Pruning pine trees.

Monaou2

Hi All,

Would be very grateful for any advice on the following....

I have 5 pine trees growing in my back garden (house we recently bought). The trees are very big (maybe 30ft plus tall) and the branches cover a wide area. It's a typical city garden, so these are obviously far too big for the space they are in, and most other similar trees in adjoining houses have been removed.

I would ideally like to keep the trees, but to trim them back to a more manageable size. Is my understanding correct that this isn't possible with this type of tree? That there would be no new growth after prunning them and the tree would eventually die? I'm very slow to cut down such mature trees, so just wondering is there any other option at all?

Many thanks for your help.

Lumen

What sort of pine tree?

Pics?

_Brian

Very few are capable of regrowing from pruning, your mostly left with an all or nothing choice.

macraignil

I found the following article that implies that pine trees can be pruned. The article does mention it is not usual to do this as pine has a better shape when growing without pruning. My grandmother had some oversized pine trees and my Da got a tree surgeon to cut them back. This looked OK but then a neighbor on one side decided to trim them back a bit more themselves and they looked terrible afterwards. I think you and your neighbors would probably be better off removing the pine trees altogether as they are simply too big for a standard urban garden. I think you would have a much better chance of having a nice garden without them.

carbonceiling

I had the same issue, I trimmed them back as much as I could and I had a guy come in and reduce the height of them. Eventually I just got the same guy to come back and remove them altogether which is what I should have done in the first place.

You will never be happy with them, removing them is a big job and will look a bit bare for a while afterwards, but in the long term you will have something that you enjoy.

I'm not sure how this will effect the tree but would an option be to remove all the bottom branches say to a height of 7-8 feet

Monaou2

Many thanks for your replies folks. Eventually managed to get a pic today - apologies that it is not great quality. Sounds like there is no easy option here and that unfortunately removing them seems the best option.

macraignil

Those trees look better than I was imagining so before deciding what to do I reckon you should consult a tree surgeon who might be able to reduce their height without ruining the appearance of the trees. Might still be easier to remove them but a good tree surgeon should be able to explain your options and give a price on the job you need done.

Lumen

If you look where the growth is, halving the height is going to result in a bunch of sad looking trunks.

I would defer to an expert but I think they're just the wrong sort of tree for that space.