Realized I was topping trees wrong for years after one bad storm

I used to think topping a tree was the quick fix for keeping it from getting too tall near a house. Then last spring we had that big wind storm here in Ohio and I saw a topped maple split right down the middle. My neighbor's tree that got a proper crown reduction instead had almost no damage. That moment hit me hard because I had been doing that to at least 15 trees over the past 5 years. Now I only do selective pruning and always leave the leader intact. Has anyone else had a storm change how they approach pruning cuts?

2 comments

2 Comments

claire_fisher4125d ago

Oh man that storm wake up call is brutal but real. I think a lot of us learned the hard way that topping just turns a tree into a giant liability. I saw a topped silver maple a few years back that shot out a bunch of weak sprouts which then snapped off in a light breeze and landed on a shed. Crown reduction is way more work but honestly it's the only way to keep the tree healthy and safe long term.

campbell.logan25d ago

Yo @claire_fisher41 nailed it! I had a buddy top a big oak by his garage and after one ice storm those weak sprouts came down like toothpicks, took out his gutters. That maple split you saw is exactly what happened to me, just a mess of rotten wood and stress cracks. Crown reduction is more work but it saves you from having a tree shaped like a lollipop that falls apart in the first gust.