Thinning a Holly tree

[Joe Newton]

it looks like a choad.

 

 

 

well at least you are honest. I would say grab it with both hands as you will be able to do it again and again on a repeat basis.

 

 

 

 

 

😂😂😂😂😂

[Thesnarlingbadger]

Climb up through the middle and start from the top with 1000 fishing lines tide to your harness, cut branches with silky or sexy queers and tie each one off. At the bottom tie all the lines to a rigging rope, pop on the tow hitch of that lovely new navara and drive like you've just robbed a bank. If it works it will be very satisfying.

[Steve Bullman]

I don't have any sexy queers

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

It looks like a choad.

 

Choad? That's a new one on me. Go on enlighten me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please

[Thesnarlingbadger]

I don't have any sexy queers

 

 

Oh my bad secateurs :-/

[inthewoods]

I don't have any sexy queers

 

That's not what I've heard!... Big boy ;-)

[TGB]

What happened to the days of sending a small boy up a chimney to clean them out. What you need is a small lad with a Silky and no preformed notion of the value of money. Or at least, a lad who can't count money but does have muscles.

[daltontrees]

I have been asked to thin quite a large Holly tree. Just the thought of doing that is making me feel sick Anyway, I have never in 20 years thinned a Holly tree, reduced plenty for sure. Has anyone else done one, how did it react to it, and was it worth the effort?

 

I've doen a couple. Like any other species being thinned, if it's done right it can serve a useful purpose. You haven't said what the objective is. But regardless, the regorwth will initially result in re-thickening of the crown rather than spreading of it.

 

Some hollies tend not to have prickly leaves higher up, so it might not be htat bad. Younger stems or the leader(s) have horizontal branches fairly regularly all teh way up, and thinning seems to work best if entire branches are taken out rather than trying to thin the foliage on the branches. Much like one might thin a spruce.

 

If it's not a severe thinning the tree should respond well. Wounds might be slow in healing but will eventually. I have found it important to get right back to the collar, leaving no stub at all. And don't remove the leader(s). Officially, thinning shouldn't change the dimensions of the tree, just its density.

 

Getting the arisings out of the tree will be the hard bit. Working from the inside, pulling them in is near impossible, and throwing them out is near impossible. I use secateurs from the inside, pull the branch to me, strip the bits I can reach, pull again, and continue ad nauseam. Then shove everything down to the bottom, tie back a couple of branches to make a passage and drag everything out. All time consuming but if priced appropriately not a bad way to spend a day.

[Mick Dempsey]

climb up through the middle and start from the top with 1000 fishing lines tide to your harness, cut branches with silky or sexy queers and tie each one off. At the bottom tie all the lines to a rigging rope, pop on the tow hitch of that lovely new navara and drive like you've just robbed a bank. If it works it will be very satisfying.

 

best. Autocorrect. Ever.

[Thesnarlingbadger]

best. Autocorrect. Ever.

 

 

I wish it was an auto correct mate. I've just got so used to calling them that that I forget it's not a nationwide term.