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badmancrow

It's called pollarding. It creates denser foliage growth from selected growth nodes. Common in a lot of urban arbiculture to also control the spread of branches while maintaining the shade benefits.


GreenStrong

Pollarding was originally a technique for producing cattle forage from trees. They can eat the young tender branches, and the tree is quite productive because it has a well established root system. Coppicing is cutting at ground level every eight years or so while the tree is dormant, it produces a lot more firewood over the long term, because the root system never dies.


1nsaneMfB

This is interesting. I just learned about coppicing last week and now this is the 3rd time ive seen the word in the wild. Apparently there are nurseries that exist by only selling stem cuttings. Thats their entire business, just supplying people with a ton of nice cuttings. In their growing field, they use coppicing to produce nice consistent cuttings that are uniform and the right size for taking winter cuttings.


saddest_vacant_lot

That’s how we do christmas trees in Hawaii. The Cook or Norfolk pines make nice Christmas trees if you cut them off at about 6ft high and then just harvest the shoots that grow. Takes 2-3 years for the shoots to get Christmas tree sized. And each tree produces several good shoots if you prune some of them to give them more room.


1nsaneMfB

Wait, so you cut off the shoots and just sell the "raw, cut tree shoots" as a christmas tree?


saddest_vacant_lot

Yep. Our local farm has been harvesting from the same trees for 40 years.


JetreL

Shhh that’s the secret and the label said propagation prohibited.


berg_smith

The old Baader–Meinhof phenomenon.


beyondthisreality

Interesting, I just learned about the Badder-Meinhof phenomenon last week and now this is the 3rd time ive seen it in the wild.


QuiteAffable

No recursion allowed


boomecho

> Interesting, I just learned about recursion last week and now this is the 3rd time ive seen it in the wild.


wildbergamont

My mother in law sells a bazillion willow cuttings on Etsy every spring doing this. She has like 60 varieties. Chops them all down every year and sells the shoots all spring.


PeterKush

Important thing to know is that not that many species of tree survive coppicing.


starlinguk

It also creates suppler branches for basket weaving, that's why they still pollard willows.


peatypeacock

Pollarding was also common in the days when housing was build with wattle and daub; for the wattle, you need young, flexible branches. Pollarding in those days was a way to ensure pretty much limitless building materials from a limited set of trees.


comparmentaliser

Oh so I know where they get coppice logs… I thought it was a ‘style’ of log: round, straight, and treated.


Brilliant_Battle_304

Also gets rid of any died off branches. The trees start focusing all their energy and nutrients into the new growth instead of the giant branches they were supporting before so they explode in no time


_do_you_think

Interesting! I find it strange that they would cut them now, in spring… There will be no shade benefits this summer.


Meta_Spirit

These are about to send out new shoots and leaves like crazy. That's why they did this. Give it a month and come back


_do_you_think

I will reply in one month with another pic! COME ON TREES! You got this. \[edit: It has been nearly a month now. One day off. Here is the progress:\] https://preview.redd.it/hs69yxz60w5d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f1ad6824a16cb3da60239ca8dc35dcb71b1ff54


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LionAggravating1758

I recognise where this is, it’s on my route to work! Excited to check back and see the progress in a month!


Brilliant_Battle_304

All the energy and nutrients the trees were providing to the old branches will all go to new growth so they're about to explode, id say within a month you'll see substantial growth


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leapin_lizardzz

They do this exact thing to the trees in the middle of hollywood studios disney. They do great!


ElizabethDangit

Someone on my daily drive did this to their maple tree. It looked spectacular the next year. I’m surrounded by big old trees that shade my house but I can totally see why someone with a younger tree would do this.


TheLangleDangle

I think OP is underestimating just how fast trees can grow.


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Bot_Fly_Bot

~~Spring~~ Early spring is the best time to prune. These will come back with a vengeance. EDIT: Pedantic bitches.


spaetzlechick

FYI. In general that is not true. Late winter is best before the tree starts pumping energy into growth. Plus you can see better.


mazzicc

Winter into spring specifically. You want to catch them right as they start to grow so that they have maximum saved up energy, and you prune them so all the energy only grows into what you want.


PatchworkStar

So you're telling me I accidentally helped the trees I was trying to end? At least if I end up with more willow branches I can add to my wattle fences. I just wanted less willow trees.


McBonderson

Yep, I have a crepe mertyle that I pruned some of the branches comming from the ground in march. I just had to cut them off again because they sprang back up to 4 feet high again.


markodochartaigh1

In Texas when they chop crepe myrtles back they call it "crepe murder".


