Keeping the lower limbs on your oaks

9 years ago

I searched to see if anyone had posted about this before. Well, there were a bunch of search results, but they weren't about the subject of keeping lower limbs on oaks, or any other tree. Even though that's what I typed in as my search query. Well, I would suppose that these limbs must die, Being that there wasn't an answer to the question. I then remembered that in a book I have there is a photo of an ANCIENT Quercus Robur with lower limb s intact. The lower limb is about 4 ft off the ground, and the girth is unknown, but is MASSIVE like the limbs on a Live oak, I would guess 47 inches or more. It is a wild grown tree. I am hoping I can let my lower yard acorn growth Q. Robur grow without trimming. I would love to do this in other areas of my yard, but, before these limbs shade out weeds, you get, well.... weeds. Has anyone on here made a woodlot, by planting the trees you wanted, and never pruned the lower limbs, just letting the Oaks, Pecans. Hickories, Locusts ( in other words, the trees you planted) grow as they may, and then been greeted with the need to prune some near the ground, and leave from 4 ft up? I may add a few trees in a small area, and make a woodlot. I only want a small area with enough trees for it to be wooded with tree trunks 10-15 ft apart. This is not because I am too lazy to mow under them. That is easier to do, because you see the cleanliness of no weeds under the branches. But I guess leaving the lower branches on is the way these oaks would be without people with their mowers. I want a large shady area that is a woodlot, I have several trees coming in fall. I just may make a wooded area in my yard. I reclaimed the 2 Pecans from Dax. I gave them to my neighbor. He hasn't planted them yet. I will plant them in my yard. Technically it will be near his property line, he can have some Pecans from it. He will get over it. it was his fault I had to plant them in my yard, he farted around too much. Dax sent them to me anyway, if my neighb or planted them soon, I would'nt have been worried they would dry out and croak. He'll get over it, I am planting it near the 2 of ours property line anyhow.

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Comments (4)

krnuttle
9 years ago
If you want to see what an untrimmed wood lot looks like a drive through the rural areas. We have lived in the US Northwest Territories, and in the South, the only ones that do not grow up are those where sheep, goats, or cattle are allowed to roam.

They become a tangle of living limbs, dead limbs, vines, and similar type of vegetation. In other words and impenetrable thicket. Depending on where you are, grape vines, poison ivy and Virginia creeper love these situations. This is especially true of new, less that 25 years old wood lots. These trees have not grown to the height to produced the canopy that will provide shade that will help control the understory growth, I have been in woods that are 50 or more years old that still have a lot of thickets.

That mature wood lot that you admire is a lot of work. The back half of my lot was that way when I moved in. It has taken me three years to get a natural looking area. It takes constant trimming or the trees, and cutting or killing the vines to keep it looking good.
jbraun_gw
9 years ago
I was fired off of a maintenance account for pruning the lower limbs off of a group of trees. They were at the crest of a hill and in the turf area. You could NOT mow the grass coming up the hill and only mow in one direction. I was happy afterwards.

I know you have an Idea of what you want to accomplish but as knuttle said it's lots of WORK to get the look you want. You will have a very hard time doing that work if you let it go unpruned.
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wisconsitom
9 years ago
Just depends......on what you're after. A savannah? Then yes-widely-spaced oaks, etc. left pretty much alone. An actual forest? Then trees would be spaced tighter and eventually start shading each other, such that lower limbs would either die themselves or be removed by the practitioner. These are two very different things.

Your spacing of ten feet (I think I read that) suggests more of a forest system, albeit, oaks would do better just a tad closer together-for the very purpose of fostering the shedding of lower limbs. People growing hardwoods for timber don't want all kinds of large knots in the wood, so the earlier in the trees' lives these lower limbs are lost, the better. Same is true with softwood production. If you're not at all concerned with ultimate quality of saw timber-and I'd guess you're not-it is of little consequence if it takes longer for the trees to shed lower limbs. And depending on where you live, the vine, etc. issues will vary.

I guess the purpose of this is to suggest you have your goal(s) firmly in mind before you set out doing. Savannah? Closed forest? Shade trees in a yard? All call for at least somewhat different treatments.

+oM
poaky1
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the answers. I have rethought my idea, and I will just continue how I am doing. The vines and thickets, have made me change my mind. I have widely spaced trees with mulch underneath. I can still try to let one tree keep it's lower branches, maybe use weedblock under it. I used woodlot wrong, I meant trying to make a Savanna but with the trees a bit closer, than most Savannas. The way I have it is easier to get the weeds out.