Ash reduction

[colwoodlandcare]

Been asked to give this Ash a hard reduction, as its limiting light on the seating area to the pub.

How far back can i take it?

 

Any input helpful

[RobRainford]

no more than 20% total volume of crown imo.

[testcricket01]

you will be better off thinning the crown rather than a crown reduction if light is the issue.

[Tree cutter Stu]

To the ground, then they would have plenty of light !

[swinny]

Harsh reduction will make it worse than it is.... Why not look into crown lifting it slightly, possibly thin it out a little or if for asthetics, pull some of the longer growth out on the areas where it sticks out as long as there are some good growth points to bring it back to

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

drop crotch for a good hard reduction, given the species and age hispidus will be along shortly to do the job if you dont so get it on, will do no harm to that tree at all, be as natural a part of the life cycle as anything.

[Marc]

A tree that size no reduction will ever give satisfactory light, only poor reductions that will multiply the cost of maintenance significantly and will probably produce dense regrowth.

 

Maybe Hamas approach could help, good drop crotch pruning increasing the phtosyntropic? think thats right i.e shading the pruning wounds will help to reduce adventitous regrowth.

 

Best option in my opinion is Crown lift it as hard as possible this will increase ambient light a lot more than any sensible reduction. And have a good climber maybe balance the tree with a light prune! not a total canopy prune!

 

Reduction on such mature trees wil never give more light unless you spank it, in which case you have to consider a fell and replant as a more sensible long term approach

[colwoodlandcare]

Think ill aim for crown lift & drop crotch pruning.

 

Owner did mention about having the whole tree down but think it would be a shame to get rid of it.

[MattyF]

I think the left side and middle would drop in nice ... With a light crown raise that's about as much I would want to do ... Or fell!

[agg221]

There is a natural line to follow on this one, at least from the angle shown in the picture. Goes as per MattyF suggests with a little bit top right.

 

Alec

[swinny]

There is a natural line to follow on this one, at least from the angle shown in the picture. Goes as per MattyF suggests with a little bit top right.

 

Alec

 

Thats what i ment in a roundabout way