Reduction of Wellingtonia

[Nigel de Berker]

We're working with a large (25m tall) healthy-looking Wellingtonia standing 8m from a house; the tree has shed a few branches ( upto 200mm diam) in past few years , the most recent happened last week - narrowly missing the owner, who is now a worried man . A fine tree - I am loath to advise removal. I would be interested to hear any one's experience of reduction of Wellies? I did some on a site in Glos in late 1970's in similar circumstances, when the only other option was fell ; we reduced upper summit growth down to about 200mm diam and then shortened the laterals throughout by about 20% , always retaining light greenery . The trees looked fairly weird initially but responded vigorously with new growth and when I saw them about 3 years later they looked okay - unfortunately I have not revisited for many years to check on later progress.

Any practical experiences ? Thanks

[High Scale]

Hello Nigel, good to see you here on arbtalk.

 

I have reduced a few Wellingtonia they respond vigorously and seem to do pretty well although reduction was minimal.

 

 

 

Cheers!

Edited February 4, 2013 by High Scale

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

reduced 2 not long ago, shall see if I can find the photos, one might even be in my reductions thread. dont know what to expect from a response point of view yet but am certain they will do well. They shed branches so easily in old age, if you can call an English Welly old, just touch the back of a limb with a saw and easy to see why!

 

not many people talk about reducing wellies so glad to see im not the only one!

[Nigel de Berker]

Thanks for the response about Wellingtonia reduction - I'd be interested to see any photos