Arborvitaes

TCBoomer · Jun 8, 2012

Treemonkey1000 said:
I have had to trim or remove those things because they get too big and take over an area. What I had to do was use an 3 legged ladder and use a small chainsaw to shave off the tops to a consistent height. It does look a little sparse up there for a bit. To trim the sides again a chainsaw. That would be a huge task in your case. If you get ice and snow build up they tend to break when they get too large. Or die off and leave a big dead plant in the middle of your hedge.
I know what you mean about them rooting themselves in the ground. What I did there was saw them off close to the trunk. Again a whole lot of work for your project. I have trimmed them at any part of the year and had them recover. They do recover faster in the spring. By the way bee's and birds love nesting in them. As others said don't take more than a third at a time. Some of the people that I have worked for were just so tired of cleaning up after them they had me cut down entire hedges and went with something else.
Good luck and be safe.

Chain saw uhh?:laughing: at myself! I was going to purchase the trimmer attachment for my stihl pole saw, but decided to wait until I get some experience with the hand shears first. Don't quite trust my eye/hand coordination yet. A stringline would be a minimum for me to go that route. Another reason is I'm not so sure I want the sheared effect...

Re: 3 legged ladder -aka- an orchard ladder...yep it's a must have for Arbs of this size. I recently bought a 16'er and it's a godsend!

Good to know that it's ok to trim the lower branches that rooted themselves...thanks! I was going to cut them like you mentioned but decided to wait until I found out more. Everyday I learn a bit more about the causes and effects of caring for these monsters. It's been almost 2 weeks since I started thinning the smaller ones and I can see the difference. I may wait until early fall to try my hand at shaping them. For now I have my hands full with just thinning.

Birds and bees love mine as well. But lets not forget snakes and rabbits. Only a few snakes over the years, but rabbits...whew boy!! Dang things love to hide inside and my GSD goes bonkers wild trying to chase after them! She launches so quick I'd swear she's airborn, but has yet to catch one. Don't mind the birds and they don't appear to cause any harm. Their singing in the early AM is refreshing. Now for the bees...hate em! It's been cool and damp lately and since the bees are kinda lazy/dormant during this weather, I pluck off any hives I find. Years ago on the outside of the mature ones, I found a hive that was as big as a basketball!!! Scared me silly first time I saw it. Took a few mins to figure out what it was. The following fall that sucker was history. I keep a close eye now.

TCBoomer · Jun 9, 2012

BeezFun said:
They turn brown more when pruning than when cutting a leader way back. The browning looks just like what happens after a cold winter with a lot of wind: the tips of all the growth turn brown and die, but then it regreens and the brown goes away. It takes quite awhile for them to turn brown, I didn't pay close attention but it was at least a month. I got very nervous the first time that I had damaged them, but it all turned out fine. I let them grow too tall before I started to maintain the 4' height, so I had to use a hand pruner to get through some of the branches. Now that they're trained back I can use a hedge clipper to keep them lower. They really are like giant green weeds, very hard to kill and they always grow back. We had a horse that liked to rub her stomach on one and she wore it right down to the ground. It's now 20' tall again after we roped it off.

Ok...call me a little confused

or I mis-spoke

My interpretation of pruning is just using a pair of hand pruners...not the shears---IOW oversized scissors--- and snipping selective individual branches. I would liken this to cutting the leaders, and if I understand you correctly, I shouldn't expect to see much browning from doing this?

Now as for shearing...still trying to sort its meaning out. From what I understand, when the Arbs are sheared, they develop a hard outer shell so to speak. Meaning the outer growth is so dense it's difficult to put your hand through them. This leaves the inner area of the tree bare, or so I've been told. I've yet to see any Arbs sheared but I'm looking. I prefer the softness that they currently have and also want the insides to have green growth. Mainly so that over the next few years I can slowly trim back the mature ones width at the base area a bit.

One thing I've figured out is the reason they(mature ones) are so wild looking and overgrown is all the new growth just piles on and on and overloads the branch. Then the branch sags down,leaving more exposure to sunlight and the growth just continues. An endless cycle that i want to control now. Being able to compare the mature ones to the smaller ones has shown me good examples of this in the early stages.

You got my attention when you said the horse ground one to the ground and it re-grew to 20'. That says alot about what these things can tolerate.

Thanks for the info!

TCBoomer · Jun 9, 2012

I edited my last post a few times for punctuation and it seems I've hit the limit. I omitted some about the shears so I'll continue here

By shears I'm talking hand shears, powered trimmer, chain saw or whatever else works. The shearing process involves shaving these things into a formal shape...correct?

Like I said previously, I'm not so sure I want to go that route for the reason given. However I've come to realize that some shearing is going to be inevitable if I want to clean up their ugliness. If I try to accomplish this by pruning individual branches, it'll take me the rest of my life...and then some lol. If I only do minimal shearing very infrequently, will I still end up with the 'crusty' outer shell?

Opinions and experiences about this appreciated!

Treemonkey1000 · Jun 9, 2012

They grow back. I have shaved them to the point of seeing the dead and bare branches underneath the green foliage. It doesn't look great for awhile. The key thing is trying to keep them in check before they get too out of hand. I think with as much work as you have to a articulated boom mower like they use on roadside ditches might be the fastest.:thumbsup: Yes waving a chainsaw around is not entirely safe. A nice top handle saw is the best for that. Get some pictures of your progress and not pictures of you laying in a hospital please.

TCBoomer · Jun 9, 2012

Treemonkey1000 said:
They grow back. I have shaved them to the point of seeing the dead and bare branches underneath the green foliage. It doesn't look great for awhile. The key thing is trying to keep them in check before they get too out of hand. I think with as much work as you have to a articulated boom mower like they use on roadside ditches might be the fastest.:thumbsup: Yes waving a chainsaw around is not entirely safe. A nice top handle saw is the best for that. Get some pictures of your progress and not pictures of you laying in a hospital please.

After shaving and when they grew back, the growth was normal and not just a thick mat layer on the outside? I was told otherwise, but maybe that would be the result of repeated shaving?

Instead of the articulated boom mower, I was thinking of using this

-turn up the sound!!
I'll try to embed it but not sure if it will work. Last time I tried to do that only got the link and not the actual video

https://www.youtube.com/embed/I3D4FN5cdZk

I've been shooting pics as I go and will post some when I make enough progress to show the difference. I can see the difference already but in the pics they don't really show the detail. Even the originals ones I posted don't show the reality of what they are prior to pruning.

No worries about laying in the hospital...BTDT! went 'skydiving' off the side of my house once, 25' up when re-doing the siding. Ended up laying on the ground unconscious for about an hour. Woke up with a few broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder. Worse part is I was home alone.

eta...nope the video didn't show up just the link. any idea what I did wrong?

Treemonkey1000 · Jun 9, 2012

Hey now that is what you need! That machine is cool! Typically skydiving one uses a parachute to have a soft landing.. Lucky you didn't end up in a wheelchair..

Zick · Jun 13, 2012

TCBoomer,
Those look awesome!

Btw, I might have missed it but could you tell me how far apart they spaced from each other? We are looking to put in a row of these same Arbors but weren't sure on the spacing and yours look perfect.

TCBoomer · Jun 14, 2012

Zick said:
TCBoomer,
Those look awesome!

Btw, I might have missed it but could you tell me how far apart they spaced from each other? We are looking to put in a row of these same Arbors but weren't sure on the spacing and yours look perfect.

Thanks

They're spaced 3' apart which is a good # for quick fill in. However as dense as the 20'ers are I think 4' would work as well.