Topped/pollarded?

[sloth]

Hi, I wonder if anyone would care to share their thoughts?

How would you describe the difference between a topped tree, and a pollarded tree?

To cut a for example a young oak, at 10-15 foot high, creating a 15 inch diameter single cut through the trunk, and allowing to regrow = topping or pollarding?

I ask as most of our veteran pollards from many years ago I reckon were created in this manner, probably often with bigger diameter cuts through the trunk. However now I believe we call it topping and frown upon it. BS3998 guidelines suggest starting the pollard process on much younger trees, with far smaller cuts; I struggle to believe people hundreds of years ago would have started/managed pollards this way, as they would have cut the timber when it was of a useful size to them.

I look forward to anyone's opinion, and hopefully some good points and historic references

[geoff]

An intersting thread,I have some old polarded oaks around me,one very old that I own.

I do speculate that a lot of trees (oak,etc),was cut hard as you say,when the demand for good mature lengths was of imediate importance,as the wars wirh france & spain.

George 111 I believe required a lot wood for his conflicts,& I ponder that my oak may well have started its life as a pollard around this time.

I am going to enjoy this one,the '87' storms rolled one of the old oaks over,& the wood from that was used in restoration of old boats.

The industial revolution created & relied upon this type of harvest for fuel & structural wood suplies.

[treeseer]

The US definition of topping mentions "internodal pruning without regard to plant health or stability"

 

A 15" horizontal wound does not sound good for health or stability. Depends in large part on owner's objectives.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I will be back to this later! just my kind of thread:thumbup1:

 

30th biggest walnut in the U.K

 

[treequip]

I believe the difference between topping and pollarding is that pollarding is a cultural practice with the aim of producing timber of a desired diameter on a cyclical basis. The practice was once common when willow wands were needed for basket making or small diameter timber for firewood.

 

Topping on the other hand is a one off internodal pruning carried out because the tree keeps the sun off my garden/patio/decking/conservatory (delete as appropriate)

[skyhuck]

I would say most Pollard's are formed from the topping of a tree, this is topping.

 

If the topped tree is then maintained with regular cyclical re-cutting, it becomes a Pollard.

 

I would say that most people top the tree to the collar of branch unions, rather than just sever the trunk.

[David Goss]

To me...

Topping is when the customer says can you reduce it by 50% or there abouts and off you go hacking and slashing without a care of what you are doing and for the future stability of the tree. This tree will probably never be MAINTAINED in the future either.

 

Pollarding however is something that is done to MAINTAIN a tree within a small space and is worked on EVERY year or 2 to guarantee that the cuts are never too big and the tree can easily repair the damage.

That is my take on the modern view of TOPPING and POLLARDING.

 

In the past however there was more of a need for the timber product of pollarded trees and i guess a lot of trees were probably TOPPED in order to have a future supply of POLLARDED timber. All done with reason and need. Nowadays however Topping is done mostly by the selfish thoughts of I want of more light or less leaves or a better view (all on a very temporary time frame) which IMO is just crazy and done in complete ignorance of the bigger picture. I would say however on very rare occasions with responsible owners, POLLARDING is done as a last ditch attempt at saving the life of a mature tree.

[Crazy Cutter]

Pollarding has produced some of our best and long-lived trees in this country. It was only carried out for one reason to stop livestock eating the re-growth. Wood was very important and livestock numerous so was an important practice like coppicing. The countryside would have looked different to today, with far less 'mature' trees, almost every wood coppice and lots of pollards within fields and hedgerows. Wood was more valuable than corn!

[David Goss]

Pollarding has produced some of our best and long-lived trees in this country. It was only carried out for one reason to stop livestock eating the re-growth. Wood was very important and livestock numerous so was an important practice like coppicing. The countryside would have looked different to today, with far less 'mature' trees, almost every wood coppice and lots of pollards within fields and hedgerows. Wood was more valuable than corn!

 

How does pollarding stop livestock eating regrowth?

Is it because the pollard is higher up and out of reach whereas coppice is ground level?

Was that not what fences, walls and hedgerows were for, to keep the livestock out of where they are not supposed to be? Maybe it was to stop wild animals like deer etc but it seems strange to me that it was to stop livestock...

[Crazy Cutter]

Pollarding was to stop cattle from eating the regrowth by cutting above their bite. That is what wood pasture is all about!!!!