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PSA: stop telling new guys to top young oaks, you are wrecking the form
I keep seeing folks in here and on job sites tell apprentices to top oaks for "structure" around year 3, and I watched it backfire on a client's property in Tacoma last month. They had 6 willow oaks topped about 4 years ago, and now 5 of them have those ugly broom shoots and two leaders that split in a windstorm. A topped oak puts all its energy into weak upright growth instead of building a real central leader, and that wood is way more likely to fail. I know structural pruning takes more time and a pole saw, but cutting to a lateral branch that is at least a third the trunk size is the actual fix. What do you all tell homeowners who already topped their trees years ago, just keep coming back every 3 years or remove?
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charlie379d ago
Topping oaks wrecked my old view too, but cutting to laterals at a third trunk size is truly right.
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