Q : Could you provide some basic guidance on how not to kill a tree? I see conflicting information everywhere!

Unfortunately, there are many ways to kill a tree, so I will try to cover the most common ones here.

Incorrect pruning, particularly “topping,” is the surest way to ruin a tree. If it doesn’t kill the tree outright, it will result in extremely dense growth at the ends of the chopped-off branches. This makes the tree top-heavy and unstable, resulting in catastrophic breakage. Never, ever, top a tree!

Allowing the tree to grow two or more codominant leader branches with a narrow crotch angle produces an unstable overall structure as well. The tree can split down the middle as one of the large branches breaks away. Prune the tree when it’s young to achieve an open branch structur

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