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I used to top trees at every job until a 68 year old climber in Tulsa told me to stop
For my first three years doing residential work I topped everything, because that's what the customer wanted and it made the tree smaller fast. Then a guy named Dale, who had been climbing since 1979, watched me do it on a silver maple and said flat out that I was setting that tree up to rot from the inside. He showed me the woundwood on his own property from a bad cut he made in 2001, still hollow after all those years. I switched to proper reduction cuts and it takes me almost twice as long per job now. Anybody here ever get pushback from homeowners who still just want the tree chopped down to nothing?
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iris_rivera443d ago
Ngl topping is the worst thing you can do to a tree and Dale was right to call you out on it. Homeowners don't know any better, they just see a smaller tree and think problem solved, but all those big open cuts invite rot straight into the trunk. I've seen silver maples rot out in five years after a hard topping, and they were perfectly fine trees before that. Pushback happens all the time, but it's on us to educate them instead of just caving because it's easier. Show them pictures of what a topped tree looks like in ten years and most will change their mind.
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