Shoutout to the old-timer who showed me the difference between thinning cuts and heading cuts on a mature maple

I watched a guy two towns over take down about 30% of the canopy on a 60 year old sugar maple last spring, and then 8 months later I drove past the same tree on a job just outside of Burlington. The before and after was night and day... the tree looked like it had been through a storm right after he worked on it, all stubs and open wounds. But now it's pushing out healthy growth from the interior buds, the whole crown is opening up, and there's no rot setting in. Meanwhile I did a similar reduction on a silver maple last fall using mostly heading cuts to keep it shorter, and now half the branches are throwing up water sprouts and looking ugly. So which is it... do you guys think thinning cuts are always better for long term tree health, or are there times where heading cuts make sense if you're trying to shape a tree for a specific look? I've been going back and forth with a buddy about this and I'd love to hear what other arborists are actually doing in the field.

2 comments

2 Comments

benreed15d ago

That's a fair point @david739, silver maples are definitely their own beast. But in my experience, the wood quality isn't the only thing that matters here. I've seen plenty of sugar maples get butchered with heading cuts too, and they'll still throw up those ugly water sprouts just like a silver maple will. The tree species matters, sure, but the cut placement matters just as much. Take this with a grain of salt, but you can shape a tree for a specific look with heading cuts if you keep them small and clean, like on young branches where you're just tipping them back a few inches. The real problem is when people go chopping off big limbs with heading cuts and leave those stubs hanging out there like a invitation for rot to move in. Your mileage may vary depending on the tree, but I've had better luck mixing a few small heading cuts in with thinning cuts rather than going all in on one style.

david73915d ago

A silver maple is a terrible tree to compare to a sugar maple. Silver maples are practically weeds and grow like it no matter what you do to them.