Whether to remove or not remove suckers.

[Chris Wood]

Hi Guys,

There is a job with a large oak with extensive suckering along all its major liters. Obviously the tree is in stress, but the tree needs to be retained on the property. There is a lot of large deadwood that I will be pruning out. Would you suggest thinning the sucker growth or pruning it all out?

Cheers,

Chris

 

[treecutterjr]

We usually remove the suckers. If you will be all over the tree it won't hurt to knock off the ones near you and we usually take off the ones that are really thick around the trunk.
Eventually they will grow into larger limbs that may cause more stress.

If you mean go through EVERY limb and remove EACH sucker that can turn into a alot more work which could be an entirely different job in itself. Use your own judgement.
yOU MIGHT mention to the homeowner and maybe squeeze out a few more dollars if its enough to warrant the extra work.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

Depending on the tree if you removal all the suckers on the limbs, you will lions tail them.

 

[Pelorus]

You might want to look further into why the tree is stressed out. Has it been topped, or severely pruned? There is a reason why all those buds have sprouted, and just dealing with those suckers isn't gonna help the tree very much. Remember too that those suckers are generating "food" via photosynthesis for the tree.

 

[beastmaster]

Oaks aften sucker out(as do many other types of trees)from being previously over pruned. Has the tree been liontailed in the past or have any large limbs removed or topped? Depending on the reason and severity of damage done to the tree that has cause the "suckering out", I might leave most the suckers on branches where there is a risk of sunscald. Removing a small percentege of suckers around unions and those on the main trunk leaving as many as possable is sometimes advisable. Then remove a little more each time the tree is pruned, leaving the ones that show potential of growing into new limbs and removing those growing streight up or weakly attached.
If too many are removed the tree will just sucker out again. Suckers are a defense mechanism of the tree, a survival trait. What ever you decide to do, you should leave as much as possible letting the tree build up its energy levels. Thinning the really thick or weak suckers a little may not hurt. cleaning up the trunk and around brantch unions will make the tree look a little nicer and shouldn't harm the tree. But don't remove all the suckers. the tree grow them for a reason and is responding to some kind of stress.

 

[TreeToronto]

Thinning cuts remove branches to their points of origin or attachment it also stimulate growth in whole of the tree, rather than in single branches of the tree hey go for Drop crotching it allow the tree to retain a natural shape in this thinning cut reduces the size of the tree and helps your oak tree in better air circulation and improved sunlight penetration, it also gives tree a less wind resistance

 

[landscape doc]

Water sprouts on tops of limbs. Suckers from understock. Water sprouts have a different "inferior" attachment than "normal twigs. Sometimes you need a water sprout to fill a hole in the canopy' but they can be structurally dangerous. There are a predetermined amount of cells between annual growth nodes. There is an optimal length for yearly growth. Longer is not better or stronger.

 

[Chris Wood]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the response. One large oak had some major contraction around it's base 5 years back. So I expect soil compaction to be stressing out the oak, hence the suckering. No further soil compaction has been conducted, so now the client wants a more refined looking oak, so I will go in and thin the suckers.

What do you guys suggest to dealing with major soil compaction after the fact? Airspading? I was hoping to tip back the long branches, thin the sucker growth and call it a day. There is no deadwood present in the tree.

Another oak, has extensive deadwood and extensive sucker growth. For that tree, I was going to prune out the deadwood and thin the sucker growth and call it a day. For that oak, I have no explanation as to why it is failing, limited light may be a small factor as the adjacent oaks are growing up rapidly.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Bermie]

Pelorus and Beastmaster have given you two sound and reasoned answers. You can't go wrong following their advice, they have summarized neatly what I would have said.