The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Ask The Forester => Topic started by: taspros on January 26, 2014, 08:25:12 PM

Title: Spruce trees
Post by: taspros on January 26, 2014, 08:25:12 PM
Why are my spruce trees lower branches thinning out and what can I do about it
Title: Re: Spruce trees
Post by: beenthere on January 26, 2014, 08:40:47 PM
Welcome to the Forestry Forum.

Likely a result of little light, and the natural tendency to prune lower branches. Lots of light helps and no trees crowding them.

But once gone, they likely won't come back.

Which spruce? And in a plantation and if so, what is their age?
Title: Re: Spruce trees
Post by: BuckeyeAaron on January 26, 2014, 09:07:34 PM
As beenthere said, this is likely due to lack of sunlight to the lower portion of the tree.  Conifers "self limb" in stands of forests and even in an ornamental setting if the spacing is tight enough.  If these limbs no longer receive sunlight to photosynthesize, there is no benefit to keep limbs alive and the tree will "kill them off."  As these trees mature, the likelihood of losing lower limbs increases as the spacing between crowns/drip lines decreases.  The only true way to keep lower limbs is to have a completely open grown tree as one would find planted in a front with few neighboring trees.  If you are losing limbs, and it's open grown, then you likely have some biotic factor affecting the tree.  There are many diseases that can cause death starting with lower branches and moving up.