reducing the height of woodland trees - whats the best time of year?

Hi All,

I'm hoping that some UK collectors can advise me on the correct time of year to reduce woodland / field grown trees.

The trees in question are all roughly 6 feet in height, I'd like to reduce them to about 2 feet tall or smaller.

Species are: Yew, Larch, Hawthorn and Scots Pine.

Is there a general time to do it or does it depend on species?

My plan is to reduce them, let them recover and collect the following year.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Paul

The Yew and the Hawthorn can be done at any time, but now is probably the best as they will start sprouting again very soon. Larches and Pines you can also do now, but be careful about how much you remove. Both need to have some green growth that will become the new leader leaving on.

Thanks Kev,

I plan to reduce the Pines over 2 seasons, but could go for a fairly major reduction with the Yews, Hawthorn and Larch as each of the trees I have in mind have a decent amount of branches low down on the trunks.

Cheers.

Paul

Of course it is possible to reduce trees now. But for species that backbud easily, I prefer to do it at the beginning of summer to avoid excessive eclosion of buds which requires almost daily care to remove as soon as possible unwanted ones.