Anyone know if heavy pruning an Arborvitae will extend it's life in Midwest?

[sixdogs]

Does anyone know if heavily pruning an American Arborvitae (Northern White Cedar) will prolong it's life in the heat and heavy soil of the Midwest? Ours are 20 years old and have started to shrink their branches and look like it's the end of the line. I think the tops outgrow what the root system is able to support.

I'm wondering if I cut a third of the tree back and eliminated some of their heavy branches, it would help them live longer. Anyone know or have an idea? They are maybe 20 ft tall, maybe taller.

I've cut younger 10 footers in half before and they recovered fine and vigorously so there might be merit in a pruning. Any advice appreciated.

 

[fried1765]

Does anyone know if heavily pruning an American Arborvitae (Northern White Cedar) will prolong it's life in the heat and heavy soil of the Midwest? Ours are 20 years old and have started to shrink their branches and look like it's the end of the line. I think the tops outgrow what the root system is able to support.

I'm wondering if I cut a third of the tree back and eliminated some of their heavy branches, it would help them live longer. Anyone know or have an idea? They are maybe 20 ft tall, maybe taller.

I've cut younger 10 footers in half before and they recovered fine and vigorously so there might be merit in a pruning. Any advice appreciated.

I am not an arborist, but I would consider heavy pruning in mid to late Winter, with a generous application of 10-10-10 at the same time.

 

[PILOON]

I've 'pruned' many a cedar over the years.
Usually I cut back to a joint and often simply used shears to completely shape them as wanted.
Have to otherwise they take over quite rapidly as they being a soft wood grow fast.

As long as cedar has water it is hard to kill it.
We have cedars around here that are 12 inches in diameter,
I dug out an old cedar root and counted 86 rings of growth (86 years) and made a nice serving tray out of it. That stump seemed to be over 20 inches or so.

 

[AndyMA]

Does anyone know if heavily pruning an American Arborvitae (Northern White Cedar) will prolong it's life in the heat and heavy soil of the Midwest? Ours are 20 years old and have started to shrink their branches and look like it's the end of the line. I think the tops outgrow what the root system is able to support.

I'm wondering if I cut a third of the tree back and eliminated some of their heavy branches, it would help them live longer. Anyone know or have an idea? They are maybe 20 ft tall, maybe taller.

I've cut younger 10 footers in half before and they recovered fine and vigorously so there might be merit in a pruning. Any advice appreciated.

I don't know about in the midwest, but the 20 foot tall Arborvitae hedge we have is trimmed heavily each year and grows right back. They are pretty hard to kill

Andy

 

[Diggin It]

I cut a few branches off one to shape it around the end of a porch. Usta'be 10-15' tall.

The whole friggin' thing turned brown in a couple of months.

The remaining stump now holds a porch light.

 

[mikester]

You probably have something else going on and your tree might be dying. Post some pictures of the tree and some including the surrounding ground area. You could have pests, Soil contamination, excess ground compaction,...

These trees can live a long time, 20 years is young. If its dying back Id get out the chipper and make some nice cedar mulch.

 

[sixdogs]

Thank you all. Cedars around here grow different than in the cooler gravel soil of the north. When I was in Maine I saw a lot of trees that had to be many decades old but the loose soil, rain and cooler temps are just what they need.

In the Midwest, the soil is heavy black dirt that can have some clay-like characteristics to it. It can get hard as bricks during a dry spell. Rainfall is much less and a week or month in the upper 80's with no rain is not what cedars like. So, most die off after 20 or so years. Here are some pics of my trees and they showed up out of order so bear with me. There are two trees here and planted 4' or 5' apart 20 years ago.



This first pic shows the trunks of one. Three maximum is normally suggested but these got away from me. I figure to cut out all but maybe three or four on each tree and thin some of the branches by cutting back to major forks. Some trunks cut would be the big ones.


This pic shows how I have notched another cedar hedge to keep it out of the driveway. The cut areas grew vigorously and this is where I'm getting my idea that a heavy pruning would work.


This telephoto pic shows the thinning upper branches. I think drought enters into things since the foliage cover gets so thick that rainfall has a hard time penetrating it. We don't get a lot of rainfall here.


Another showing the thinning top and a notch I cut for driveway space. Vigorous growth around the pruned areas.


Trunk of the second tree.

Right now, we are watering heavily while I try to figure this out. While I should cut in winter, I might start in September after the birds are done nesting in it and dormancy has begun. I'm going to call the college here for comments but the horse sense and practical experience of TBN'ers is worth paying attention to.

 

[sixdogs]

You probably have something else going on and your tree might be dying. Post some pictures of the tree and some including the surrounding ground area. You could have pests, Soil contamination, excess ground compaction,...

These trees can live a long time, 20 years is young. If its dying back Id get out the chipper and make some nice cedar mulch.

They provide shade at the right time of day so I plan to work on them. 20 years of age here is like 80 there and climatic conditions affect longevity. Compaction is a giveen and I can drill a six inch hole four feet in the ground and a year from now it will still be a six inch hole and four feet in the ground.

Not diseased.This is what they all do at 20+ years around here.

 

[kthompson]

It sounds like you have several. We planted a row of Leyland cypress about 15 years ago. Grew great, then about 6 years ago had one to turn brown and die. I learned had two issues, planted them to close to each other so not getting air circulation they needed for adjoining land owner let his clear area got grow up and there were too near some oak trees that a disease moves between them that kills the Leyland cypress trees. My thoughts if you have few trees doing this you probably have a disease or such and may need the chipper. If case you don't know they will burn in a flash due to the oil in the needles. Have had them to almost explode in fire. As has been said depending on the variety very pretty wood. If you want them get a pro to look at them.

 

[sixdogs]

I've 'pruned' many a cedar over the years.
Usually I cut back to a joint and often simply used shears to completely shape them as wanted.
Have to otherwise they take over quite rapidly as they being a soft wood grow fast.

As long as cedar has water it is hard to kill it.
We have cedars around here that are 12 inches in diameter,
I dug out an old cedar root and counted 86 rings of growth (86 years) and made a nice serving tray out of it. That stump seemed to be over 20 inches or so.

Have you cut any that were older and severely pruned them by maybe taking half tree off? That would be mostly trunks and lots of larger limbs back to the forks.
I've been in cedar bogs that were winter deer yards in Maine and one was over 600 acres.