




Tree Crown Cleaning
This is one of the basic services to keep your trees healthy and attractive. Sometimes limbs will die, become damaged or diseased, and sometimes trees will grow in an unbalanced manner which can cause problems with future trees and growth. If crown cleaning is started when the tree is young, there will be fewer problems in the future.
Topping is a Bad Practice:
Topping or stubbing are examples of removing large branches from mature trees. A topped tree is a disfigured tree and although it was intended to help the tree, the opposite is the result.
When a large amount of a tree's canopy (umbrella) is removed, the crown to root ratio is imbalanced and this adversely affects the tree's nutrition. It also exposes the tree to the sun which can result in scalding. Topped trees develop multiple branches or suckers, at or near the pruning cut. These branches generally are weakly attached and are prone to failure.
A topped tree is also vunerable to disease as the stubs have a difficult time forming protective callus and this invites invasion of fungi and insects. The location of the topping cuts may also prevent the tree's natural defense system from doing its job.
Finally, topping trees represents an unwarranted expense. A topped tree will often grow back to its original height quickly, and it will be more dense than one that has been pruned correctly. Other costs may be hidden, such as loss of property value that a well-maintained tree will encourage. There is also increased hazard from branches that have weakened as a result of the topping.