Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Birch multiple leaders/trunks, prune or not?

saturnskye0saturnskye0 Posts: 10
in Problem solving
Hi guys. I have what I think is a Birch Pubescens or Common White Birch?
It has 4 main trunks from the base (should I call them leaders or trunks?).
I've read it will get to about 20m tall.
I've been wondering wether to take it back to 3 trunks? I've circled the limbs I'm thinking of removing. Any advice much appreciated. We're 1/3rd through Winter here. 


Posts

  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    Hi and welcome.
    I would take off the thin straggly ones near the bottom and any that look as if they might rub as it matures.
    I would also come on here and wait for someone who knows what they're talking about. I'm learning about my birch trees as I go along. 😉
  • McRazzMcRazz Posts: 440
    If you're heart is set on pruning then it looks to me like that back stem could go and the crown could be lifted ever so slightly (i.e. remove twigs/branches from the bottom 18" or so). However I'd wait until the winter to carry out any hard pruning works. 

    Multistem trees traditionally have 3 stems.
  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    Your best bet is to prune the low-growing side branches, rather than any of the main stems. The aim with a multi-stem is to produce several trunks which show off the white bark all the way up. Your tree is pretty young, so don't take too much off or you will slow its growth. Take off the finer, more twiggy-looking growth at the base where it meets the main trunk--the outer two of your yellow circles, but not the middle, larger stem; there's another low straggler on the right I would get. It's important to remove them at the right place, as cutting too deep could injure your tree, while cutting too shallow and leaving stubs facilitates disease. Here's a visual guide. 

    https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2019/07/07/tree-pruning-how-to-remove-tree-branches-correctly/

    You'll need to keep removing side twigs in this way as the tree develops, while they are at an early stage, so as to minimise the wound and scarring--the point of this variety is the white unblemished bark.

    Between now and the end of August is actually a good time to do this work, and definitely not in spring when the sap is rising.

    Hope this helps.
  • saturnskye0saturnskye0 Posts: 10
    Thanks everyone, very helpful :) I'm going to leave the thick ones and remove the low twigs
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    Look hard at the tree.  Decide whay job you want it to do.  Decide what ultimate size and shape you want.  Start heading in that direction.

    Cambridgerose12 said:
    You'll need to keep removing side twigs in this way as the tree develops, while they are at an early stage, so as to minimise the wound and scarring--the point of this variety is the white unblemished bark.
    Between now and the end of August is actually a good time to do this work, and definitely not in spring when the sap is rising.
    The above is sound advice.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • saturnskye0saturnskye0 Posts: 10
    bédé said:
    Look hard at the tree.  Decide whay job you want it to do.  Decide what ultimate size and shape you want.  Start heading in that direction.

    How big do you think it will get? Multiple trunks will result in a smaller tree?
  • EmptyheadtimeEmptyheadtime Posts: 366
    Not sure about your tree but I have 2 multi-stemmed Himalayan birches. These are about 20yrs+ and about 7/8m+. I have just let them get on with it, trimming bits off that were in the way or looked odd over the years. Lovely trees.

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    Multi-stemmed trees won't necessarily end up shorter.  And birch grow very fast.

    I inherited two at 80m (one multistemmed) The single stem one was ca 1m diameter, I've seen the equal but never bigger.  The multi-stem probably had the same total cross-section area.

    One blew down in 1987.  The other followed in 1990.


     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • saturnskye0saturnskye0 Posts: 10
    @Emptyheadtime Thank you! Those pics give me a great idea what they might look like.

    @bédé Wow, they were obviously quite old then.
Sign In or Register to comment.