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How much pruning can I do on very large white oak?

5 years ago

So, our back yard is full of very large white oaks (and some red oaks). Some are quite close to the house. They are all in good shape, healthy, no signs of disease, etc. For a few reasons, we desperately need to 'open-up' the back of the house to a little more sun. I don't really want to take any of trees down. I was wondering if I could just trim off some of the lower branches on the house side starting near the bottom and going maybe half-way up. How much of this trimming can the tree take without compromising the tree? I've trimmed a branch here and there on various trees and haven't had any problems but didn't know how the trees would take losing maybe 15-20% of it's limbs?

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Comments (6)

Embothrium
5 years ago
Partly all this depends on details we can't see here. Otherwise cutting off as much as a quarter of the volume of a mature tree might not be the best move.

Maybe have a certified arborist or other party that appears to be qualified come to the site and discuss your goals with you in person.
User
5 years ago
And don't do any pruning on Oak until September:

https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/430/430-460/430-460_pdf.pdf
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cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
When I asked this question here I was told that I could limb up the lower third of my trees- leave two thirds canopy and trim only the limbs on the lower third.

So halfway up seems a bit much and would likely look weird to boot.
sam_md
5 years ago
Sounds like your back yard is a paradise to me. Do you know what rare gems you have? Leave your oaks alone and underplant with something like ostrich fern or something similar.
treenutt
5 years ago
thats about the right percentage. Your house comes first. prune some now, wait few months prune again. I wouldn't prune more than 12% all at once. I do it anytime of the year. Make it look purdy though. And make your cuts proper.
krnuttle
5 years ago
With large trees it will be difficult to trim the high branches, and thin the crowns.

If it were me, I would clip up every thing that was low enough to hit me while I was mowing under the trees, and plant ferns, hosta, etc. There are several types of shade woods flowers that are very colorful. Re think the goal of your garden, most plants will die with in a couple of years, the oaks could be there for another 100 years.

We lost a long leaf pine in front of a house we had several years ago. Not only did we lose the shade but it also affected our air conditioning bill.

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