Beautiful Topping

[Bermie]

Welcome to my world...

Topping is a common part of the landscapers vocabulary...and as long as they have a ladder and a saw they think they are capable of doing anything.
If someone asks me to 'top' their trees, just say sure thing and proceed to do a staged reduction...I have almost stopped arguing, because I can't seem to single handedly remove the word 'topping' from common use, so instead I try to match a different result with a common phrase, and my result is far superior than the landscapers, and some people seem to realize it.

 

[BC WetCoast]

I guess I just see things differently because I think this guy has done a good job of RESTORATIVE pruning. He's taken a tree that had been previously topped (3rd from last picture) and laden with water sprouts. He's reduced the water sprouts back to the originial topping cut leaving enough to utilize the growth hormones and prevent a mass of new watersprouts. He's done proper drop crotch reduction on the remaining watersprouts, cutting back to side twigs.

As for the blurry picture, I can't tell if it is the after picture from the lemon (orange?) tree above but I don't think so. I wouldn't use it for an advertising picture, because you can't see the before shot. It's tough to critique an after shot, when you haven't see the before shot. It's pretty blurry, but I only see 2 possible topping cuts. The rest were drop crotch reductions.

To the poster who commented about topping under utility lines, I would bet money that it wasn't a true topping (cutting to set height internodally), but some form of reduction. You have to provide clearance to the utility lines, following the standards of the contract.

 

[EdenT]

I don't think that pruning is restorative. If he was trying to develop new leaders why leave all those small branches that go nowhere at the bottom.

My guess is that the HO wanted the power line cleared and a reduction to reduce the amount of leaves they need to clean up. This actually looks like it would have been a good candidate for pollarding. Reduce everything back to those original topping cuts in late winter every year and let spring do it's thing and voila you have a shady deck come summer.

I think the blurry picture is the citrus tree in the first picture but taken from a different angle. The roof that was on the right in the first picture is now the one on the left and vice versa. Still looks like someone picked the fruit using hand grenades.

 

[treevet]

Pruning such as this in the initial photos is called pollarding and is admired unconditionally on the Jerry Beranek worship forum (TH).

 

[ROOTSXROCKS]

This is topping

This is pollarding

Oh and that Citrus is A dead trunk standing if it don't starve or get an infection
it will surely sunburn and succumb to its slow death

 

[EdenT]

Heres a jolly good show at pollarding b4 & after by the Brits.

Before

After

As you can see it would take quite a bit of time and hard work to develop these massive pollard heads and that of course equals $BIG. Not to many HO's in the new world prepared to spend that kind of money.

Jolly good show and God save the Queen.

 

[ROOTSXROCKS]

Beautiful and indeed a commitment
unfortunately the best example here is Crepe Murder

as my other uploads above show, the training comes very early, you can't really do it right after its grown out natural.

 

[EdenT]

Yes. Unfortunately even people who should know better, are still telling people that hatracking/hacking/topping is pollarding and that gives pollarding a bad name. Check out this - once again Brittish link -

http://www.ancient-yew.org/deathbypollarding.shtml

It probably should be called 'death by church volunteer group', because as I understand it the UK has strict training and regulations for Aboriculture. I'm sure I will be corrected if I am wrong.

 

[Rftreeman]

oh who ####ing cares..........if they want, it they get it.....plain and simple...move on , mind you own business, get over it.....end of story...

I hope this thread gets locked because this has been beat to death so many times here....OP....search "topping" next time before you start a thread like this..

 

[outofmytree]

oh who ####ing cares..........if they want, it they get it.....plain and simple...move on , mind you own business, get over it.....end of story...

I hope this thread gets locked because this has been beat to death so many times here....OP....search "topping" next time before you start a thread like this..

I care and it appears, so do many others. Move on and mind your own business? Take your own advice. You don't have to read this thread.

 

[Rftreeman]

I care and it appears, so do many others. Move on and mind your own business? Take your own advice. You don't have to read this thread.

i didn't read it except for the title & your reply, I couldn't tell a thing about the O/P.......the title was enough........

 

[Bermie]

oh who ####ing cares..........if they want, it they get it.....plain and simple...move on , mind you own business, get over it.....end of story...

