Pecan tip reduction?

[Customcuts]

I have a customer that has several large pecan trees that are very heavy with pecans. She had the trees trimmed last year by some hacks who stripped out the interiors. Now they are full of new growth in the interior and the branches are reaching way out with a bunch of broken tips... I told her that the tree's tips would have to be cut back quite a bit... My question is how much to bring them back? I'm also thinking fall would be a good time to do this? I know the one third rule of cutting back to a limb that is one third the diameter of the cut...Leaving the limb to establish itself as the new lead... Any advice???? And I also told her it would take a couple of trimming's to get them where they need to be.. since bring them up to par would probably consist of taking off more than 25% of the foliage on every tree. Not to mention every cut the hacks did has a stub atleast 6 inches.....

 

[sgreanbeans]

How long ago did the hacks do this? If it was recent, I would clean up the broken ones and leave it for now, letting it recover from the hacks, I would clean up the stubs. Just food for bad guys. Not sure about pecan trees, but can ya knock off some of the them, to reduce the weight?

 

[Customcuts]

How long ago did the hacks do this? If it was recent, I would clean up the broken ones and leave it for now, letting it recover from the hacks, I would clean up the stubs. Just food for bad guys. Not sure about pecan trees, but can ya knock off some of the them, to reduce the weight?

The hacks hacked them in spring of 2011.. the pecans are all out at the very tips, so I have knocked some off. And added 2 x 4's for support to some limbs.. problem is when wind comes thru or rain it kinda pushes them over the edge as far as overweighted...

 

[Customcuts]

Photos of the 2 x 4's, please!

I'll get some the next time I go over there

 

[sgreanbeans]

Id loose the 2x4's, tree needs to support itself, I would get as much weight off as possible, it may seem like petty work, but your still caring for the tree, charge all the same. It the tree has started a collar around the nubs, don't cut thru them (live wood), cut the nubs back leaving just a small amount of deadwood, if the is no sign of any growth there, go ahead and make a nice finish cut.

X2 on the pics

Have no idea about pecan trees and how fast they work, other than I love me some pie!, but I would wait another year before you go and prune it again. I think Treeseer is in TX, he would know.

 

[formationrx]

ball them off with a nice shaping... take 1/3 to 1/4... take out the bad stubs and clean it up.. eliminate the crossing and rubbing limbs.. tell the owner they will have a reduced crop the first year after shaping and then a huge crop the following year... also the tree will need suckering and some light pruning (the tree will explode with new growth and be thick as hell) the following year after you shape it...

 

[Customcuts]

ball them off with a nice shaping... take 1/3 to 1/4... take out the bad stubs and clean it up.. eliminate the crossing and rubbing limbs.. tell the owner they will have a reduced crop the first year after shaping and then a huge crop the following year... also the tree will need suckering and some light pruning (the tree will explode with new growth and be thick as hell) the following year after you shape it...

Thanks for the tip, I will do just that.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

The pecans are way overweighted down here too. Usually by the time I've removed crossed or duplicating tips the issue is resolved. The ptoblem with tip reduction on pecans is they watersprout off a cut really bad, and the growth pattern can get really bizarre.

 

[Customcuts]

The pecans are way overweighted down here too. Usually by the time I've removed crossed or duplicating tips the issue is resolved. The ptoblem with tip reduction on pecans is they watersprout off a cut really bad, and the growth pattern can get really bizarre.

So ill take as little as possible then to try and keep sprouts to a minimum... I'll post pics before and after when I get to it.. I'm going to wait until the leaves drop. Right now the canopies are so thick u can't see the branches