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Reducing the height of a rowan/mountain ash

PollyRPollyR Posts: 64
in Problem solving

Afternoon,

We've been doing a bit of cutting back today on an established rowan in the garden. It's a lovely shape but is about 20ft tall I would say - more than double the shed height anyway and it's casts rather a shadow for much of the day on my veg beds.

So far we have cut out the crossing branches and a few stragglers but I'm not sure it's really going to help much with the shade. Chopping branches from the top is just going to give an awful shape - or is it? What would you do?

I'll take a photo...

Posts

  • Hortum-cretaeHortum-cretae Posts: 979

    Single out the tallest branch to remove and look for a side shoot three to four feet below the top. Cut back to that. It may be there are more than a few to choose from. That way the tree height is reduced, rather than chopped and the tree puts its energies into a shoot rather than trying to produce a load. Go round the tree in that way, singling out the longest/tallest and bringing them down carefully to retain the shape.

    H-C 

  • PollyRPollyR Posts: 64

    imageIgnore the stuff everywhere - we are in the process of reorganising everything!

  • PollyRPollyR Posts: 64

    Thanks Hortum-cretae, sounds like a good systematic way of doing things. I'll give it a go

  • PollyRPollyR Posts: 64

    Hortum-cretae - this is probably a stupid question, but do I cut above or below the side shoot? Do I leave it or remove it?

    Thanks!

    P 

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