Help with cedar and pine trees

[Andy villen]

I'm looking for help with a rows of trees we have.
There is a row of cedars that face north, a row of pine trees that face south and a few different trees between them. As seen in the picture.

What would be the best thing to do with them? The cadets seem to be thining out as they get taller/older.

Would it be ok to trim the branches high on the pines and top the cedars so they bush out? ( and loose the middle row).

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish. Probably AS folks might not understand what you are trying to do either. Here in Southern California we have cedar trees coming out our ears so to a major degree we want them gone. Your species is different. Our does not have foliage down to the ground like yours do. Pine and Cedar are not hard wood like Oak where as you trim a few branches and not a problem the tree just grows different. If you do too much trimming like topping them they just die. So if you want to change their appearance you can do some of that if conservative, but be careful. Thanks

 

[BC WetCoast]

If you top the cedars (they look like arborvitaes so shearing them into a hedge isn't a problem), you will get some more lateral growth but not much. You will get more success by removing the middle row of trees so more light reaches the sides of the cedars. I think that is what is causing the thinning is the lack of light.

 

[Andy villen]

Yes, it's a little hard to explain what's going on here and what I want to do.
BC wetcoast caught my drift, I think that is what I will do.
I think early spring would be the best time to trim the cedars. Is that correct?

 

[BC WetCoast]

We shear cedar hedges all year long. However, if you do it now, you will get some growth during the spring.

Because shearing hedges reduces the growth capacity of the trees (they are individual trees growing tightly together), I think fertilization never hurts.

 

[Andy villen]

Ok great, what would you recommend for fertilizer?

 

[BC WetCoast]

Slow release. The npk numbers would be a larger nitrogen (n) number, moderate p number and little k number. Simply put, the n benefits the foliage, the p benefits the roots and the k benefits the fruit (fruit, seeds, flowers, cones) production.