Q) Pruning a long arborvitae row

poetmk

poetmk

Location
Michigan
I have a question about pruning a fairly long and large row of Thuja occidentalis (American Arborvitae)here in Michigan. This group of Arborvitae has never been pruned - they average between 7'-9' over all. Usually I would prune this sort of tree/plant in the summer but the client is wanting it done now - so in Michigan this means winter is a few weeks away. Should I talk them into waiting until late next spring? Any suggestions welcome - thanks -

mk
 
If you prune now, at least they'll be neat and tidy until next growing season. Why not do it now? And by "prune", what exactly are we talking? Long ends and subordinate codominant stems? Promote a morefew pyrimidal shape? Shear the whole thing? When it comes to hedges, I find the word "prune" to have a very loose meaning.
 
Thanks Jeff - really I'm just wanting to run the hedger over them to tidy the appearance up - the long term goal is to bring them into the same height and width - but that will be a few years in the making. I'm from the West Coast so I wasn't sure if the winter here might have and adverse affect on them :)
 
They'll be fine. We're heading into colder weather here ourselves, and I'm doing a big hedge this week myself. I dont much prefer a tightly sheared row of arbs, but you cant deny it does help keep them together a little better under snow load, so long as they dont get flat-topped.
 
Take a look at how much growth has taken place for the last couple of years. Depending on how thick the green layer is you might be able to shear off a year's growth.

Whenever I did late season hedge work I would take a little bit less the further I got from the date when this year's growth started to harden off.

One advantage of doing it now and then in late spring is that you'll have forced it to bud out and thicken up a little on the interior.

In many text books I read that new growth won't be forced from woody stems in evergreens. More than once I forced adventitious growth inside the green layer. This always help when your client wants to have a more uniform hedge.
 
Here in Southern Ontario I am pretty sure we are in the same zone, a tidy up is Okay with no adverse affects.
1 season of growth at most and any more than that should be left for late winter early spring.
 
I am of the school of thought that believes there is no use for hedgers in property care. They encourage the growth of the plant to be focused on the outer crown, leaving the interior often leafless and weak and therefore more readily prone to showing light damage. They also create many tearing cuts and these are great entry point for plant diseases.

That being said, if one must use them make sure they are sharp... but I will stick with my hedge clippers and hand pruners. It may not be as quick and sometimes quite slow, but the long term health of the plant is greatly enhanced (holly hedges really benefit from the extra care in my experience)

Tom,
in Gilman's it says
"Young Arborvitae, false cypress, Leyland cypress, yew, hemlock and some junipers can be cut back into wood one or two years old that does not have living foliage on it. Some of these conifers will even generate sprouts when cuts are made through much older wood"

are those the species you found success with also? this particular subject is of great interest to me. are there any other unexpected trees people have seen new growth coming from woody stems?
 
Thanks everyone! Looks like a perfect day here for the job- I will put all this advice into these trees and they will feel marvelous :)

peace,

mk
 
We've "rehabbed" our share of hedges because with shearing they outgrow their intended space.

Our preferred schedule of maintenance is biennial, six year cycle of thin, thin, shear

As TomD mentioned getting light into the interior is key. We do this by opening up the top through removal of select codoms, pulling more dominant stems from the sides and reduction cuts as well. Then we "clean" up the flyers to give the tree shape.

We've succeeded in bringing 15 to 20 foot overgrown hedges back down to 8 - 12 feet this way with plenty of interior foliage to prune back to in the future.

Now, to answer your question, timing of the work for us depends on the growing season and how we want to take advantage of it. I prefer right at budbreak so we can take advantage of the tree's stress response to help force that interior growth we are looking for.

At the same time, late fall and after leaf drop I like to do any heavy thinning or reduction to allow the wounds to dry before the next growing season.

There will be pros and cons no matter when you do it.

About the only time I won't prune is when the temps are 85 or higher (heat stroke) because we work inside the hedges. And I won't prune roadside hedges a month before or during snow season due to road salt and pruning wounds. Nothing empirical guiding that last one, just doesn't' sound right to me to be getting salt in the tree wounds.

Of course, my truly preferred pruning method is the bent-knee one-cut-prune but that is a different thread...
 
leave em alone, trees dont need pruning people need pruning,, there are no bad trees just bad tree owners, dont call tree mutilators butchers, butchers are highly skilled people, these are some of the thoughts i have when a hedge is on my plate,, but that dont pay the bills,,, SCALP em this year and next,, by then it will be time for cabling,, and scalping again and again and again,, if your really good, after all that you can sell the removal/stump grinding/and replanting of the same problem,,
 
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