Pine tree seems to be growing at a tilt. How bad is it? Side question, I see people cutting the bottom 6 feet of branches on these trees, but personally I like the fullish look. Any reason to do that?
by ResolveLeather
Pine tree seems to be growing at a tilt. How bad is it? Side question, I see people cutting the bottom 6 feet of branches on these trees, but personally I like the fullish look. Any reason to do that?
by ResolveLeather
8 Comments
Its fine growing like that unless it randomly started leaning.
Also please for the love of god don’t trim it!! There is absolutely no benefit to it besides more space under it! And you won’t even be able to grow grass under it anyway! All it does is weaken the poor tree.
Also its 100% a spruce (picea) not a pine. There is a ton of spruce species too so hard to say what kind in particular. But definitely reminds me of Blue spruce, white spruce, black hills spruce, and Meyer spruce
There is no visible lean here and even if there was the idea of a leaning tree being an issue is purely a myth, leaning trees are no different from a perfectly straight one. Only if there’s a fairly dramatic change of angle is it an issue (because that means it’s actively falling, which is the same for any tree)
As for the lower branches, the trees will often naturally kill those off all on their own over time as they start to not need them anymore and they no longer gain enough sunlight due to the amount of shade above them, they’re killed off to save some energy and put it to better use, and people often trim those dead branches off when it happens. As for when that might occur, depends on the tree and a bunch of other factors, some never do, others do it as saplings and only keep the very top alive, just depends. Some people do remove them beforehand just to make mowing easier, not that you should be mowing under them in the first place
A) That’s a spruce, not a pine.
B) There’s no good reason to cut the lower branches on a healthy spruce tree (okay arguably maybe one). They’re supposed to be like that, and limbing them up can have effects on the health of the tree. Cuts create *some* opportunity for disease (not too bad as long as they’re good, clean cuts) and the tree’s lower limb skirt helps regulate moisture and temperature above its root zone – removing them leaves that more exposed to temperature extremes and drying.
(That one good reason is fire prevention to remove “ladder fuels” that would help a fire climb into the canopy. If you’re in a fire prone area and you have a spruce near an access road or within 100 feet of a structure, you might consider it, but talk to a certified arborist first anyway.)
I commend you for liking it full looking, I wish we had more naturally shaped trees
honestly i never knew about the lower branch cutting thing… i guess i like the full look *better* too :3 i hope the tilt isnt bad for the tree! <3
We used to wonder why people cut the lower 6 feet of their pines in our area.
We’ve since learned by hard experience that in our area *deer eat the lower six feet unless you plant your trees in Fort Knox!!*
Obligatory standard comment: not a pine.
Not a pine btw