Formative pruning

[L W Woodlands]

Hi I have a large area of broadleaf plantation to prune, thought I would ask for your thoughts. Seems to be a lot of different, even conflicting advice out there re timing, what and how much to remove, age of tree, size of limbs.

 

I will be pruning oak ash beech about 5yr old, its the larger side branches and co/dominants that concern me and the trees response/effects of pruning and leaving large wounds in relation to stem thickness.

 

would be interested to hear your thoughts.

[slack ma girdle]

Hi I have a large area of broadleaf plantation to prune, thought I would ask for your thoughts. Seems to be a lot of different, even conflicting advice out there re timing, what and how much to remove, age of tree, size of limbs.

 

I will be pruning oak ash beech about 5yr old, its the larger side branches and co/dominants that concern me and the trees response/effects of pruning and leaving large wounds in relation to stem thickness.

 

would be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

What is your end product: saw logs or firewood ?

You have to way up the benefits of damaging the trees to produce a better quality end product. Removing limbs bigger than you finger will take a long time to heal and increase the chances of infection, particularly if they are not done well.

I selectively thinned an ash and cherry wood that had large branches and co-dominates removed about 5 years before. Nearly all the large wounds still had not healed over and had produced large amounts of epicormic growth. My personal feeling is that if the is not good enough for your end product then fell it out and start again, or leave it until it is big enough to produce firewood.

[Matthew Storrs]

really depends on what the woodland is for commercial or amenity, Iv just finished thinning a mixed amenity/conservation woodland 15 years old, I didn't go too crazy with crown lifting although i did remove co dominant stems on larger species such as beech and ash, but left rowans and hawthorns etc as they were, coppiced the hazel, whether it was the right thing to do, time will tel,l but I just aimed on giving each tree a ring of sky around it.

[coppiceer]

The National Forest Company do a good guide to pruning young trees.

 

http://www.nationalforest.org/document/information/pruning_guide.pdf

[L W Woodlands]

Long term aim is to produce some good quality timber. The first patch I went through last yr I pruned a lot of trees, this time I am only doing the best of the them, as you say the poorer trees can grow on and will become firewood. I have found that most trees pruned last yr have responded well and have better form although some of the bigger cuts have produced large epicormic shoots.

Thanks coppicer, the national forest guide is one of the better ones i've seen.

[Max Plank]

I would just like to say make sure that you have squirrels under control otherwise any effort you put into pruning will be wasted in a few years time!!