Struggling with reductions

[mikebarnard]

Unless it's something small and easy it makes sense to keep checking with the groundsman as they'll see what the customer will see. It's not as though it takes long to ask where best to cut (to give the right shape). If it's a larger tree then I think it often would be difficult to get it equal on both sides without some sort of check from the ground.

[Mike arb]

Thanks for some good advice I have got a few pictures to put up to show a couple of reductions I have done but don't no how to upload them.

[alex_m]

Thanks for some good advice I have got a few pictures to put up to show a couple of reductions I have done but don't no how to upload them.

 

Click 'reply' at the bottom of a thread, then under the text box click 'manage attachments'. you can then browse your computer for the images.

[Pommie]

A simple rule for a re shape, find the center of the crown first, that is your highest point work from there, for getting big trees to look balanced wherever you are in the tree any branch at the same distance from center is cut at the same height. The skill is finding the first cut. At first it seems impossible but after a while it becomes second nature.

As for a reduction following the original crown shape that is much easier, but applying the lessons you learn from reshaping will enable you to make better judgements when you need to find growth points. Some have a natural ability others have to learn it but all can get good with time.

[Mike arb]

Here is a couple I have done I feel I done ok I only have a after picture on 1 of them any advice on them is more than welcome.

[Mike arb]

Here's 1 more.

[jaime bray]

I think that steve is right in many ways about having the eye for it, and if that is the case then you do not always have to start from the top, when Im reducing and I do not get to do many big big ones any more, but if there is loads to be done I sometimes start at the bottom, the disadvantage is that as you send down certain branches from above you can damage the growers you reduce back to, but it saves creating a birds nest thoughtout the tree with pruned branches getting hung up.

 

I was also told many years ago by my instructor Mark Fagg, that never thin the tree out before you have reduced as this will limit the amount of growers to reduce back too. I see so often people climbing and thinning as they branch walk out. I personally think that this is not a good idea, I also think that by not thinning much if at all when reducing,you reduce the rate of regrowth and pruning points as the amount of bud left on the tree is significantly higher.

 

Lad that used to work for me reduced a huge cherry 9 year ago, he was clearing away a lot of feather growth on the first stem and i said leave all that just snip the tip out and leave it all in. THe tree still has great shape and the regrowth is so minimal that when i visited last month, again as i do annually to advise on tree management, the tree still does not need re-pruning, and the regrowth is not of length to require pruning to mitigate any regrowth failure due to excessive length.

 

The best way is to visualise the finished tree when you are on the deck prior to climbing, there will be a few branches that you can pick out and then you will know when you are climbing that if you are reducing to those branches then you are on for the shape you have forseen.

 

However, if you havent a clue what a decent tree when reshaped should look like then you are on for a hiding. I was taught never judge a tree you drive past as you do not know what the spec was or what the tree looked like before but do use such examples to ask yourself how you would have finished it. final pruning points or little bits off here or there. If ever you are grounding use that as an opportunity to increase your reducing skills as you can inform the climber of whether in your opinion you think he needs to take a bit more off or climb out further.

 

I have yet to meet a climber in 18 years of doing the job that when told 'You need to go out further or prune there etc' has spat their dummy out and said who do you think you are!!! Treework is about teamwork, and by working as a team then the tree will benefit aesthetically from that teamwork. A lot of it is about pride too..

Edited December 23, 2012 by jaime bray

[mikebarnard]

I think if the tree needs thinned as well as reduced it makes sense to do the thinning first to save having to cut the same limb twice. Of course you need to have a good look to check whether taking the limb away will affect the shape.

[Rich Rule]

I hardly ever reduce and thin at the same time. Even when the sheet says so.

 

Once you have removed the ends of the branches you want as much leafy matter available for the tree to recover.

[Al Cormack]

 

I was also told many years ago by my instructor Mark Fagg,.. ..

 

Mark? Fagg or Nigel Fagg?

 

There was a Nigel Fagg when I was at Merrist Wood.

 

Maybe there is more than one Fagg.

 

Al