 Backyard Farming in the River Valley Podcast
March 10, 2010
Topping: Ugly at Any Time of Year (4:33 minutes)
(4 minutes:
33 seconds)
WMV (high speed video)
Audio/Video Script:
Dustin Blakey, County Extension Agent – Staff Chair
Jesse Bocksnick, County Extension Agent – 4-H
[Title slide - Backyard Farming in the River Valley with Dustin Blakey and
Jesse Bocksnick. Topping: Ugly at Any Time of Year. University of Arkansas Division of
Agriculture. Drawing of a person carrying a basket of apples in an apple
orchard.]
[Dustin] Hi, this is Dustin Blakey with the University of Arkansas Division
of Agriculture in Sebastian County.
A common, and unfortunate, question we often receive here at the Extension
office is "When's the best time to top my trees?" They sometimes replace top
with trim, but the question's the same.
What they are wanting to do is to severely prune their tree in a completely
arbitrary way without regard for tree physiology.
When the work is done, the tree usually looks something like this: [Pictures
of trees with chopped off branches – mangled] Or this. Or this. Or this. You get
the idea.
[Pictures of trees with chopped off branches – mangled] Let's start off
stating the obvious: this practice makes a tree look ugly, which in my mind
defeats the whole purpose of a landscape.
Aesthetics aside there are number of reasons why tree topping should never be
done, yet it is a pervasive practice here in Arkansas. Why does it happen then?
[Dustin] For one thing, when homeowners see it being done by "professionals"
they assume that the people doing it know what they're doing and follow their
lead. In Arkansas, owning a chainsaw is the only requirement to calling yourself
a tree service so that may not be the best example.
A study done in the Pacific Northwest several years ago found the following
reasons cited by homeowners for abusing their trees: [Pie chart showing results
of Why do they top trees?] 39% said they were afraid of their tree causing
damage, 18% thought their tree was too big, 24% were attempting to fix storm
damage, 6% just did it because it was routine: that's just what you do to trees,
and the remainder had other reasons.
[Picture of a tree] Let's look at fear as a motivator: if you top a tree, its
response it to send out lots of new shoots to replace the lost canopy. Unlike
most of the limbs you removed, these branches are always poorly attached. The
vigorous new growth also acts as a wind sail, which can increase the likelihood
of failure if your roots are weak.
[Picture of a tree with chopped off branches – mangled] If your roots aren't
weak when you top the tree, they may be afterward—at least in the long term. All
pruning removes energy from a tree, and since topping removes a lot of wood, a
lot of energy is lost. This is compounded by the tree's need to regenerate
limbs. Regeneration takes a lot of energy, too. Because of this, topping can
take a healthy tree and start it on what's known as the "spiral of death." I'm
sure dead trees are not what you had in mind.
[Picture of a tree with chopped off branches – mangled] Even if the tree
lives, you have forever ruined its natural form, which is, after all why you
planted the tree.
[Dustin Blakey] Topping is an expensive practice that should be avoided. It
can cost you hundreds of dollars to have your tree subsequently ruined. I am
confident that you can save your household some money or find more worthy causes
to spend your money on. Like a bass boat. Conservatively, Fort Smith residents
alone spend close to $500,000 annually on bad tree work. When these topped trees
fail, the city pays to clear the road using your tax dollars.
So your tree is too big or you are worried about it falling on your house.
What do you do?
[Picture of a small landscape tree next to a building] If your tree is too
big, I can assure you that it will keep getting bigger if you do nothing, or
[Picture of a tree that was topped and new branches has formed] end up ugly and
mangled, perhaps dead, if you top it. The crown can be reduced in the short-term
by selective thinning, but the best solution is to plant a smaller tree.
[Picture of a small landscape tree] Once that tree is established, remove the
old one.
[Picture of a man laying on a pillow looking worried] If you're staying up at
night worrying about a tree falling on your property, the best way to get some
rest is to remove the tree. A single branch in danger of falling, can of course
be removed, too.
[Picture of a tree] Trying to predict whether a tree will fail is hard.
There's just too many factors. [Pictures of trees with mushrooms around the base
and on the bark] One good way to know if you're in trouble is the presence of
mushrooms. If you see mushrooms at the base of a tree or on its bark, then there
is widespread decay inside the tree. That tree will need to be removed.
[Drawing showing the before and after results of crown thinning] If you have
a tree that needs some shaping or corrective work done, the thing to ask for is
"Crown Thinning". Thinning is the removal of entire branches in such a way that
damage and new shoot growth are minimized.
[Dustin Blakey] When pruning is done right, it should be hard to tell that
any pruning was done at all.
Make sure the person doing the work is bonded and insured, and will follow
ANSI A300 pruning practices. If they've never heard of that, they probably
aren't qualified to correct your tree.
Just to reiterate, if the past few minutes were unclear: topping is never a
recommended practice for trees. Don't top your trees and tell your neighbors not
to, either!
If you have questions about tree topping, contact your county's Extension
office.
[Slide - U of A University of
Arkansas Division of Agriculture]
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