Mature Pin Oak Question......

ClimbinArbor · Jun 11, 2008

45-50 year old pin oak. in good condition. (lol sound like a used car salesman) Am taking the dead wood, and maybe 1 or 2 scaffold limbs on the way up. and heres the problem. the top 20' of this 55-60' is codom. it splits into two leaders and goes up 6' where it splits again into 4 leaders. the crown is almost mushroom shaped and needs to be taken in a little on the sides

the north limb on the south leader is the best, so it gets dead pulled, maybe a crossing limb or anything little off of it. the south limb on the south leader will have a slight crown reduction, and a slight side reduction. south limb on the north leader will get a bit more crown reduction as it is the biggest trunk competitor. the north limb on the north leader will get a more side reduction as it is the biggest bulge in the oblong crown.

so here is my question. by taking the most foliage out of the north leader, and promoting the north limb of the south leader to be the new backbone, am i doing the best thing for this tree??? im taking no more than 10-20% out of the live foliage. and will be doing it this winter so as not to stress the old boy. just wanted to ask you guys while its on my mind.

am going to remove a couple maples for the HO this month and will get some pics, before and after.

Thillmaine · Jun 11, 2008

Pruning

Is it aesthetically possible to phase out one of hte 4 co doms? or maintain all four but subdue 3 and keep one? Or....subdue the least dominant main (larger of the two)leader, phase out one of the small leaders ont eh smaller half and reduce/subdue the rest with intent of totally losing them withint he next couple of years?

ClimbinArbor · Jun 11, 2008

that is basically what im doing. im keeping one good leader and subordinating the rest when i reduce the sides and tops on them. but i have to take it slow do to the volume of the other three leaders. the tree will probably take 15 years to grow out of this, its pretty bad. but if i can hit it once every three or four years, i think i can straighten him back up quite well.

treeseer · Jun 12, 2008

At 60', this tree is maturing. the transition from excurrent to decurrent is natural, and so is some codominance. Unless risk of splitting is high, why do so much work to restore a single leader?

:monkey:

S Mc · Jun 12, 2008

ClimbinArbor said:
the tree will probably take 15 years to grow out of this, its pretty bad. but if i can hit it once every three or four years, i think i can straighten him back up quite well.

I really wish you would post some pics before doing this work. This is an older tree and to subject a tree (any tree) to a trimming regimen that will take "years to grow out of it" scares the pooh out of me, even though it sounds like you are going to spread it out over a period of time. Is this truly necessary? Asymmetry in a tree can be beautiful and perfectly acceptable.

The information given out that insinuates that all trees should have a central leader or else is, IMHO, very misleading and leads to some ill-informed decisions on trimming. But to be fair, without pictures there is no way to give an accurate assessment to what your plan is.

Again, please post pics.

Sylvia

ClimbinArbor · Jun 12, 2008

i will have some pics on here well before i cut. as i said it will be this winter before i touch the tree again.

as far as the four leaders are concerned, i didnt mean to imply that i would be phasing out three of them. just pruning them back for structural integrity and aesthetics. i have no plans to completely eliminate the three codoms, just reduce them a little to shape the tree and keep them from competing with the central leader.

ummmm i think i just said the same thing twice lol. atleast noone will misunderstand me lol.