On 6 Feb 2007 07:28:42 -0800
"Treelady" wrote:

When you say "getting a little big", how big do you mean?

Pollarding removes new growth, cutting back to the frame of the tree;
more for encouraging shape and keeping a tree at a specific size, best
begun on young trees, not mature ones. A formative practice.

Coppicing encourages strong flushing so that the shoots may be cropped
for use. Call it more industrial, if you will. Coppicing is properly
begun on young trees when they are 100% dynamic mass and can easily
recover the energy loss caused by surgery. When coppiced from young,
essentially the tree remains young.

If the growth you are planning to take of is bigger than a childs arm:
beware. The larger the wound, the poorer the practice, in essence.

If the limbs are the size of an adults thigh: leave the tree alone,
unless you remove any dead wood, diseased or crossing branches. At the
very most a minimal reduction (10% of the overall crown).


Thanks for the thoughtful post. Actually I am for minimal pruning as a rule.

In this case, it's really a bush more than a tree. It's planted in a bushy border,
with a smallish Euonymus on one side and a mature box on the other; in back
there are a couple of laburnums then a stone wall. It's maybe 5 ft tall at largest
(the laburnums tower over) but also gotten quite wide, invading its neighbors.

I don't think the branches are more than 2 inches diameter, as I intend to leave
most of the structure intact. Some of the laterals may be cut lower and hence
a little thicker, but I expect they'll be OK.

It's a reasonably mature plant (perhaps 8 years) so it may not be ideal to
do this now, but there you are. It does have very attractive new growth,
many of my neighbors have taken cuttings so it now adorns quite a few
local gardens.

-E

--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visit http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com