Pushing Pruning Limitations

Sorry for e delay. I've been slammed with the snowbirds coming back. Not complaining.

Passion for trees - I thought the same thing until I did it. I think the response rate will be tree dependent. I would like to see the results on different species. Thank you for the kind words.


Ryan - thanks. I agree with your nursery assessment. I just found a source of saplings that I might start planting instead to alleviate the problem.

Macrocarpa - I used palm jet and phosphojet in accordance with dbh.
 
Here is this summers pruning. I removed the lower three branches. Nothing else was pruned.
I will remove the lowest two branches below my flip line in the future. These were shoots that developed from the initial pruning cuts.

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Wow--huge cuts! But good vigor and high vitality; you might get away with it.

Thanks for following up! What's the plan for building structure in the upper crown?
 
Guy - Yep. Those lower limbs took off. I would not do this with a soft wooded tree. These Live Oaks seem to handle the cuts without decay if two things are not present. Recent construction damage and topping. I anticipate full closure by the 4th growing season.

Two of the original upper cuts are completely healed and the large lower inclusion is one year from full closure with no indication of decay.

Sonshine - Feel free to use the PDF. My name is on the cover page.
 
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Guy - the upper crown has good structure with a central leader. My plan is to inspect and possibly prune the upper canopy during the dormant season of next year. I will be removing the lowest two scaffold branches at that time to establish the permanent canopy.

The end game will be to have a Live Oak in the front yard that will extend in all directions. The canopy head will be targeted to be 60' by 60' tall and wide. I would like to extend the tree over the road with an elevated height of at least 25 -30 feet. I would like to design an arch over the driveway to frame it. On the house side, due to crazy home insurance requirements at resale, I am thinking of running main leaders just outside of the vertical plane of the home or cutting slightly over the corners toward the back of the property. I will design the main canopy upward over the main part of the house keeping in mind to have reduction available if the insurance gets squirrelly.

Side note - insurance does not realize that having branches close over a home is better than further away. Better to lay down softly then come crashing through with speed.
 
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The next crown raising took place to achieve the target hight of the canopy. One disappointing discovery was a double inclusion within the canopy on the driveway side. I was hoping to keep the lower intact but ended up subordinating them both leaving a hole in the canopy over the driveway. I will have to subordinate the vertical growth on those limbs next year, possibly removing the center included limb.

The tough part on removing a middle branch is getting it to heal properly. This is a feat that is hard to achieve unless it is a crape myrtle. It may be near impossible so keeping these limbs small and having the canopy grow over will possibly be the best solution. I will review next year and adjust accordingly.
 
Nice closure, but it has a ways to go, with or without the darn squirrels.

Why is the target height of the crown so high? Gonna harvest the log later on?
 
My guess is 3 more years on full closure. I should have listened to you on the upper canopy pruning and I could have mitigated that triple years ago.

To be honest, these houses are boring, ugly, and too small for a large tree with low branches. I want the tree, that will eventually be larger than the house, to be a secondary feature and allow you to be drawn into the home. To achieve this we have to put the tree above the roofline. I just planted a chaste tree to develop a lower canopy below the oak. The complement of the lavender flowers will look nice. The tree will have a canopy level of 5-18’. Thus pushing your eyes toward the front door. Eventually the Gardenia will be replaced as they require too much supplemental iron for the existing soil.

Worst case I will use the oak spar to make whiskey barrels. Lol.
 
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