I was sent to "soft prune" a big Ailanthus, because of the neighbor's concerns (overhanging limbs, shade, leaves everywhere, dozens of sprouts/ saplings...).
How am I supposed to do a soft prune in this?
Almost every single lateral limbs where I wanted to cut at and save for the future growth was actually a dead one. I spent a lot of time trying to figure how to sort out a decent shape, but all I got was bad looking and too long to clear enough the neighbor's yard. Sooo...
As nearly all the crown was a sprouting from a drastic pruning decades ago, I shifted in the hard prune mode, figured out my cuts' envelope and went to town. I took out 15 years of growth at the central leader.
Much easier and quicker, nice looking crown even if a bit nude, a lot of limbs laying on the ground.
I'm not too concerned to harm the tree, as it will sprout back like mad. And at first, the customer wanted to kill it, but the seller dissuaded him (big Ailanthus like that aren't often seen around us).
At the end, the neighbor was very disappointed that the tree was still there, but the neighbor on the other side (much less concerned by this big invader thing) was glad to still see it. We can't please every one
