Birch pruning in winter, concerns and conflict of information.

[sammer]

I live in Dublin, Ireland and I've read a lot of conflicting articles on when is the best time to prune birch (presumably it differs depending on local climate).

My concern is that if I prune now while the temp is fluctuating between -2C and 6C that my actions would encourage freezing of shoots, dieback or other unwanted effects associated with winter pruning of some of the more brittle shooted species.

Anybody from my approximate global coordinates (UK or Ireland) have any insight on this?

The job spec is to thin and reduce 4 silver birch all about 15 or 20 years old. My understanding is that it is best to avoid pruning birch after late Autumn. Love to hear what others have to say on this.

Cheers

 

[expertech]

Birch trees are very temperamental and like to die back from where the cuts are made. I think it's best to cut them in late spring after all the leaves have fully formed. There are a lot of opinions but this is what I do for my customers.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

I've pruned them autumn to winter in Oregon, and can't recall seeing any die-back. And I get to prune lots of these several years in a row.

We see plenty of times where our temps drop to 0 degrees C., several times to about 4 degrees C. and every few years or so, to 7 degrees C. or colder. We use F. so I had to look up the C.'s. But the 7 degrees C. should be near our 18 degrees F., which are uncommon, but do occur.

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[mikewhite85]

Birch trees are very temperamental and like to die back from where the cuts are made. I think it's best to cut them in late spring after all the leaves have fully formed. There are a lot of opinions but this is what I do for my customers.

Birches do really poorly in hot dry climates like ours. I think that's why they respond so poorly to pruning. I don't really prune them at all unless it's for clearance. They do a whole lot better in areas where it is cooler and wetter. I have seen some decent size birches in Connecticut, nothing like the ones out here in Socal.

 

[TreeToronto]

hey if you are cutting the birch trees in the late winter or early spring it will cause the sap to bleed, which result in the exposes of tree to winter damage if you want to prune birch trees the best time will be in late spring or early summer because at that time their leaves are fully developed excessive pruning should be avoided and heavy pruning increases light penetration towards the root which reduce soil moisture levels and increase soil temperatures.