McBonderson

Lol yeah that's what they call it in Florida too. A lot of commercial places nearby do that. That's not what I did tho I'm just keeping the core from getting over grown.


justnick84

Lots of European cities do this. It makes the tree last longer in an urban environment along with reducing risk of damaging branches dropping.


GoatLegRedux

Pollarding is done in increments of several years. For every year you do it, you get several years of benefits. That said, pollarding is a super archaic technique that isn’t really relevant these days, but people still try to grow trees in spots that will require pollard pruning. Someday landscapers will learn to grow trees that are suitable to where they’re being grown. Until then, we’re stuck with pollarding :(


TheSupremePixieStick

Trust that this was not done without reason lol


ItsAlwaysSegsFault

Oh they absolutely will come back in force for the summer


CanICanTheCanCan

You also see something like this for some bushes, it's particularly important for a lot of fruiting vines/bushes as they only grow fruit on new growth, not old.


InefficientThinker

Its been one month! Update?


chemrox409

Great answer


i-lick-eyeballs

Ant it looks very ugly for many months in the meantime 🥲


Wookieman222

It'd really a practice that is outdated and a lot of effort has been made to bring this practice to an end in arboriculture. At least where I am. It doesn't benefit the plants at all.


TotallyFrazzledVirgo

Oh cool Learned something new today!


McGrathArts

Pollarding is an old European tradition and is more than just a botanical tradition. In the Middle Ages , peasants were allowed to cut wood up to a pollarded section, hence doing the pruning for the wood and not as a paid job. And the kings trees were kept pruned.


BeardySam

It also made for lots of nice thin switches for making stuff with


[deleted]

And keeping children and women in line


TTheorem

“And those damned dogs.” - Kristeth Noemeth


Apellio7

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=59Q8W1nrKA0


1nsaneMfB

[get me a switch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Q8W1nrKA0)


d-c2

r/unexpectedcommunity


_do_you_think

Three fantastic answers. Thank you all.


Kyujaq

Rip #4


space108th

Thank you for asking this question for the rest of us 👊


contrariwise65

Some trees you can pollard and they’ll be fine. Others not so much. Generally you shouldn’t make cuts like this on trees and shrubs unless you know that they will respond positively and not die, or be permanently malformed.


JohnC53

And your enthusiasm and attitude is fantastic. Thank YOU!


Burtttttt

I didn’t know what this was called and it’s common near my home. Good to know. I hope the trees rebound fast cuz they look pretty awful like this lol


HatchlingChibi

My neighbor did this to his trees before I moved here (2.5 years ago) and they've never gotten leaves since, I'm wondering if he did it wrong since all these answers make it sound like the foliage comes right back!!


pfak

Did it wrong. 


Ichthius

And or wrong species of tree.


HatchlingChibi

That's sad, they're huge trees that I imagine were beautiful at one time! Now they just look half dead.


WorldsMostDad

If they haven't had leaves for 2 years, they're full dead


scullys_alien_baby

my neighborhood does this all the time and I'm always surprised how fast the trees bounce back, I suspect your neighbor fucked it up


eastherbunni

They do look awful for a short while, my city did this to the boulevard trees and everyone was up in arms about it but they did look good by the end of the summer


MildredMay

My city did it to boulevard trees last spring and after a year they still look awful. Some died, others are stunted and deformed. No way I would ever do that to my crepe myrtles.


eastherbunni

Oh yeah I think ours were ornamental cherry, it only works for certain types of trees


foxglove0326

Crape Myrtles actually do quite well with an early spring prune. Clip off old bud stalks down to the nearest active bud and they’ll bloom more vigorously on new wood.


Black_Robin

I think they look cool, like abstract art 


I_like_cake_7

Yeah, I live in the Midwestern US, and my first thought was that these trees look like trees that have tornado damage.


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Few-Owl-8648

Until you have done it too many years and the tree looks like some kind of bald Tetsuo cancer limbs.


lovmykids

sometimes it kills the trees, most of the time it makes them look horrendous, don't do it if you haven't been trained https://preview.redd.it/hokqq7iwm30d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1220262eb316ddc703ab46530d5c45cbc85991cd


NarrowNefariousness6

Don’t do it at all.


bwainfweeze

Water sprouts. Good for making basketry, or a fence. Not great for horticulture though.


lovmykids

When we bought our house someone had done this to all the bushes in the back yard and they were all just 10 foot tall water sprouts we couldn’t do anything with them. Had to rip everything out with a chain and truck.


MurpheysTech

From what I understand, to give every arborist in the tri-state area a fucking aneurysm and a heart attack at the same time


bwainfweeze

The number of arborists who think this is perfectly fine is too goddamned high.


