Not sure if I should trim off some lower branches or just let nature take its course. Planted this almost exactly 2 years ago as a foot tall stick with 0 branching. Appreciate any feedback!
by gumpy-knob-pecker
Not sure if I should trim off some lower branches or just let nature take its course. Planted this almost exactly 2 years ago as a foot tall stick with 0 branching. Appreciate any feedback!
by gumpy-knob-pecker
6 Comments
I am also interested in the answer! You probably can’t “fix” it ~~completely, but maybe they’ll recommend trying to adjust how bad the center of gravity is by pruning some on the far lean side, to take stress off the trunk?~~
Birches always lean, it’s a trait of their’s, not unusual to see a bunch of twists and bends either, makes them very easy to identify from a distance even if you can’t make anything else out. Very, very rare to see one with a straight trunk, but as the branches grow they’ll counterbalance themselves. That’s why a lot of nurseries grow them in clumps with a bunch of different trunks so they can all lean their own direction and the tree as a whole looks more balanced, but they’re probably healthier like this on their own and it’s not a concern at all even if it looks a bit funny
River birch doing river birch things. They don’t grow straight. Do not remove any branches. You will end up with no tree.
Definitely would not try to trim it to look straight. It can be guyed with tension opposite of the lean, @ 1/3rd of the height of the tree and adjusted over the course of a few years to try to correct the lean. You could also raise one side from below (digging) but that would be more risky to the tree.
The best thing you could do is just leave it be and let it do what it wants. With a lean, dynamic windforces put a greater load on the stem which results in compression or tension wood being formed. In this case, tension wood at the stem will reinforce the tree from failure. Also, leans are very common and almost entirely cosmetic, until it comes to removals. Trees do fail by falling over, but that usually has many underlying causes.
Appreciate all the feedback. It will be growing however it wants!
Accept that it has some character