Pruning Pencil Pines

Griffo

Good morning everyone,

I stumbled across your forum looking for solutions to my problem and I must say what a great resource!!

I have 3 pencil pines (I think) growing at the front of my house in Brisbane, Australia and I want to shorten them a little. A few questions;





1. Can you tell me what type of pencil pine they are?

2. Can I simply cut a few meters off the top? They are about 8.5 to 9m tall (140-170mm diameter at base of trunk) and I would like them to be about 4.5 to 5.5m tall.

3. Will this kill them?

4. If not will it have any affect?

5. As can be seen in the photos, quite a few of the leaves/needles?? have turned brown. Is this a disease/problem or is it normal?

6. If I can shorten them, what is the best way? Cut at an angle? Position of cut? Prepare the tree somehow? Post cut treatment?

Thanks everyone for your help.

Regards,

Griffo

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Garry Brockley

it's a type of Cypress topping them is generally a bad idea. the browning is normal in the shaded parts of the tree, they are not designed for this climate, if you top them and they survive they will have weak growth (epicormic) on the top that is more likely to break out in the summer storms

personally i would get rid of them and plant somethng more suitable for the space.

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Eric Frei

I agree, these do poorly and have decay plus browing issues as they get older, have removed heaps of them.

Sometimes when you top them they dieback too, rotting downwards.

Pruning Cupressus Sempervirens Glauca

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derwoodii

Agree

Branching Out TreeCare

Looks like Chamycyparis colmnaris . They suffer from cypress canker often . If you do shorten them ; remove all material that has been cut off....dont leave any debris either caught up in the canopy or around the base of the trees on the ground....or it will seed fungal pathogens.
Give drink of water with a weak concentration of fungistat such as KMnO4 ( potassium permanganate ) if browning occurs.
You cant shape them into a tapering appical so just trim them off to the required height and they will regenerate back into the pointy tip that you see now.
When pruning conifers you must leave about a third of the green on any branch that you trim or they will decline . Conifers , unlike most broad-leaf trees, don't carry dormant buds so if you prune the branch to a stubb it will not grow back unless you leave some green on.
Hope this helps.
Try to prune them first. You can always take them out later.

Branching Out TreeCare

just had a few jars so got the spelling a bit out but you get the picture anyway. the same treatment still applies though. Cheers Paul.

Branching Out TreeCare

could be Cupressus italica ...

Griffo

Thanks very much for all your help. I think I'll go with pruning as Paul suggested as I do like the trees even if they aren't ideal. If that doesn't work then I guess I'll remove them and look at other ideas.

Thanks again!!