Lionstailing

[CJ-7]

Is lionstailing a pruning technique which trims the lower limbs of a tall single trunk tree? I see the term used with the disdain akin to topping.

I agree topping can get real ugly and severe impacts to the tree's health have been clearly explained in this forum and others.

However in my neighborhood, there are a number of tall Cottonwood trees on the waterfront which have been trimmed of lower branches to at least 40 feet to allow the homes to look out and for the homes to be seen from the water. IMHO the trees look quite nice and compliment the heighborhood. Others, however, compare them to stalks of brocoli, and speak unkindly.

Just because the technique makes it more difficult to climb the tree for future maintenance, (yours truly included), I don't feel it should make it a reason to say it is an improper pruning technique.

Are there tree health problems that the technique causes, or other reasons for not pruning them that way? Educate me please.

 

[Jay Banks]

Lionstailing is pruning all of the side branches from a main branch and leaving just a few at the end.

Anytime you excessively prune a tree you stress it. A typical response from the tree is watersprouts at the pruning points.

Also this puts additional loads on the limb because you have concentrated the leaf area at the end of the limb and they pick up the wind or snow load at the very end of the branch.

What you are describing is crown raising. And still, if you over prune a tree you are stressing that poor tree to death.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

if one does a "raise and gut" trim job, then every limb is left a lionstail.

If you look at those cottonwoods and picture having leaved pranches only on the ends, this would be lionstail. No inner canopy left.

While pruning is a very subjective craft (ask 10 arborists you will get 7 different answers) there are some basic tenents to work by. Those who do not learn and thing anyone can do it will climb in and cut off all the inner branches and call it thinning.

Work the tips, keep the wounds small, it is better to stub a little then to flush at all.

 

[CJ-7]

Thanks for the replys to my question. Now I know what lionstailing is and the description makes perfect sense. If I get a chance I will get a pic of the trees and post it.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i thought a few daze ago that this would get more attention by more knowledge-ables than me on this, and thought JP would jump harder, not just cuz of hiss sighs either.........

Lionstailing at its most obtuse can look like a lion tail, all stripped with a puff at the end.

The lionstailing as far as the tree goes can destabilize a branches weight distribution (making it more 'floppy' in the wind), rape the the amount of feeding/ food storing green, sometimes leaving only the outer layer of greenery that gets so beat up by sun/wind that that layer of greenery is minimally productive for food and stores- yet all that is left, some say cause 'sunscald' etc.

As far as the customer is concerned; not liontailing then gives a healthier tree, that is fuller, with less costly activity (total), and easier to get someone else without spikes to service again in the future.

A climber not stripping every limb can get done quicker, with less work on every single extreme, thin branched point, leaving things that do everyone else good; that makes it easier to climb without spikes the next time. Less air time=less risk. i can make decisions with all this in mind; laying out a tailored mixture, between some detailing in the center, symmetrrical shape, yet not negatively affecting the other factors too much. Sometimes a single branch or so on the bottom (face) side might end up a lil 'tailed' looking; blending it in to the flow, but they are few, and well pondered!

"Sometimes, the best thing a tree can do for the health of itself and that of its own kind; is be pleasnt to its stewards."