biwa
Senior Member
Posts: 203
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 4:15 am
Location: Virginia, zone 7

Looking for a safe way to control the height of a birch tree

I am considering planting a birch tree, beech tree, or other potentially tall tree close to my house. I don't want it to get so tall that it hurts the resale value of my house or so tall that it falls and damages the house. 15 to 20 feet high would be perfect. However, I also don't want to risk my life every year trying to keep it pruned.

Is there a safe way to prune a tree?

Or is there a way I can train the tree such that it doesn't grow tall? Perhaps I could cut off the main trunk while its young to encourage more sideways growth? Or perhaps I could espalier the trunk into a spiral shape? If I understand the way espalier works, the less vertical the trunk is the shorter the tree will end up, and this is why apple and pear fences never get very high.

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rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Why plant something that is going to outgrow the space and be a continual problem? Why not grow a smaller tree that won't out grow the space and will probably have more to offer. These are usually the forest understory trees.

Natives understory trees for you include serviceberry, paw paw, redbud, dogwood, dwarf hawthorn, persimmon, witchhazel, american holly, crabapple, chokecherry, red elderberry. You will notice that all of these along with being perfectly adapted to your climate, offer lots more habitat value, attractive to birds, butterflies, providing fruit, etc...

Some non-native small trees include japanese maple, loquat, crepe myrtle, purple leaf plum, pomegranate, pussywillow

biwa
Senior Member
Posts: 203
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 4:15 am
Location: Virginia, zone 7

I disagree with you, I do not think birch is less valuable as a habitat tree than the ones you listed. Besides I want to plant a birch tree, not any of those. I don't know that it will a continual problem, I am asking for advice ahead of time in order to prevent such problems.

Does anyone here have enough experience with espalier to estimate for me how much reduction I can get in mature tree height by slanting the trunk at some specific angle?

valleytreeman
Senior Member
Posts: 101
Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2009 7:31 am
Location: Shenandoah Valley

Most of the standsrd birches will strive to attain 40 to 60 feet in height. I presume you are considering the white birch as this is a common landscape tree. In virginia, especially zonbe 7, I would consider the river birch, a native with an exfoliating yellow/cream/orangish bark, rather than the white birch, which is prone to bronz birch borer injury (always deadly). The river birch, while common in lowlands in piedmont virginia, will do fairly well on drier sites and will tend to grow with multiple stems. It too will attain large size naturally.

You can also consider one of the weeping birch cultivars, which will stay smaller due to the weeping growth habit.



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