Regular readers will remember that a few months ago I had a brief
opportunity to prune the row of 25ft conifers growing along my boundary
in a neighbouring garden. Having pruned said conifers to 7ft high I
followed advice to hammer pure copper nails into the tops of the trunks
as an aid to disrupting the trees' hormone system and prevent them
resprouting.

The experiment appears to be in large part a success. There is no new
growth from the tops of the trees. There is some evidence of continuing
greenness from lower down but where this is accessible I am pruning it
back to the trunk.

It should be noted that over the years these conifers had been pruned
back several times by varying degrees and thus the row consisted not of
a neat row of large trees but a thicket of thick and thin trunks. It
would have taken a lifetime to have hammered a nail into every vertical
so I made a (variable) decision not to bother with uprights below a
certain size.


--
dave @ stejonda