Capping (tree)

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Trimmed tree

Trimming or cutting of trees refers to the process of shortening an entire crown, individual crown parts or individual branches without any requirements. According to the definition, stubs remain whose supply is not guaranteed. Wound protection by walling is rarely possible. According to the guidelines of the Research Society for Landscape Development Landscaping, it is not about tree care , but about tree-destroying measures.

Consequences of capping

Lack of supply - supply shadow

If you take away a large part of its crown from a tree, you also deprive it of the possibility of getting enough nutrients . The existing and necessary balance between root and crown is destroyed and the tree is also inflicted with large wounds. As a result, supply shadows are created at the cut-off points . These are places that are eliminated from the tree's supply system after branch breakage, strong branch pruning or cutting. The relevant point can no longer be supplied by the tree. Growth in this area stops, the bark dies, rot can penetrate the tree.

Rot

Wood-decomposing fungi penetrate the large injuries and damage the tree by breaking down its supporting structures.

Unstable crown

A cut tree tries to restore the balance between the roots and the crown. Stands are created (shoots that grow vertically upwards), but they are usually very unstable and compete with one another (see also Etiolement ). The steadily growing uprights can break down because of their weight and the rot that continues to penetrate the cut-off point. The tree can be dangerous.

Leaf mass

After trimming, the tree has to compensate for the loss of crown parts and leaves through a very strong formation of new shoots, since the supply of the trunk and roots has to be maintained. The number of shoots carries a correspondingly large leaf mass, which the tree needs for its further survival.

aesthetics

A tree has lost its typical crown shape after being cut. Truncations upset the natural balance of the tree. This causes very complex maintenance measures that often exceed the normal maintenance costs many times over.

According to applicable regulations, capping may not be carried out and cannot be described as a tree maintenance measure. If they are carried out anyway, the company carrying out the work must expect claims for damages. Truncations do not make the tree safer, but increase the risk of breakage after just a few years. It is not correct that cut trees have less leaf mass. The tree needs the leaves to live.

Possible confusion with the tapering cut in fruit growing

Even if the rejuvenation cut in older fruit trees removes a similar amount of volume as a comparable cut, the effects and effects achieved are very different. If, after years of use, it is recognized that a fruit tree that has been tended to steadily by means of maintenance pruning is showing an unfavorable development, a massive intervention is often carried out by means of a very strong pruning. The difference to the cap, however, lies in the extensive avoidance of the critical strong branch cuts. As a quality feature after a rejuvenation cut, the fruit tree, although it has lost a large amount of crown material, should necessarily correspond in its appearance to a well-tended tree. The few strong branch cuts are made in such a way that no supply shadow arises and shoot extensions always take over the supply and drive the wound healing. The amount of weaker shoots in the crown is also reduced here, but a balance should be striven for, which the experienced fruit keeper can recognize as a balanced, normal crown. Objective and countable quality criteria are very difficult to specify in the inevitably very different initial situations. This is based on the ability of experts to use an abstraction in pattern recognition. A quality criterion is, for example, that from a distance of approx. 20 meters, after a successful and regular rejuvenation cut, the observers typically make a superficial first look at the statement that the tree is actually well cared for, but that it could be cut again. The taper cut is therefore not completed with a single operation. In the following years, the fruit tree needs more attention than normal maintenance pruning in order to be able to catch undesirable developments in good time. If the rejuvenation pruning is carried out correctly, the tree, which was previously endangered by its decreasing usability (dwindling yield & critical harvestability), can remain in full yield for decades.

The capping should not be confused with the head cut , for example in the case of pollarded willows .

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