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| why do we cut them as close to the ground as possible.. preferably within 3 to 6 inches.. rather than just cutting the thing to the ground????
of course there is the grafting issue.. but that is not relevant to my query .... i have some 20 year old olives .... up to 6 inch caliper.. which i want to reduce ... about 20 of them ... they do a great job hiding the neighbor ... and no .... i am not getting rid of them ... a dead pine collapsed.. and crushed one of the 15 foot plants ... so i stubbed it down to about 2 feet ... with no insult to the roots.. i had a 5 foot plant by fall ... with many bad branches at height.. and many coming out of the ground at the stump ... so.. it has to be re-pruned.. now that i fully understand it is one of those shrubs i can crush with a pine tree [or run over with my truck] ..... i wonder why i cant jsut chainsaw them, instead of surgical pruning.. which will take years on the 1/3 system.. and weeks of actual pruning ... but in regard to the remaining ones.. is there any reason i cant just get out the chainsaw and cut them as close to the ground as i want .... successfully i mean ... thanks ken |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Thu, Feb 25, 10 at 12:04
| There is no magic height to which plants can be cut back on the 1/3 annual rejuvenation program common for many shrubs. A lot of pruning texts will state as close to the ground as possible and I guess many think 3-6" is close enough:-) I don't like a forest of little stubs this height will produce in time so I take them as low as I can. As to how amenable a shrub will be to a uniform, full cutting back of all stems depends on the shrub. Some will take it in stride while others can die. By "olives" I assume you mean a species of Elaeagnus and yes, these can be cut back hard and will resprout vigorously. In fact many even mow them routinely to control yet that still doesn't seem to have a negative effect. These are coppiced for firewood in China........ Go ahead - whack 'em back! |
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| I'm sure there is variation depending on species, etc. One reason not to cut at ground level is that the root crown is at ground level and there will usually be some dieback from where you cut. So, cutting at ground level could, at least in some cases, kill out the middle of the shrub. Another reason is that for more mature shrubs, cutting at ground level necessitates using a chainsaw and not selective pruning. You'll never get loppers to ground level in many mature shrubs. I agree with Gardengal about not wanting to leave more stub than I feel is necessary. I never have understood the text that recommend a minimum height of foot or so for most shrubs. |
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| I had a lilac in which I cut one major branch close to the ground...sprouted back up like crazy. Lilac was still too big for the space...I didn't plant it, nor would I miss it if it died. So I cut the entire thing back TO ground level to see what would happen. Never grew back...cashed out. Wonder if its demise had anything to do with what brandon mentioned about dieback AT ground level. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Fri, Feb 26, 10 at 8:32
| that surprises me with a lilac.. as it tends to sprout from runners.. many feet from the mother plant over time ... not knowing the specific kind ... perhaps it had other problems if it was single leadered .... rather than the shrub forms i tend to have ... thanks peeps ... ken |
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| I cut that one back late fall. I have another one (same situation) that I'm going to experiment with and cut back this spring. I don't know what kind either of the lilacs are but this one I plan to cut back has a very differnet leaf texture than the other one I cut back. This one has a very large round smooth edged leaf. The other had more of a cutleaf pattern around the leaf. |
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