Tree Topping Basics
For the record, Tree Topping is a very unhealthy choice for trees. In some cases it may be necessary however; you want to avoid that at all costs. Tree topping is the process of cutting branches that appear to be too small to have value to the long term growth of the tree. Some of the common names for tree topping are heading, hat-racking, and tipping. The main purpose of tree topping is to decrease the size of the crown.
This is typically a result of homeowners, and property managers in fear of the size of their tree. The truth is topping isn’t an effective method of decreasing size, and avoiding risks. When trees are topped the first thing they lose are there leaves. This is bad because leaves are the main nutrient production aspect of trees. This forces trees into a state of starvation, father forcing trees to begin rebirthing leaves at an accelerated rate. Now you have branches growing from all different directions, meanwhile the tree is losing its health and becoming weakened. In this weakened state it isn’t uncommon for damage to the tree to be more catastrophic than it normally would be