pruning birch trees

[marina carlin]

Hi, I have a 40 ft. birch tree. Is now an okay time to prune it down to 20 ft., or could a potential frosat do damage. Is there a better time? I live in Botanical Zone 8 (Vancouver). Any help on this would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Marina

[John Woodworth]

marina carlin <mca...@direct.ca> wrote:
>Hi, I have a 40 ft. birch tree. Is now an okay time to prune it down to 20 ft., or could a potential frosat do damage. Is there a b=

etter time? I live in Botanical Zone 8 (Vancouver). Any help on this would be really

I depends if your tree is dormant. If it is, I would not prune it now,
since it will bleed a lot next spring when it breaks dormancy. The best
time to prune bleeders (birch, maple, yellowwood) is late summer.

I'm more concerned about the *amount* you plan to remove. Chopping a birch
in half is pretty stressful regardless of the season. Trees don't take to
severe topping off when they reach a mature size. Besides, you'll deform
the tree and alter its natural shape and beauty.

--

John

"Saving face, I fear, is to have two of them."

-- Nicholas Negroponte

[Susan Sanders]

In article <48ab8p$n...@grid.direct.ca> marina carlin, mca...@direct.ca
writes:
>Hi, I have a 40 ft. birch tree. Is now an okay time to prune it down to 20 ft., >or could a potential frosat do damage. Is there a better time? I live in >Botanical Zone 8 (Vancouver). Any help on this would be really appreciated.
>
The timing's allright, but the plan is bad. Tree's should never be
"topped"--that is, have their tops removed. It just ruins the tree,
producing abundant weak vertical branches from the top of each branch or
trunk that you cut back. If you want a tree that won't get more than 20'
high, plant a smaller tree.

[Derryl Killan]

marina carlin <mca...@direct.ca> wrote:

>Hi, I have a 40 ft. birch tree. Is now an okay time to prune it down to 20 ft., or could a potential frosat do damage. Is there a better time? I live in Botanical Zone 8 (Vancouver). Any help on this would be really appreciated.

>Thanks

>Marina

Hi Marina

It is ok to prune a birch tree back providing you do not pollard or
cut it back to stubs and expect it to live.

If you know how to prune trees then go for it, otherwise hire a good
aboriculturalist who will do the job properly.

Birch are totally unforgiving and I have seen many dead birches which
have been pollarded.

Derryl Killan

[craig sweet]

my server cut off a lot of that post regarding pruning of a
birch....in fact it never said anything about the tree being 40ft tall
and you wanting to hack it down to 20ft....so, yes it's a goodtime to
prune , but no don't prune it to 20ft...susan is correct.
craig

[craig sweet]

sure...and mid summer isn't to bad either