You should prune your trees regularly to keep them growing healthy and beautiful. Even so, over-pruning can cause more harm than good to your trees. A common form of over-pruning you might have to deal with if you don’t have the right pruning skills or experience is lion’s tailing.
In this blog post, Beyond the Leaf Tree & Shrub Experts, a trusted provider of professional tree service in Collegeville, PA, delves deeper into the issue of lion’s tailing trees and its consequences.
What Is Lion’s Tailing?
Lion’s tailing occurs when you remove most of your tree’s inner branches, leaving the limbs appearing long and slender.
This practice derives its name from the puffy ends that the tree branches exhibit once you’ve over-pruned them. You’ll understand this better if you’ve seen the tuft on the tip of a lion’s tail.
Even though a lion’s tailing may not have a significant impact on your tree’s overall structure, it can adversely affect its health and aesthetic appeal.
Why Is Lion’s Tailing Bad for Your Trees?
Understanding the consequences of lion’s tailing will give you enough reason to hire a qualified tree health care and pruning professional when it’s time to trim your trees. Here are some of the disadvantages of lion’s tailing trees.
Lion’s Tailing Makes the Ends of Branches Heavy
The small tufts at the end of your tree’s branches lead to an uneven distribution of weight. That means the ends of the branches will be heavier than the other parts. Since pruning promotes new growth, the situation will only worsen down the road.
This whole process can cause unnecessary stress on the branches, causing them to break and potentially causing injuries or property damage.
It Promotes the Growth of Suckers
Lion’s tailing trees causes undue stress. This may trigger a defense response, which can even be more detrimental to your tree. The tree may start producing suckers in response to the stress.
Since these sprouts grow unevenly along the over-thinned branches, they add to the already overbearing weight. This isn’t good for your tree’s overall health.
Lion’s Tailing Can Cause Rotting
Lion’s tailing will leave your tree with so little foliage that it’ll have a hard time manufacturing its food. When your tree doesn’t get sufficient nutrients, it becomes vulnerable to diseases. An unhealthy tree will often start to rot and eventually won’t be able to withstand strong winds, heavy rains, or other extreme weather conditions.
It Can Lead to Sun Scalding
Lion’s tailing will expose your tree’s branches to direct sunlight. This can cause sunscalding, damaging your tree’s bark.
Contact Your Local Tree Experts for Assistance
Hiring an experienced professional can help you avoid the detrimental effects of lion’s tailing trees. If you need a reliable arborist to prune your trees in Collegeville, PA, talk to Beyond the Leaf Tree & Shrub Experts.
We provide a wide range of services, including:
- Hazardous tree assessments
- Tree pruning
- Stump grinding
Call us at (610) 978-6072 to request a free estimate or learn how we deal with thick tree branches in Collegeville, PA.