WeldrDave , I like your style! I don't trim trees but on other projects I'd rather get a big job done all at once rather than drag out equipment time and time again, something to be said for set up and clean up... Do it every time more often or do it once though it may take longer. WTG!!
He meant pollard, not trim. Trim is when you select a couple of large branches and remove them to open the canopy for light to filter through. Pollard is when you remove all terminal growth to promote an even bushier growth of all new tiny branches. It leads to a very weak structure the next time around but is a technique that has been used for centuries to supply small diameter fire wood in Europe.
Thanks, Beautiful explanation! .. I was getting limbs breaking from weight and also we get our share of Nor-easters here, I didn't need one of these trees coming down on a car or the house.
Yeah I would have thinned out half of whole branches to let more light and wind thru, but I'm used to pruning fruit trees to be healthy, not for 'looks'.
I haven't really read all the comments here, but you're close to prunin' the way I like to, only thing left is to lop 'em off right at the base there
The ice storm of '98 did that to most hardwood trees around here. I have a huge oak that someone from the tree service said would die. Well, it didn't die. Everyone one of those stubbled limbs grew back with these huge balls of branches. Eventually, the stronger ones won out and the spindly ones died off. You can still see you the areas where that happened, but when leafed back out, the tree now presents as the same handsome specimen it was before the storm.
