Pollarding mature magnolia, bad idea???

[Johnny G]

A client of mine has a lovely mature magnolia with a spread of about 5m and height of about 4 or 5. It is 13feet away form his house, one of his insurance stipulations is that it be pruned back every 3 years. I have reduced it once before and its come back very well. However its time to do it again but he wants it done more drasticaly this time. The shape of the tree lends its self to pollarding but im scared that it may kill it, which would be REALLY bad.

 

Any advice out there, also am i too late to prune it now as it seems late summer is a good time as they are slow healers.

[se7enthdevil]

if your going to have any logs 3" + in diameter left over i'd be interested for woodturning. keep them as long as possible.

[nepia]

if your going to have any logs 3" + in diameter left over i'd be interested for woodturning. keep them as long as possible.

 

 

Ah scallops. Six weeks ago I removed an entire tree with 6' of straight 10" stem. It's drying nicely in about 30 bits but I'll know for next time.

 

 

Jon

[John Barleycorn]

A lot of Magnolias are cultivars grafted onto a more common Magnolia rootstock. Watch out for it causing suckering from the base.

[combined tree services]

Do you think that it realistically needs to be pollarded ? does it have a structural weakness that has is causing concern ? does the owner have any reason for wanting it pollarded ?

 

I recently looked at a Magnolia that had approximately 12 cobra braces in its canopy ! none of the were providing any support or in anyway counteracting the effects of wind stress and the tree had no structural defects that required this works . I guess someone made a fair bit of money out of the National traust for doing it though !!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

magnolias can be pollarded but they also dont deal with decay too well, as long as the cuts are under 2-3 inches they will overcome otherwise its a bit touh and go, feed the tree if you have to with a mulch and also avoid weed

style lawn maintenence close by.

[treeseer]

magnolias can be pollarded but they also dont deal with decay too well, as long as the cuts are under 2-3 inches they will overcome otherwise its a bit touh and go, feed the tree if you have to with a mulch and also avoid weed

style lawn maintenence close by.

Agree with Tony here. No idea if you have a straight M grandiflora or a grafted hybrid--the suckering issue may be a good one to raise to lessen client pressure to whack hard.

 

they are native here and i have seen them come back from hard pruning but managing the sprouts can be higher mtc than from a lighter pruning.

 

frikn clients always wanting more off; like they do not want to see you ever again.

 

weird ins. stipulation; is not passing the smell test, tho i am a ways off...