I hope this thread gets locked because this has been beat to death so many times here....OP....search "topping" next time before you start a thread like this..

Buzz off if you don't like it...some of us like to revisit the topping debate if someone relatively new brings it up again...if you don't, go away and stay peaceful somewhere else...lots of love

 

[treesquirrel]

Although pollarding is considered to be so wrong, why do we still see professionals doing it? Why do guys like this one in the ad think that this is OK?

Because there are people stupid enough to pay them to do it.

Sickening.

 

[Rftreeman]

Because there are people stupid enough to pay them to do it.

Sickening.

I can think of a whole boat load of things going on in this world that are "sickening" but people just turn the other cheek because they don't want to get involved....there's worst things to worry about than someone topping a tree.....

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

So sad to see that going on in California. I was under the impression y'all out there on the left coast were tree huggin' lib lovers. Thought they'd know better.

They don't. That's quite common out there.

Out in the desert towns there are a lot of fruitless mulberries that get hacked back to a stub every few years. I mean right back to a stump. They resprout, and are allowed to grow for a few years, or maybe only one year. (They can grow 8-10 foot suckers just a couple of years.)

Some people have it done every fall before the leaves drop, to avoid cleaning up leaves. It's much easier than raking leaves when you have a gravel "lawn".


Check this out from the town of Davis (near 'Frisco):

There are two schools of thought on pruning a fruitless mulberry; Ball it by taking a chainsaw and cutting off everything that doesn't look like a trunk, or prune the tree, requiring either skill and an esthetic sense or the hiring of a professional. Balling a mulberry will result in a distinctive shape where the trunk ends in a blossom of suckers. The sucker branches are smoother and faster growing, but will require that the tree be balled again. Pruning on the other hand can result in a healthier tree with a larger canopy.

Here's a typical example:

 

[outofmytree]

I can think of a whole boat load of things going on in this world that are "sickening" but people just turn the other cheek because they don't want to get involved....there's worst things to worry about than someone topping a tree.....

Buzz off if you don't like it...some of us like to revisit the topping debate if someone relatively new brings it up again...if you don't, go away and stay peaceful somewhere else

All that is needed for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing-Edmund Burke

The name of this forum is ARBORISTsite.

 

[Bermie]

Although pollarding is considered to be so wrong, why do we still see professionals doing it? Why do guys like this one in the ad think that this is OK?

Pollarding is NOT wrong...its just a very specialized older technique that is generally misunderstood in this more modern age. It has a very limited application, is best applied to only a few species and must be carried out correctly from the very start and managed throughout the life of the tree. It is labour intensive.

Topping is indiscriminate cutting with the ONLY objective of lowering the height of a tree, no regard to nodes, branch bark unions, collars, shape, size, growth patterns, etc....

 

[ROOTSXROCKS]

Pollarding is NOT wrong...its just a very specialized older technique that is generally misunderstood in this more modern age. It has a very limited application, is best applied to only a few species and must be carried out correctly from the very start and managed throughout the life of the tree. It is labour intensive.

Topping is indiscriminate cutting with the ONLY objective of lowering the height of a tree, no regard to nodes, branch bark unions, collars, shape, size, growth patterns, etc....

very well said It is nice when someone can contribute to a little Education and resolution of the problem instead of getting there panties in a wad about something they are obviously Ignorant of. thanx for the further examples

 

[pdqdl]

I don't know what you guys are all grousing about.

Around here, we spike them real good while we are topping them. Then the "white eyes" aren't so prominent, and you can tell that it was done by a REAL tree climber instead of some amateur with a ladder!

These guys at least forgot to bring their spikes. Topping done right would have stripped that tree back to the original knobs, too.

[I'm thinking that snipping those little branches off at the height that was done is so that they will need to be topped again in just a couple of years.]

 

[Rftreeman]

very well said It is nice when someone can contribute to a little Education and resolution of the problem instead of getting there panties in a wad about something they are obviously Ignorant of. thanx for the further examples

I don't wear panties nor am I ignorant to the subject, I never said it was right or wrong, my problem is the countless threads about it where the O/P makes one or two post and then hauls butt....