Topping Your Trees And The Damage It Can Cause

Trees grow; there is no doubt about it. And with all of their growth comes at times, interference with overhead lines or potential breakage. Despite this possibilities, topping or cutting off the top of your tree is extremely harmful to it. This doesn't mean there aren't alternatives. If your tree needs to be trimmed back, there are pruning techniques that can be adopted and used.

So what is topping, you might ask? Topping is when one cuts tree branches or lateral branches indiscriminately. The most common reason given for topping is to reduce the size of a tree. But topping stresses a tree and can cause it to die. This happens due to the fact that when people top their trees, it often removes 50 to 100 percent of the leaf-bearing crown of a tree. Knowing leaves are the way a tree produces food, removing these important leaves can temporarily starve your tree. When one makes severe cuts to a tree, such as in topping, it forces the tree into survival. The tree then activates latent buds, forcing the rapid growth of multiple shoots below each cut. The tree then will put out a new crop of leaves as soon as possible. If a tree does not have the stored energy reserves to do so, it will be seriously weakened and may die.

When a tree weakens, it is also stressed. This can lead to vulnerability to insects and disease. The tree may lack sufficient energy to chemically defend the wounds against invasion, and some insects are actually attracted to the chemical signals trees release. Topping a tree also causes decay. Trees are designed to close wounds, if the tree is healthy and the cut isn't too big. But cuts made along a limb between lateral branches may not be able to close. This allows decay organisms a free path to move down through the branches.

If this isn't enough, topping can also exposes trees to high levels of light and heat, resulting in what is called sunburn. Sunburned trees can lead to cankers, bark splitting, and death of some branches.

When a tree is topped, the tree will also produce multiple shoots below each topping cut.
The new shoots grow quickly, as much as 20 feet in one year, in some species. If this sounds good, the problem is that these shoots are weak and prone to breaking, especially during storms.

Last, if the tree survives, it will require pruning again within a few years. This can be costly. And if the tree dies and has to be removed, this can be even more costly.
To properly take care of your tree's height, ask a professional about proper pruning techniques. If pruning involves working above the ground or using power equipment, it may be best to hire a professional arborist. An arborist can prune your tree properly to help improve its health and the safety of the trees surroundings. An arborist also has all the proper tools, equipment and crew to do the job. While it may sound cheaper to prune your own mature trees, in the long run, it may be a better investment just to hire a professional.

Andrew Johnson is the owner of Central Texas Tree Care, a leading tree service provider in Central Texas (Travis County and surrounding areas) offering services such as pruning and removals, cabling and bracing as well as arborist reports, diagnostics, pest management, fertilization and Austin tree service trusts. For more information please visit http://www.centraltexastreecare.com.