Roasted
Newly Registered
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed May 18, 2016 8:16 pm

Topped Swedish Aspen?

One of my young Swedish Aspen had a dead top this year.... I've pruned it back to first live branch, and knocked a couple of the lower branches off to try and get a new central leader started.

Anyways wondering if I should try and wait this tree out, or trash it and take a drive to Costco for another one. It's only 8 feet tall at the moment , around 12 feet pre-prune. I got all 10 of my Aspen's free as saplings

HoneyBerry
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1216
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:10 pm
Location: Zone 8A Western Washington State

Topping makes the tree weaker and more disease prone. Aspens are weak trees to begin with, compared to other kinds of trees. The roots might sprout some new tree shoots.

Roasted
Newly Registered
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed May 18, 2016 8:16 pm

Weakness isn't much of an isue, more just wondering if the tree is likely to recover. Btw. even if it grew to 80 feet and toppled over, worst its going to do is knock out a section of fence. I'm Just after a quick growing privacy shield. I've got a row of spruce trees growing, so that once they re tall enough in say 20 years, I can reduce the Aspen's and poplars to fire wood.

I'm not a particular fan of columnar poplars and Aspen's, but they serve a purpose when you want fast growth the majority of them are15 feet+ now.

ButterflyLady29
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1030
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:12 pm
Location: central Ohio

Topping mature trees isn't the same as the main leader dying in a small tree. It should be okay to let another leader take over. Just don't prune too many branches off the bottom this year. Only enough to make sure the best branch becomes the new leader.

What is the diameter of the tree? If it's thumb size or smaller it should be okay.



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