Are these trees planted too close together?

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Meds613

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Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I recently moved into my new home and the previous owners planted a row of trees to screen a small road that passes behind . Can someone tell whether these trees are planted too close? If so, what are the drawbacks, etc. I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks
 

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They're just little babies, and already their canopy branches are into each other. Now, picture them three times that size...
At some point, you'll have to thin every other one out. They're sometimes planted this way intentionally, so in the early years there's a wall of trees effect, then every other one is thinned out to allow for continued growth of the remaining trees. Sometimes, they're planted this close because people just don't think.
 
Yep, those trees were not an appropriate choice for privacy screening. Your alternatives seem to be
  • to thin these, starting now while they are still small enough to bring down safely yourself; whether they would meet privacy needs when thinned and/or larger is impossible to tell from the photos,
  • or remove most or all while they are small and deal with the privacy issue, if desired, with more appriate vegetation or a fence.
The main drawback in delaying action is that it would become much more expensive to deal with large trees.
 
The other advantage of thinning them now is that if you let them grow together, they will lose their living limbs on the insides. Once that happens, you cannot fix it. Thin them now, you will have temporary gaps, but they will look much better and be healthier trees in the long term.
 
Thanks to everyone for their advice.

The other advantage of thinning them now is that if you let them grow together, they will lose their living limbs on the insides. Once that happens, you cannot fix it. Thin them now, you will have temporary gaps, but they will look much better and be healthier trees in the long term.

To clarify, by "thinning" them, are you referring to height and width? I would like to really understand the process. I am also looking into getting an arborist to come by the property, but I would still apprciate some clarification.

Regards
 
To clarify, by "thinning" them, are you referring to height and width? I would like to really understand the process. I am also looking into getting an arborist to come by the property, but I would still apprciate some clarification.
By thinning we mean to remove entire trees so that the remaining trees are spaced widely enough that they might grow into an attractive line of large trees.
 
Yes....like @CacaoBoy said.

Thinning can mean 2 things:
*Thinning the overall canopy of a single tree. That term has been removed from the latest ANSI standard as it is pretty nebulous and often turned out to be an il-advised practice.
*Thinning a stand of trees (or a forest) means removing entire trees so the remaining trees have room to grow. That is what you need to do. Take out every other tree. If I wanted to make more money off of you, I'd tell you we can reduce the spread of each and continue to do that every 2nd or 3rd year or so and make sure there is enough room for all of them to remain. And we could - I think it would work. It would get a little more expensive each time as they grew bigger and there was more to deal with. OR....just take out every other tree and leave them alone.
 

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