Noticed a huge difference in a maple's recovery after switching to a different pruning method

There's this silver maple in a park near my house that got a bad topping job about two years ago. I saw the same tree yesterday and it's covered in these weak, fast-growing water sprouts, maybe a hundred of them. The city crew just came through last month and did a proper reduction cut on a different maple nearby, and that one already looks way more stable. Has anyone else seen a tree bounce back better from a reduction versus just getting hacked back?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_nguyen29d ago

Why even top trees anymore?

jamiegreen9d ago

You mentioning the water sprouts on the topped maple really hits home. I used to believe a hard cut back was just a fast way to control size. Seeing a similar situation in my own neighborhood changed my mind. Those weak sprouts are a huge stress response, and the tree wastes so much energy on them. A proper reduction cut, like you said, guides the tree to grow stronger from the right spots. It takes a bit more care to do, but the difference in long term health is night and day.