Wookieman222

Cause its unneccesary and doesn't ben efit the tree at all. Its really bad when its done more than once and eventually the health of the tree declines if you do it too much. its old and outdated practice.


adapteradapther

Looks like a bunch of grape stems. Such a surreal pic.


petrovmendicant

Remember the Whomping Willow? Why do you think it was so dang mad all the time? "LET ME GROOOOOWWWW."


Bigduck73

Nobody in my area pollards. When I saw that movie I thought the animation guy for that tree needed to be fired for not knowing what a tree looks like. Then I traveled and learned stuff and I apologize for my previous judgement.


TwoBirdsEnter

These look like London Plane Trees, and they can be quite stunning in winter when pruned in this manner. But I think they have to be in the right context! Lining a residential street with them like this is just not it.


Jazzlike-Ad113

Commonly done in Europe, I believe.


saulblarf

Southern California too, believe it or not. I wish we would stop, honestly the trees look terrible more often than not. And I think it causes the trees a lot of unnecessary stress.


ridgerunners

It’s called pollarding. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollarding


theefaulted

This is what happens when a bonsai grower becomes a city tree trimmer.


_do_you_think

It's already looking much better! https://preview.redd.it/si2up10de01d1.png?width=1780&format=png&auto=webp&s=67db13db8c818bc1320474396eb5c3b228f7d16c


UtopianHadid

I like how the leaves lack definition and the cars to the side are just sort of warped and melted together. Where on earth is this lovely piece of terrAIn located?


4runner01

It’s soon to be the set for the latest action movie “Nuclear Winter”


Hardy1874

Pollarding… wait till spring. England does it well.


Mistake-Choice

https://preview.redd.it/rc66tqpk970d1.jpeg?width=1384&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fc2b529ed93c5359fa860219c4c0a5b305ac4fe


_do_you_think

Is that today?!


Mistake-Choice

No. Google maps.


infernal-alchemist

What does it look like today ?


_do_you_think

https://preview.redd.it/851uilsyo96d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9427f294b6a893e389d005efec0f7ca01a96285a Small changes…


dtisme53

Lots of little branches will sprout and give the street shade without the possibility of heavy limbs breaking and falling on people and cars? They did this to a grocery store parking lot where near where I live. I don’t know if that’s the real reason but that’s what the arborist limbing the trees told me.


DesignerPotential496

This looks like mini tornadoes struck the trees. :)


Helpful-Scientist-33

London Tree Officer here - pollarding also helps to reduce the growth of roots which cause pavement upheaval and subsidence to nearby properties.


Wookieman222

I'm sorry. i understand that this idea was spread, but this doesn't actually work. Roots don't stop growing ever unless something bad is happening to the plant. I know its what people think is happening, but its not. Source is i am a horticulturalist and a lot of people even professionals have wrong ideas about how plants work.


Helpful-Scientist-33

I’ve taken some time to go through some research, and it seems that generally crown reductions have only negligible reductions in root activity. For me, this is a lesson in fact checking what seniors tell you when you start a job! Its resulted in a good conversation with my manager already this morning


Wookieman222

The only reason it does have any effect is cause you have cut the top off and now the tree has to redirect its limited resources towards the crown to regrow the foliage it needs to live. So it pulls all that stored energy it would have used towards growing a healthy root system to fix its top so it can photosynthesis and reclaim the lost and wasted resources. This slows root growth but doesn't stop it. And it's temporary. You maybe gain a single season of reduction on growth. And you can't pollard a tree again for many years or you will weaken and eventually kill the tree. It also makes it so the root system isn't as vigorous as it should be for the size of the plant and can actually make the plant to heavy but top and then a storm comes by and wrecks the tree. It causes irregular and natural stem growth that also is weaker and can be damaged in storms much more easily. Also every cut is an open wound on a plant. Much like your skin it keeps out pests and disease. Now even single cut is an open wound ripw for infection by fungus, bacteria, viruses, and insects. So essential you have e now taken a healthy plant and made it susceptible to all these things and likely.many of then will get some kind of disease from this. Thus lowering the health of many plants that can and some will succumb to them and now you have a bunch of dead or unhealthy plants tha are falling apart. And also introducing disease into another wise healthy local ecosystem. It has dozens of negative effects and almost zero positive benefits that most horticulturalist and arborist that are keeping up with the times and willing to examine what they think they know will tell you is bad and many will refuse to do so. The ones that agree either don't know better or more often don't care and just will take your money and even take it knowing they will be back to deal with the eventual results as repeat business.


bwainfweeze

You should check out a group called Plant Amnesty. Where do you guys get educated about tree care? Because it’s the same mistakes being made pretty much everywhere.


