hello dear friends, and welcome to summer!!! once again i turn to you for a little help. we have this HUGE Pine tree in our front yard that just HAS to go. i would say it is over 20 feet tall and it obstructs our view to the street. i was thinking if i could cut it down to about 5 feet and train it into a circle with a flat top it might look nice in the center of the garden we are planning to put on that side of our front lawn. i think the common wisdom is that you can not cut a tree back more than 25% or you can expect it won't live. if that is the case we are going to rip the old girl up and say a prayer for her. however, if someone knows how we can save the tree, using some sort of "mud bandage" (i think i read about them somewhere) for the wound in the trunk, and if we can expect to get a nice full "hedge" type effect with her, we would prefer NOT to kill her. since i don't know the type of pine she is - i suspect some would be better than others - i am attaching pictures of the tree and the needles. thank you for your help as always, and good gardening to you all!!!
It's a Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii. Sorry, the pruning that you're describing would kill it. The only pruning I'd recommend for this tree is to cut back the competing leader(s) so as to keep it with just one central trunk; a forked trunk is a recipe for future splitting.
what can i do with it if i cut it down. is there any "green" solution, like use the needles for mulch or anything like that?
It's too bad you think you have to chop it off or down. It's probably a bit unusual for your location and although far from huge - Douglas firs grow over 200' tall - it is otherwise a nice-looking specimen tree in that spot.
Won't get anything like that large in NY, though. But I agree with Ron, that's a very nice specimen tree you have there, definitely a 'keeper'.
Let it be a Conifer that gets the don't cut it down response. This is the wrong forum to resort to mentioning cutting a tree down just because it blocks the view. If need be move the street or move the tree with risk as Douglas Fir do not transplant well at all but don't cut it down. That tree belongs to be right where it is and a few of us have learned along the way not to mess with that. In time you can whack off some of the lowermost limbs later on but for now leave it alone. If it just has to be done, you can trim this tree back in thirds. Take one third of the total volume you want off the tree now, take another third next year and the final third the following year. It is not without expense and it is not without risk. Find a certified arborist that has hands on knowledge of Douglas Fir, plan a trip to go over to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and see who they recommend for Conifers and visit your nearest Cooperative Extension Office and ask them who they would contract out to prune this tree. Jim
The simplest answer for the simple part "how much" is to keep reduction limited to not more than 20% removal of foliage. Maybe 25 percent if it's a vigorous youthful tree.
Can't you just slice of a few branches off at the eye to street level? Surely the trunk itself does not block much of the view? Besides, what is so fascinating about your 'street view', that you are prepared to murder such a nice tree for it?
