Anyone know how to prune a too tall cedar/Arborvitae?

[arrow]

They are 8 ft tall and I'm thinking of taking off 3 ft. BUT, I have been reading thread to wife and, at the moment she wants to cut them down. That could change, however.



Conifers are different from cedars in that evergreens have one central leader. Cedars can have a whole bunch and you should restrict to three leaders.

Here are a couple of other methods you can use to prune these as they grow should you keep them.

 

[sixdogs]

Wow, I'm going with the guy on the right. better to die from a fall than be cut with a mower blade.

Actually, I just came in from cutting them down and the deed is done.

Wife should have pruned them correctly long ago but she is not capable of it. She can only edge trim things with lopping type shears. After looking at the stumps they had about 20 leaders and were a gnarly mess. I wisely chose not to say anything but she really should have cut these back. Anyway, they're gone and we both feel good about it.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Are you going to use the TLB to dig the roots out?

 

[sixdogs]

Are you going to use the TLB to dig the roots out?

Normally I would because cedar roots pop out pretty easy but these are along the side of the house and the underground electric that goes to the barn is something to contend with. It's down 3 feet but even so I'm reluctant. So I left 8" high stumps and after a couple years of sitting there I'll hopefully be able to just nudge the top of the stump with the backhoe to pop them out. That's the plan.

 

[sixdogs]

OK, here's how this ended up. Pruning a too-tall cedar/arborvitae got me all kinds of warnings that the leader wouldn't stay the leader or that the tree would die or fork, etc. The internet was full of those warnings as well.

Well, I did what I thought best with some of the trees and here's the reports. For the American Arborvitae, I plain old cut some trees in half and ignored what I was told. Two years later, they have established a new central leader and look just fine. I had to prune some side growth but they cannot be told from a normal, uncut tree. So, pruning an arborvitae severely is no more than cutting it in half and waiting for Mother Nature to do the rest--plus a little added pruning.

 

[JerryK]

I have done similar hack jobs on pines and firs. Not that I wanted to. But sometimes you have to do like you did and flip a coin. Some trees you can kill by just about only breathing on them, an others you have to beat back with a stick. Good work....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bcp]

Some trees work well when pruned anywhere in the top half, others work best when pruned at ground level.



Bruce