topped pine tree question

HoneyBerry · Tue Dec 01, 2015 10:21 pm

The topped pine tree is not mine. Someone I know wants me to ask this question. I don't know why he cut the top off of the tree. The way he describe it makes me think that he cut it in half. It is some type of pine tree and the trunk diameter is about 6 or 7 inches.. I know that topping a tree is a bad thing to do and that the tree will never be the same again. He wants to know if the stressed tree will produce new tree shoots around it. I don't think a pine tree will do that, but he wants me to see what the experts say.

catgrass · Wed Dec 02, 2015 10:43 am

I think it will make some side branches, but the shape will be odd and not a strong tree. I see them like that all over around here. some have lost their tops due to strong winds, or disease.

rainbowgardener · Wed Dec 02, 2015 11:59 am

But side branches are on the tree itself. I don't believe it will send up shoots/ suckers from the roots.

imafan26 · Wed Dec 02, 2015 12:09 pm

Yeah. People do that to norfolk and Italian cypress all the time because they can be over 50 ft tall. The bottom stays alive and some small shoots may try togrow upward but for the most part it will never look the same.

HoneyBerry · Thu Dec 03, 2015 10:26 pm

I agree Marlingardener. When he told me that he had cut the top off of that tree, it made me a little dizzy. I looked at him with a "Really? You did that?" kindof look.I hate to see that done to trees. And he's a gardening guy, so I expected better from him. He said that the tree "wasn't anything special." I have a different impression of him now. I will give him the answer and just leave it at that.
It's not just about humans. Trees matter and so does the wildlife that live in the trees.

HoneyBerry · Fri Dec 04, 2015 1:04 pm

Well, my impression of him as a 'gardening guy' has certainly been demoted. I will probe him and find out what he was thinking. He talks real big about gardening, like he's an expert.

Ahhhhh . . . baby chickadees. The adults are so cute. The babies must be adorable.
Birds need trees. Squirrels need trees. Humans need to stop cutting down so many trees.

applestar · Fri Dec 04, 2015 1:35 pm

It really depends on the species of pine doesn't it? This time of the year, one tends to think of Christmas trees and the pyramidal shape, but even those are forced into that popular shape by regular trimming and shaping.

Short needled pine species are often used in bonsai so I would think they can handle the topping.

My neighbor has a row of eastern white pines and one of them lost its main trunk earlier in life .... I'm thinking some accidental breakage due to rambunctious athleticism by their kids... but it grew -- I think more than one -- side branches and the landscaper that planted the trees came and selected one to be the leader. So it's has a crook in the trunk but has grown tall (and wide

) along with its fellows.

HoneyBerry · Fri Dec 04, 2015 11:46 pm

He said the he cut the top off the tree so that it would grow wide rather than tall. He said that he thought that it would grow sprouts around it from the stress of having the top cut off. It sounds like he's trying to create a "designer tree" that will be more like a hedge than a tree. I think he made a mistake.
This is not a bonsai. It's a outdoor tree, in the yard.