted into. There just was too little room to allow full growth given the building behind them, the utility wires above them, and the street right beside them. Rather than remove and replant, they chose the "hack them down to size" plan. It actually worked pretty well. A year later, a little sucker thinning and pruning, and they are shaping up fairly well, and they are growing much faster (with no watering) than a transplanted tree would.

There are no early signs of decay or dieback, which is surprising when you consider how little open ground these trees have and how much asphalt and concrete surrounds them. Except for the little 4' box they were planted in, I would guess that they have at least 50' of pavement in every direction before the soil is exposed to air.

But then again, I haven't looked at them this year...

 

[Bermie]

How big were the trees before you topped them?

Everyone now and then has a job where they have to top something, for whatever reason, just don't call it pollarding because it's NOT! ...let me add a smilie in case anyone thinks I'm getting snotty