Hello folks, I have a small white paper birch in my yard that I need to trim, but I don't know exactly how I should do it. Please take a look. It looks terrible right now, but I don't know where to start. Its height is about 10-15 feet right now. How high up the trunk should I trim?
Help with birch
- Thread starter Russell A
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
The tree looks nice and healthy. If it were mine I would do a little light pruning each season, say take most of the first 2 feet of branches near the ground off this year, plus a few that are criss-crossing and rubbing on eachother or growing downwards, a little more each year. by now its really not the best time to prune, probably better to wait until late summer/fall. if you take too much at once risk stressing it and it might send up ugly sucker shoots or get sick. also it looks like its in a mowed yard. now those branches are helping protect the trunk but as you prune back consider adding some mulch or a border to prevent lawn mower dings.
First...get that grass out of there and check the depth of the tree. Looks like it may be too deep (a common problem), but we can't tell with all of the grass.
If it were mine, I'd remove whole stems - ideally down to a single trunk. That will be a much stronger tree in the long-term. If I am not allowed to go down to 1 trunk, I'd at the very least get rid of that crooked one on the right, the shortest one on the left and the short one that is kinda just right of center as we look at that picture. that would clean it up quite a bit.
The next step is finding branches that are disproportionately large to the trunk. If the branch is more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the diameter of the trunk, it needs to be reduced or removed.
Now look at the top of each trunk that remains...if there is not just a single leader prune back co-dominates.
Finally, if there are just a few lower branches that look out of place prune those off.
Make sure you are making good pruning cuts with a sharp saw or pruners.
If it were mine, I'd remove whole stems - ideally down to a single trunk. That will be a much stronger tree in the long-term. If I am not allowed to go down to 1 trunk, I'd at the very least get rid of that crooked one on the right, the shortest one on the left and the short one that is kinda just right of center as we look at that picture. that would clean it up quite a bit.
The next step is finding branches that are disproportionately large to the trunk. If the branch is more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the diameter of the trunk, it needs to be reduced or removed.
Now look at the top of each trunk that remains...if there is not just a single leader prune back co-dominates.
Finally, if there are just a few lower branches that look out of place prune those off.
Make sure you are making good pruning cuts with a sharp saw or pruners.
Thank you so much for the advice. I'll start simply by cleaning up the grass and adding some mulch. I purchased a nice set of pruners today, but they'll stay safely in my shed until winter (good advice for pruning all my trees). I'm thinking this is maybe a project for the next 2-3 winters. Take it slow, a little at a time. BTW, how do I check the depth of the tree?
Don't pile mulch where the grass is! Around the tree is good. Piled against the tree is bad.
You should see a flare out where the trunks change to roots - not just all the stems going into the ground.
Post a pic once the grass is gone.
You should see a flare out where the trunks change to roots - not just all the stems going into the ground.
Post a pic once the grass is gone.
Similar threads
- Question
