rumination
Migratory Hippie Arbolist
Got it. I just want to make my viewpoint clear that heading does not necessarily equal topping. They are not one and the same.
Topping Harms Trees
- Thread starter Coniferae Tree
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squisher
THE CALM ONE!!!!
Indiscriminate topping sucks and is brutal on trees. I get that some people do it for money. It still sucks for the tree and it boils my blood when I see a gorgeous tree destroyed.
rumination
Migratory Hippie Arbolist
I'm with you on that 100%.
squisher
THE CALM ONE!!!!
You take a nice gorgeous tree a specimen of any species and indiscriminately cut it in about half or more or less, that is topping and in no way shape or form is considered a pollard.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
squisher
THE CALM ONE!!!!
Lmao. I'm done ranting.
For tonight!
For tonight!
Szajer
alive with pleasure
Now just maintain those cuts every other season and it's pollarding 
squisher
THE CALM ONE!!!!
Ahhhhhhh!
Not even close!!!!
I can't help myself.
Not even close!!!!
I can't help myself.
rumination
Migratory Hippie Arbolist
Haha, I was restraining myself from saying anything.
Szajer
alive with pleasure
C-mon, it's a little close.... 
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
I love a true and well maintained pollard. Love doing them and the trees that lend themselves to it do quite well. I have a few I do on 2 year cycles here. Often with just a quick prune of the inner most growth in between. Watching those big old knuckles form is really cool.
I am actually considering it here on our little phunny pharm... Feed for the critters and maybe even try some hedging with the cuttings. Oh well.
I admit, I recently topped 6 trees for a good client upon his offering of money and request.
3 incense cedar and three deodar.
He had planted them some years ago out in a field he uses for horses and they were basically strategically placed future fence posts. Him and his wife did not have much money at the time they moved there and no horse yet. But they had a plan.
Wellllll... the original plan did not include a vegetable garden on the other side (shady) of these trees. He planted the garden, the trees got taller... rut ro.
They are still fence posts, horse uses them shade and they make a good wind break for the fruit trees. No targets but the horse. So I agreed
Those damn trees will need it again before I pass on and will more than out live myself and probably my children.
I am actually considering it here on our little phunny pharm... Feed for the critters and maybe even try some hedging with the cuttings. Oh well.
I admit, I recently topped 6 trees for a good client upon his offering of money and request.
3 incense cedar and three deodar.
He had planted them some years ago out in a field he uses for horses and they were basically strategically placed future fence posts. Him and his wife did not have much money at the time they moved there and no horse yet. But they had a plan.
Wellllll... the original plan did not include a vegetable garden on the other side (shady) of these trees. He planted the garden, the trees got taller... rut ro.
They are still fence posts, horse uses them shade and they make a good wind break for the fruit trees. No targets but the horse. So I agreed
Those damn trees will need it again before I pass on and will more than out live myself and probably my children.
Mick!
TreeHouser
If a client wants a tree cut in half because of light or some other issue, and if it's a tree that will support it like a lime or willow etc I'll do it in a heartbeat, if it's something else that doesn't like it so much I'll explain that to them, if they still want it done, fine, I'll do it no prob.
Sjaezer is broadly right in what he says about the difference between a pollard and topping, very often it's just the time scale between trims.
A lot of the so called pollards over here are just heavily topped trees re topped every 10 years or so.
Sjaezer is broadly right in what he says about the difference between a pollard and topping, very often it's just the time scale between trims.
A lot of the so called pollards over here are just heavily topped trees re topped every 10 years or so.
Thor's Hammer
Wolfish. Sometimes Bites.
Haha LOL at this thread. I don't give a shit about individual trees.
A 'so-called pollard' a proper pollard does not make.
Heavily topped trees re topped every 10 years or so are just that...topped trees.
The cat's heads or knuckles that form on a true pollards become the 'target' for the target pruning of a pollard. There are physiological changes such that the numerous SMALL cuts are dealt with in a similar manner to pruning to a collar, the translocation of starch prior to leaf drop is highly localized to provide the energy for the next season's growth. There is no huge net loss of storage area/canopy, stored startch as in a topping job.
Heavily topped trees re topped every 10 years or so are just that...topped trees.
The cat's heads or knuckles that form on a true pollards become the 'target' for the target pruning of a pollard. There are physiological changes such that the numerous SMALL cuts are dealt with in a similar manner to pruning to a collar, the translocation of starch prior to leaf drop is highly localized to provide the energy for the next season's growth. There is no huge net loss of storage area/canopy, stored startch as in a topping job.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Pollarding minimally destroys the tree's natural defenses against disease and bugs.
Mick!
