what are the benefits of a tree reduction?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Your tutor is right, reductions are bad for trees but thats ok because most of what we do is bad for trees.

 

The majority of tree work causes wounds and removes branches and leaves the tree had a use for.

 

Pruning is mostly for people not trees, best you can hope for is not to wreck the tree too badly in the process. (and make a profit out of it)

 

 

I was going to say otherwise but i cant be arsed!

[likeitorlumpit]

I was going to say otherwise but i cant be arsed!

 

C'mon- be arsed:biggrin:

[MattyF]

Maybe it's because not many people work on Vets, but I see little mention of reduction to reduce risk of branch/canopy failure due to decay.

 

Here's a lapsed Oak pollard we retrenched a couple of months ago.

 

It has active Laetiporus brown rot decay, and has lost a couple of major scaffolds.

 

We've reduced this tree by approximately 2 meters over the entire canopy to lessen the load on the main unions at the top of what is a 'hollow' bole.

 

Have also halo'd & ring barked some of the surrounding Holly to allow more light into the tree to encourage epicormic sprouts.

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I don't get it why not just fell the Holly??? I suppose you can constantly moniter your trees though David.

Also IMO that's not really a reduction... Well it is but not to BS standards of pruning....

[MattyF]

What I mean is by not cutting to nodes the tree will flush more...forcing an already stressed tree to use more resources?? If it's reduce to nodes it will not have this response unless it's dormant buds getting more light.... I can see it's not severe so I'm guessing the forced response could in theory help it more???

[David Humphries]

I don't get it why not just fell the Holly??? I suppose you can constantly moniter your trees though David.

 

Over exposure to light 'could' be catastrophic Matty.

Releasing over time (slow shut down of the holly) is the best policy.

Also maintains the structure for nesting birds. This is in woodland, not a garden or park.

 

Many Oak, Hornbeam & Beech vets (at various nationwide sites) have been lossed due to opening up too quickly to greater light levels. Too big a shock.

 

Time & return management (at this site) is something we have oodles of.

 

 

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[David Humphries]

What I mean is by not cutting to nodes the tree will flush more...forcing an already stressed tree to use more resources?? If it's reduce to nodes it will not have this response unless it's dormant buds getting more light.... I can see it's not severe so I'm guessing the forced response could in theory help it more???

 

 

This is not a one off 'reduction' Matty.

 

I did say 'retrenchment'

 

The aim here, is to bring this particular Oak back down towards the original pollard over a phased number of stages.

 

Fracture prunning (debate for other threads) is not dependent on being nodal for every single cut.

 

There is provision for this type of work in the British Standard. It's a little open to interpretation though.

 

 

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[MattyF]

I don't get it why not just fell the Holly??? I suppose you can constantly moniter your trees though David.

 

Over exposure to light 'could' be catastrophic Matty.

Releasing over time (slow shut down of the holly) is the best policy.

Also maintains the structure for nesting birds. This is in woodland, not a garden or park.

 

Many Oak, Hornbeam & Beech vets (at various nationwide sites) have been lossed due to opening up too quickly to greater light levels. Too big a shock.

 

Time & return management (at this site) is something we have oodles of.

 

 

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I totally get it now : ) you learn something new every day,thanks David very informative,I shall now harass you with further questions!

 

Have you had much success with entrenchment pruning to bring pollards back to there more traditional form and over what sort of time scale would it take to achieve this form?

[treequip]

Well if you don't feel up to it…

[David Humphries]

I don't get it why not just fell the Holly??? I suppose you can constantly moniter your trees though David.

 

I totally get it now : ) you learn something new every day,thanks David very informative,I shall now harass you with further questions!

 

Have you had much success with entrenchment pruning to bring pollards back to there more traditional form and over what sort of time scale would it take to achieve this form?

 

 

 

Bear with me on this one, & I'll let you know in tens years or so.

 

Early days yet.

 

 

When I do revisit some of these, I'll put up a thread to look at how they are doing, good or bad.

 

 

 

 

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[Mesterh]

I don't get it why not just fell the Holly??? I suppose you can constantly moniter your trees though David.

 

Over exposure to light 'could' be catastrophic Matty.

Releasing over time (slow shut down of the holly) is the best policy.

Also maintains the structure for nesting birds. This is in woodland, not a garden or park.

 

Many Oak, Hornbeam & Beech vets (at various nationwide sites) have been lossed due to opening up too quickly to greater light levels. Too big a shock.

 

Time & return management (at this site) is something we have oodles of.

 

 

.

 

 

How does the increase in light shock/kill the tree?

 

How does the tree react to prevent this when the amount of extra light is progressively introduced?

 

All interesting stuff.