mature oak pruning

[vesna]

I have a huge, mature but very healthy  oak tree in  my back garden which  now severely reduces the amount of light and sun we get and the vegetation around the tree. I would like  I to prune it and received two different advice and dramatically different quotes from  two tree  surgeons. One advises to  severely prune the tree to  make the crown much smaller and the other  only lifting of the crown leaving the crown untouched.  If I just lift the canopy will the crown start gowning much faster next year and I will end up with even bigger canopy? Will I not get a lot of suckers  on my lawn? What is your advice?

Thank you kindly for your advice.

Vesna

[Steve Bullman]

Lifting of the canopy will be better for the tree and long term probably will give you more light. Photos would help though 

[Mick Dempsey]

You won’t get suckers from an oak.

 

But yes, photos please.

[Will C]

A heavy reduction often results in lots of epecormic growth that will block more light.

crown raise and a light thin will be better for the tree and you longer term. Short term the heavy reduction will give you more light but the regrowth will be as bad/worse as you have now by next summer 

[Mick Dempsey]

15 minutes ago, Will C said:

A heavy reduction often results in lots of epecormic growth that will block more light.

crown raise and a light thin will be better for the tree and you longer term. Short term the heavy reduction will give you more light but the regrowth will be as bad/worse as you have now by next summer 

This dogma, taught by colleges since 30 years is wrong, and creates mistrust between the public and our industry.

Edited November 10, 2019 by Mick Dempsey

[MattyF]

Don’t believe in thinning trees full stop unless it’s tip thinning , I’ve seen too many lions tailed and too many done badly the only time you see a thinning tree is when it’s sick ...also your creating wind tunnels and more leverage on limbs generally with thinning ,nothing wrong with any reduction if it’s done well and there is a valid reason.

[vesna]

Thanks a lot Guys, extremely helpful. Taken all your advice on board and will be just lifting the canopy.

Kind regards,

Vesna

[Arbitree]

Don’t believe in thinning trees full stop unless it’s tip thinning , I’ve seen too many lions tailed and too many done badly the only time you see a thinning tree is when it’s sick ...also your creating wind tunnels and more leverage on limbs generally with thinning ,nothing wrong with any reduction if it’s done well and there is a valid reason.

[Arbitree]

On the contrary. Certain genus & species “require”crown thinning & cleaning regularly for the whole purpose of “allowing” wind/airflow through the canopy. Wether to reduce the risk of certain pathogens for fruit/flower production or to reduce the risk of windsail and affecting phototropism. Take fruit trees as a classic example. It’s a species specific thing but airflow and light allowance is the aim. Then there’s dealing with co-dominant crowns, transfiguration and windsail issues. I’ve had to deal with many a farm boundary tree whereby not a great deal of thought went into their initial planting, layering, placement, etc. Due to both phototropism and transfiguration they all had progressive leans and had started to and were at some point bound to fail. By a 4 yr rotation of selective thinning and formative pruning, all are still intact and thriving. Although looking rather picturesque and odd ! Surely two classic examples of thinning when it’s required/needed ? Also in my opinion it’s “tip thinning” that creates lions tailing in the first place ! Again it’s species specific but thinning/pruning just the tips is a waste of time unless your back there every bloody year doing a formative prune/thin/clean etc. Do you use a hedge trimmer Or are you talking about lilac or buddleia’ lol.

[MattyF]

Is an Apple or buddleia any thing like a mature oak tree?

[MattyF]

Any unnecessary pruning is not good end of... I have thinned trees on regimes for years and seen the overall outcome over decades , leave nature alone , trees haven’t evolved over millions of years because in the last 100 years apparent arborists think they are structural engineers.. almost any problem in an environment with trees can be traced back to unnecessary pruning.