Science Question: Decapitating Conifers

[Dannyalcatraz]

I was just wondering: what would be the effect on a mature pine tree of lopping off, say, its top 3-5 feet?

Will it die? Does it simply cease to grow? Will it sprout a little "crown" of new growth from the point of the cut? Will it just regrow a tip similar to the one it lost?

Heck- is the answer different from pine species to pine species?

I ask because it seems to me that most people buy too much Christmas tree for their dwellings, and you could really do just fine with just the small tip of such a tree, leaving the bulk of the tree to continue to live in the woods.

(Really, if you MUST have pine in your house, you could do with just a twig, but that's a quibble. Oh yeah, and I don't decorate at all for Christmas, FWIW.)

If a pine could survive such a cutting, it seems that that would be a bit more eco-friendly, overall, than the current practice. At the very least, you'd leave the bulk of the tree to contribute to the environment for some time. Even if it eventually gets harvested for other reasons, its not used for mere holiday decoration.

In addition, if the tree regrows its tip, this practice could be a renewable source of "mini-trees."

 

[Merkuri]

I don't know what happens to the trees if their tops are cut off, but most Christmas trees are actually grown specifically to be Christmas trees. They have Christmas tree farms. I pass by one every month when I drive down to see my parents. The majority of trees you see in people's homes were not cut from the wild - they came from a farm.

I don't mind people with trees in their homes. What kills me every year is when they cut those really huge trees for high-visibility places, like the big one in New York's Rockefeller plaza that they show on the Today Show. It makes me want to cry each year when they talk about the new 70-90 year-old tree that they killed just to display some lights.

Just plant a goddamn tree there! It'll take a while for it to grow to what people are used to, but please, stop killing the huge grandfather trees.

We have a small 3-ft fake tree in our apartment that we put up every year. We always thought a real one would be too much trouble, especially since we usually spend at least a week around Christmas staying with our parents, at which time our Christmas tree (if we had one) would be left all alone without water or anyone to gaze at it. Seemed kinda pointless to get a real one.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I'm not a botanist, but my gut instinct is that it's complicated. Will it die? Probably not, unless it gets some sort of disease. The branches with green on them will continue to grow, certainly. However, I don't think a new top would grow from the cut stem. But, you may be able to splice a branch onto the cut top and shape/prune a new top that way.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

It doesn't die. My father once, for some unknown reason, lopped the tip off a pine tree in our front yard. It didn't suffer, it just looked squat and kind of stupid.

Christmas tree farming is actually a pretty eco-friendly thing, provided that not too many weird chemicals are used. The trees grow for a few years, add oxegen to the environment and provide shelter for all manner of little wildlife. We chose our tree this year specifically because there was a beautiful, perfectly shaped bird's nest right by the trunk. We put a bird ornament in it.

There are also places that accept old trees for recycling, for mulch and such.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I wasn't all about being green and all- I'm concerned about that kind of thing, I was just wondering if there was a better way. If pines did regrow their tops, a 3-5 foot trim every few years might be akin to shaving sheep for wool as opposed to killing them for food.

FWIW, I do know people cut their own from the wild, though not as many as used to.

I don't mind people with trees in their homes. What kills me every year is when they cut those really huge trees for high-visibility places, like the big one in New York's Rockefeller plaza that they show on the Today Show. It makes me want to cry each year when they talk about the new 70-90 year-old tree that they killed just to display some lights.

Just plant a goddamn tree there! It'll take a while for it to grow to what people are used to, but please, stop killing the huge grandfather trees.

QFT!

Even though I'm sure those get used as efficiently as farmed Christmas trees, I think its just an example of conspicuous consumption.

 

[Merkuri]

I think from what we've heard from MonkeyDragon that the tops wouldn't grow back. This would probably be as bad as using farmed trees, possibly worse because it's not sustainable. Eventually you will run out of pretty tree tops and will be left with just stumps.

And if you're concerned about what happens after Christmas then it doesn't matter whether you have a top or a whole tree. There's the same amount of "waste tree" afterward.

IMO Christmas tree farming is best. It's sustainable - the farmers are consciously planting the trees and harvesting them. If people just buy the trees from farms that's the best we can do aside from making everyone get fake trees. And actually, fake trees are probably not that great, either. They don't last forever, and while they get thrown out less often than real trees they DO eventually get thrown out. And the type of stuff they're made out of doesn't biodegrade, unlike a real tree.

 

[Gilladian]

Amongst the moderately wealthy in my community, it seems to have become a stylish thing to buy an ALREADY DECORATED fake tree, display it for the season, and then throw the whole darned thing away.

Talk about conspicuous consumption and waste! I'll take a farmed tree over that, any day. Except my husband is highly allergic to both pine and cedar!

 

[Umbran]

I was just wondering: what would be the effect on a mature pine tree of lopping off, say, its top 3-5 feet?

Will it die? Does it simply cease to grow? Will it sprout a little "crown" of new growth from the point of the cut? Will it just regrow a tip similar to the one it lost?

As I understand the growth patterns of most evergreens - such a cutting will not kill the tree, nor stop it from growing, in general. But neither will it regrow a conical point. Basically, it is like trimming an evergreen edge too closely - if you cut off too much of the growing end, you get no new growth in that direction ever again.

If a pine could survive such a cutting, it seems that that would be a bit more eco-friendly, overall, than the current practice. At the very least, you'd leave the bulk of the tree to contribute to the environment for some time. Even if it eventually gets harvested for other reasons, its not used for mere holiday decoration.

Have you considered the fact that cutting off the tops of older trees would require rather large, tall machinery wandering through older-growth forests? I don't think that'd be at all kind to the woods.

In addition, if the tree regrows its tip, this practice could be a renewable source of "mini-trees."

As others have noted, most of the small trees we use for holidays are already farmed - the practice is, as I understand it, highly sustainable.

The areas I've lived in have been recycling trees for decades - they make excellent mulch. Even better, they make a wonderful foundation for sand dunes to protect beaches and their ecosystems from erosion. I spent many a weekend as a Boy Scout setting them up as such.

 

[Pbartender]

I was just wondering: what would be the effect on a mature pine tree of lopping off, say, its top 3-5 feet?

See Tree Topping.

Also, Pollarding and Coppicing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Have you considered the fact that cutting off the tops of older trees would require rather large, tall machinery wandering through older-growth forests? I don't think that'd be at all kind to the woods.

Beyond some ATVs of some kind, I'm not so sure that it would require anything more impressive than the gear that my local tree-surgeons use. The top 3'-5' of a mature pine can't be significantly more difficult to cut off than a branch off of a large oak- its definitely smaller in diameter, and it may be a softer wood to boot.