How to prune a young heritage birch to get it to look like this one?
J Goodell
4 years ago
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
4 years agoYardvaark
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoRelated Discussions
Pruning Heritage River birch.... 2 questions
Comments (2)Molie Since noone had given any repies, I'll offer a bit of info. First, you can prune off dead branches anytime. The reason you state is valid, though a bit confused. You either meant bronze birch borer, or birchleaf miner. But river birch, at least where I live, is less affected by these insects than some other birch species. There is no magic formula as to how much pruning can be done to a tree in a given season. But, there is a general guideline stating that no more than a third of the crown, meaning live branches, should be removed in any one pruning event. Your tree is newish though, and I'd let it have as much live foliage as possible for a few years to help it get going. Also, birch trees really dont typically need any work done to the interior of the crown. You can pretty much just leave them be. If you want to see more of the attractive trunk, you can gradually "raise them up" by removing a few lower branches. Just take your time. It doesn't have to happen all at once. and again, I'd not initiate this practice until the tree has established itself well. Perhaps three or so years down the road, you could begin this raising up process. Hope this helps.........+oM...See MoreHeritage Birch problem
Comments (10)If the suckers are growing out of the roots than let them keep growing and if kept watered properly they should take on the role of your main leader trunks. Once they go dormant later in the year, you can dig them up and determine if your suckers are growing from one root system or if the grower had made your Heritiage Birch trees multi- trunked by planting two or three single trees together. If you find that is the case then you can seperate the individual root systems while the trees are dormant. Then you can replant the root systems individually, and be careful not to break off the new trunks, which the current suckers will have begun to form by the end of this growing season. Then wait long enough for these individual trees to become well established, and during that time do not cut off any new suckers which grow. As those new suckers begin to grow from the root systems of the individual suckers you end up planting, then you should let all the new suckers that want to grow to keep growing until you can determine which ones are the most agressive and closest to the same size and trunk diameters. Once you get to that point simply chose how many main leader trunks you want your trees to grow and cut off any other weaker growing ones. The new trees you grow like this should end up growing fairly quickly into nicer trees than these current dead looking ones that you first planted; that is, if you keep them watered properly, stake them if the winds begin to make then sway back and forth too far, and if you are patient enough to allow them to do their thing; they should get to that point over the same three years it would have taken for you currently dead looking trunks to have become well estatablished. Not only a lack of proper watering could have potentially caused your main leader trunks to die, but your tree could have also suffered rootflare breakage as the canopy of your trees, during last growing season, caught strong wind gusts which could have cause the trunks to lean far enough back and forth to break those roots away from the trunk, which would have resulted in the trees failing to be able to take up the amount of avaliable moisture they needed from the soil. This kind of root breakage happens often when people first plant Birch trees that are 5 to 6 foot or more tall with well developed canopies, but which were not staked well enough when first planted....See MoreHow best to root prune a Heritage river birch
Comments (4)I am located in Northeastern OK. we are considered to be on the boundry between USDA zones 6b and 7. The first two years these originally planted bareroot 6 foot tall trees experienced severe droughts. The trees are planted in water packed silty loam soil in a low spot on my vacant lot. The water table is pretty high in that area and rain runoff collects on the surface in that area when we have heavy and/or soaking rains. Other than that, I have no piped in or well water access on the lot, so they have had to survive on whatever rains fell. As you can imagine they really stuggled. Earlier this year, they leafed out nicely and seemed to be turning the corner, until the Easter freeze hit; after they had already leafed out. They were not strong enough to handle the hit, and each of their single trunks died back significantly. The trunks were only about two inches thick at the time. Since the green just under the bark was only about 3 feet up after the freeze damage, I cut the trunks of the two worst damaged ones down to just above the root flare. The one in between those two seemed stronger so I only cut it back to about two feet above the ground. Later that middle one's trunk died, but a new trunk grew up out of the tree's rootball. Now my single trunked Birch tree is about 4 feet tall, and I have not pruned away any of the leaf growth to leg it up. For the two other birches, the ones I had cut back to just above the root flare. They turned into clumps and each regrew three healthy and strong growing trunks. Currently those trunks have grown to about 3 feet tall, and both trees look more like a shrub than a tree, since I have not done any leg clean pruning of the leaves on them either. All spring and even now into summer our area has received heavy and frequent rains; along with many overcast sky days. Our area is just south of the tragic flooding events that recently occured in Northern OK and Southern KS. We are also quite a ways north of the tragic flooding which has recently occured in central and southern OK and northern Texas. The point I am trying to make, is that these birch trees for the first time since they have been planted have not been stressed by drought, but they have been growing in 2- 4 inch deep standing water for extended periods this Spring and Summer. Due to the wet year we are having, I expect the trees to grow to at least 6 feet tall again, before they go dormant when I plan to transplant the two. My question? Is it reasonable for me to think I can move these two trees into pots and not kill the remaining one. I want to over winter the ones I transplant to pots that I plan to bury in the ground. Then just prior to them breaking dormancy in the spring I want to replant them into their landscape spots which will have supplimental watering access. As for my original post's intended question: since birch trees have more of a surface growing root pattern, will there be any purpose to root prune the two I want to move? If so, when would be the best time to do that?...See MoreConcerning some Heritage River Birch trees
Comments (10)Yes, birch-any type of birch-are not particularly known for damage to foundations, etc. I'd say that is extremely unlikely. As for shallow rootedness, that's really how trees grow, period. True, as Maine said, compacted, poorly aerated soil exacerbates the tendency but it's really just how trees grow. Heavy branch removal will actually cause some root die-back-the top-most portions of the tree actually control root growth via hormones which are produced in growing tips and sent down to the roots to tell them to grow. But....massacring the tree so as to slow down root growth seems utterly pointless to me. And then, because branch removal will cause the tree to make lots of new branches, in time, the shoot/root ration will go right back to what it was. We're talking futility here....don't go there. You just have to decide for yourself what you can tolerate. If it was me, I didn't read one single thing that would be a problem in my world. I love trees and if a few roots run along the surface, it is of no consequence to me. You seem to be in a different place, so you must decide. I sure wouldn't remove trees because of anything I've read here....See MoreUser
4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agoYardvaark
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoYardvaark
4 years agoUser
4 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agoYardvaark
4 years agoJ Goodell
4 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agoYardvaark
4 years ago
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