Should I prune this?

[mjenkins]

Hello all,

I have a "Green Vase" Japanese Zelkova that I had planted last year. It is doing great, but because the branches grow so much closer to vertical than usual I'm having a hard time determining what I should prune. I think I have some competing leaders about 6 feet off the ground but I was hoping to get some expert opinions on what I should cut? Here is a close up of where I think it splits and a picture of the full tree from the angle where you can really see it splitting. Thank you for looking!

 

[ATH]

Yeah...it could use a little help.

I'd start with these:


And I'd likely take 2 out of these 4...but it is hard to say without walking around the tree and seeing it in person.


There would be a little bit of other reducing as well.

Keep the leader open to sunlight and remove competitors. Prune or reduce branches that are over half of the diameter of the trunk and those that are at really tight angles. Of course, the species is going to have some really tight angles...so that can be a little relative.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

It's a bit messy.

But a tree like that I'd only know what to cut standing there looking at it from each side. Sometimes the best parts to retain may be what seems illogical from a photo.

 

[Del_]

The new Bradford pear.

 

[ATH]

Zelkova have been around a LONG time. They do have terrible branching angles, but somehow they hold together when the pear - even those with better angles are falling apart. I've cleaned up plenty of dead limbs in Zelkova trees after the hard winter a few years ago, but don't know that I can thing of a storm ravaged tree that I've come across and there are several big ones around.