TreeHouser
"Topping" that great taboo of tree work, of course it's just a word, I have topped poplars, plane trees, limes and many others and gone back years later and done them again, if they hadn't been topped they would have become too big for their situation and would have needed removal, the tree copes fine, clients happy because they still have their tree and light for the pool, screening from the block of flats, windbreak from the north wind, the list goes on. The only people who actually recoil in horror are "Arboriculturalists" the general public don't even notice except to say "you've given that a bit of a haircut ha ha"
Topping out spruce, Douglas etc why not? If it's too high and the client wants it so if it fell it wouldn't reach the house, get up there and flop the top out (did it today in fact)
Topping out spruce, Douglas etc why not? If it's too high and the client wants it so if it fell it wouldn't reach the house, get up there and flop the top out (did it today in fact)
squisher
THE CALM ONE!!!!
Yah? Then I lol at your comment too Ed. Good choice you made moving to biomass or whatever from arboriculture.
Szajer
alive with pleasure
Interesting you add that point. What I've noticed as a result of "topping to reduce height," is that within a few short years, the tree has sent sucker growth to the exact height/length -that the topping was to cure.
I can't tell you the number of massive Silver Maples I've climbed where I've had to set my tie in -50' above the knuckle of that topping cut.
What you've done was created a maintenance nightmare for anyone after you. "You meaning anyone- not 'You' personally." This makes the tree weakened at that point and did absolutely nothing to halt its growth. Yes, for the short few years that it did, but those suckers then become branches, with cavities, insect damage, etc.... If I was ever worried about climbing and structural integrity —it was on account that I was in a once topped tree.
Thor's Hammer
Wolfish. Sometimes Bites.
I'm like the Honeybadger of Arboriculture. I just dont give a shit.
Seriously - Vast areas of of our planets Rainforest are being slashed and burnt, And you worry about topping a tree? I've topped hundreds of trees with No ill effect to them. Funny how Arborists will happily fell any tree a customer wants felling but will recoil in horror at the thought of topping the very same tree
Topped trees still provide huge habitat and biodiversity for flora and fauna alike. You see pockets of rot, birds see a larder well stocked with grubs. You have to see the bigger picture....
Seriously - Vast areas of of our planets Rainforest are being slashed and burnt, And you worry about topping a tree? I've topped hundreds of trees with No ill effect to them. Funny how Arborists will happily fell any tree a customer wants felling but will recoil in horror at the thought of topping the very same tree
Topped trees still provide huge habitat and biodiversity for flora and fauna alike. You see pockets of rot, birds see a larder well stocked with grubs. You have to see the bigger picture....
Trees are the most noble friends we have, and I ask forgiveness for each living tree I murder.
Storms are my friends too, weeding out the weak and dangerous trees with the potential to hurt me.
Yes, it's a vulture's profession....
Jomo
Storms are my friends too, weeding out the weak and dangerous trees with the potential to hurt me.
Yes, it's a vulture's profession....
Jomo
You and me both, Ed.
I just "Vistapruned " a birch today after work.
Took the top out and nibbled a bit of the branches.
In a few years it'll be rotten and ready to fell, so what.
Birches are weeds in the woods here, I kill 1000s of them with the saw and brushcutter every year.
I just "Vistapruned " a birch today after work.
Took the top out and nibbled a bit of the branches.
In a few years it'll be rotten and ready to fell, so what.
Birches are weeds in the woods here, I kill 1000s of them with the saw and brushcutter every year.
Mick!
TreeHouser
So what do suggest? Let me guess, very light reduction and thinning plus crown lift?
I heard this stuff about endangering future climbers and it's laughable.
A couple of things.
I'm too polite to use the word "Bullshit", so I'll just say you are not quite right.
BTW, if you really want to piss all the European members of the forum off, just keep slinging the term: "EU" around like you are doing!
Pollarding and it's close cousin, coppicing, has been around a hell of a lot longer than 3 centuries. It was the predecessor to harvesting hay for livestock, but not because " a certain king" decreed anything. Simply because back when iron was rare or not even invented, the cutting of grass for winterfedd was impossible.
Even in the middle age, a scythe was an expensive tool, not owned by everyone.
Pollarding and coppicing never became " fashionable" they evolved along with animal husbandry in colder climates.
As iron became cheaper, hay took the place of yearly harvested branches as the choice for winterfeed. Slowly the intervals of re-pollarding/coppicing became longer and the material harvested was used for firewood, fencing material and the making of treen.
Eventually the need for the practice disappeared around the time between the two world wars and it became a traditional/cultural thing, that was done partly to keep a tree at a certain size and shape, but also simply because the practice was a part of our heritage.
It is a fantastic method to keep inner city trees from getting too big for their place.
I maintain a shitload of polarded trees and have posted tons of pictures of them, some are over 250 years old and still thriving.
Go to southern Spain, Andalusia woulkd be a good place, sit in a sideway bodega in the shade of a lane of sycamores, that have been cut, shaped and pollarded to form a shady roof over the street, sip a glass of Manzanita Sherry and your view on pollarding may change.
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