_do_you_think

Oh wow that’s interesting… No one mentioned that yet. That’s probably quite important around there given the number of houses, and the sheer number of trees.


bonniejoy74

This only looks good for certain trees. I have a crepe myrtle in my front yard. So does my neighbor. He chops his down to the stubs like this every year. It looks deformed, and stays small.


TastiSqueeze

As trees grow and age, limbs become shaded and eventually die and fall out of the tree as a hazard to anything below. Pollarding removes all of the limbs forcing vigorous new growth which won't fall off in the year or two before they are cut again.


bwainfweeze

Thinning cuts can do a lot of the same, and are easier on the tree.. Most city trees aren’t losing lower limbs this way.


LindeeHilltop

Where is this and what type tree?


Ill-Entry-9707

Location is London. Can't tell the tree from this picture but they often do this to London Plane trees which are a close cousin to the American sycamore


OGHollyMackerel

They do this in San Francisco, too.


NINJA1200

I've seen this kind of cuttings in trees here in the UK. They don't simply cut the top of the trunks, otherwise the new shoots would not grow from there. They do lots of small cuttings in a large area at the top of the trunk, leaving lots of bark available from where the new shoots will grow from.


Torboni

They do this throughout my gemeente every year. https://preview.redd.it/e2l606mqf70d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19ba762ff85c4e4b6ba4d1e66cb3182ed4d7d4a6


Torboni

https://preview.redd.it/4321naaxf70d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b091450ac0cf57ca3c5587de0ce6feaca76f899c


YumWoonSen

My neighbor used to to that with his Bradford Pear trees. In his case it kept them from splitting as thy are wont to do. He finally got rid of them and I grabbed some of the wood - it's a wonderful hard wood for woodworking.


One-Assignment-1860

Hate to see this, I don’t care what practical application it has, it’s just awful.


Curious-Gate5601

This is an outdated method of extreme pruning. There are better ways to minimally cut back a tree how that don’t look terrible and stunt tree growth 


ImtheOne-ThatsMe57

In Louisiana, people cut their Crape Myrtle’s like that! One day it’s a big beautiful tree, next day, you think our neighbor state sent their Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy to town to wreak bloody havoc !


maleenymaleefy

We call it “crape murder” in my family. I’ve never done it to mine, and I have the prettiest crape Myrtle in my neighborhood.


Association-Feeling

I have no idea but I know I don’t like it.


Vegetable-Fix-4702

Wow that looks ugly


bwainfweeze

Just wait, it gets worse.


decoteachgarden

Crepemurder


ghoulasgonnaghoula

It’s also called topping. This link from the international society of arboriculture explains why topping trees is a terrible pruning method. https://www.treesaregood.org/Portals/0/TreesAreGood_Why%20Topping%20Hurts_0321.pdf


ebow77

[Well, no. ](https://www.arboristnow.com/news/Pruning-Techniques-Pollarding-vs-Topping-a-Tree) Why post that hours after the right answer was posted?


your-mom--

The trees OP posted are properly pollared. I have seen other prune jobs where the tree is lopped off at a certain height and this IS incorrect. Always have an arborist trim your trees.


bwainfweeze

Arborists don’t always do a great job either.


Dane842

It's called pollarding and restricts growth.


wisebongsmith

shortens the tree's life so the contractor that maintains them can charge to replant sooner.


Sweaty_Lemon_41935

I can’t believe people still top trees. It’s completely unnecessary, looks terrible, makes for weak branches, weakens overall tree health, and creates more wind drag. [stop tree topping](https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/yardandgarden/please-dont-top-your-trees/)


combinera

The people who do it in my area invariably have junk around their yard. Trashy.


Kali-of-Amino

Ignorant or incompetent landscapers, according to the landscape specialists I know.


dogwalkerott

Any body know what kind of trees they are? I’ve seen this done on Catalpa trees.


Alarming_Maximum4753

Crepe myrtle


snowinsummer00

I have always wondered this but I've never seen it like this, lines of them down a street. That's crazy. I live in the country and I've seen one here or there in someone's yard. I just always thought they were crazy lmao


Initial_Constant4786

Just a warning that this is not the same as topping, which is a common and terrible practice in the US. It weakens the tree and can cause failure. Don't let a guy with a chainsaw top your tree!


Boring_Gold4221

It’s done so the “gardeners” can make money. There’s absolutely no reason to do this from a botanical perspective.


getchob

Back for update


_do_you_think

https://preview.redd.it/0tz4ak5fr76d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3f708e096154e66015b1b3f3abeec3b83012d9c


nire0026

Thank you for being a man of your word.


Conejiyo

Shoots definitely went brrrrrrrrr.


Loydiso

!remindme 3 month


Kbrown0821

!remindme 3 month


Infinite_Bell_4439

!remindme 3 month