A friend of mine planted about 100 Green Giants about three years ago. They were about 18-24" tall when he planted them. Green Giants are pretty deer resistant, but where my friend and I live there are just too many deer in a small area (island) for that to mean much. The first year he planted these 100 Green Giants, the deer destroyed about 25 of them. After he replaced them, I recommended that he start using Milorganite fertilizer around the trees to keep the deer away. (It's an unadvertized fact that Milorganite acts as a deer repellent.) He started dumping Milorganite around the base of the trees on the perimeter of his property and the following year those were nearly 2ft. taller than the other trees (same growing conditions). Needless to say he started using it around all the Green Giants and this year some of the ones that he started using it on first are taller than me (6ft.). I started using Milorganite on my lawn a few years ago to keep the deer away that were eating my plants and it did wonders for my lawn. I started dumping it around all my perennials, mixing it in with the potting soil for my annuals, and tilling it into my vegetable garden. Everything improved! The stuff is like the Frank's Red Hot commercial... I put that s*#& on everything! I'm not sure it's the "best" fertilizer for your Green Giants, but it's definitely good. In the past I was always afraid to fertilize because I'd overdone it too many times and killed/burned too many plants and lawn. Milorganite is organic, so you can't really use too muich... it will just sit there on/in the soil until the soil microorganisms can consume it. Good luck!

dont confuse its CONES.. with growth points look at a green branch .... they end in green tips ... i think you are looking at groups of cones ... the tag is still on it.. is this a rather large RECENT transplant.. at the links above.. it is repeatedly stated that transplant increases this .... as well as other things i right clicked the links to open in a new window.. and they did not enlarge.. but when i just clicked them.. they opened large in a new window .. go figure.. learn something new every day .. lol ken

I have a feeling this is a story of three answers. Yes go ahead and prune, oh no, the "best" time is (insert time here), and forget about pruning, replace. Can You? Yeah. It sounds like you have some serious cutting to do and you probably don't want to wait much longer. If you could, there might be benefit derived from timing the pruning with start of growing season...but you reference situations where I'm not going to judge if you do or don't do it now.

Well now...It turns out I might have a little bit to offer here.