Trimming Juniper/Cedar windbreak

[Duane]

I planted a windbreak of juniper / eastern red cedar for the hives.  It looked like they would never do any good, but I turn around and now they are getting taller than I!  Amazing how those things happen.  The branches are starting to infringe on my space around the boxes and I imagine soon the trees are going to envelope the boxes.  Any advice on how to go about maintaining a windbreak?  Easy to whack a branch off, but what about keeping them a certain height, trimming them in a certain form that others have found to work best? 

[Dallasbeek]

Duane,
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but eastern red cedars normally grow to a height of 50 feet or so.  Some other kind of plant might make a better windbreak.  Your county agriculture agent will be your best source of information and advice on this, but my opinion is that waiting won?t make it easier to replace these trees.

[FloridaGardener]

Move hives further from trees...? If they're on the south side of the trees, there still will be sun.

You could intersperse a different plant, and let it start up until it's time to take down the red cedar.

[Dallasbeek]

Move hives further from trees...? If they're on the south side of the trees, there still will be sun.

You could intersperse a different plant, and let it start up until it's time to take down the red cedar.

Good plan, Florida.

[Duane]

I fully realize the mature size of cedar when I planted them.  The intended plan was to trim them all along, I just don't know how the best way.  I understand juniper can be pruned into most any shape and size you wish, right?  I wonder what's best, whether to prune all the limbs off the south side, or keep some greenery and keep pruning the length of them?  The north side will block the wind, but it will look ugly if pruning the south limbs off, but a lot less maintenance for the future as no new growing tips will form.

It's apparent no one else has bothered so much with the idea, so guess I can figure it out by whacking some limbs off and seeing how the tree responds.  So maybe someone can tell me what is the height of a windbreak needed to benefit hives?

[FloridaGardener]

Probably you don't want to unbalance the tree, and make it prone to falling over on your hives.

Pruning consists of thinning and heading.  Thinning selectively removes branches to a main trunk....the principle of a Japanese Maple, for example. [attachment=1][/attachment]

Junipers thinned will look a bit like a bonsai.  Thinning will take some of the weight off to protect from heavy snowloads.  It will expose some attractive peeling park.  You may have a better production of pollen since the tree puts energy into fewer branches.  Suggestion is to be careful on where you cut the branch, leaving a "collar" that will form a callous against insect disease.  And to take care not to let a rough cut cause bark to tear away from the tree's cambium.  If the branch is heavy, cut it short first, then make your final cut with no weight dragging it down.

[attachment=0][/attachment]
The plan is to lead the plant from trunk, to main branches, to side branches, to twigs, and leaflets.  This promotes the tree's strength in wind and ability to siphon water.  If a tree is a mess when I start, or hard to see what to do, I use orange surveyor's tape to spiral-wrap the parts I want to keep.  It's a way to "see in advance" where it will go.

Heading-type pruning cuts the "whips" or upward growth of the tree.  It will injure a tree and make it prone to disease and death if you "top" it (a/k/a "beheading").  A tree has a vascular system which will be cut in half.

The "Grumpy Gardener" blogs have great pruning tips, delivered with humor.

[Michael Bush]

Cut off the lower branches on the hive side.

[FloridaGardener]

So practical. Yes. One hour and a chainsaw.

But if trimmed too high on only one side, you will have the "man with outstretched arm holding bowling ball" scenario, and the tree will be vulnerable to wind damage as it grows to 50 ft. As it ages, lower branches will rise and trunk will thicken.

Then there's the UGLY factor from a half-shave. 

Thoughtful thinning can keep it pretty.  Duane, you said the trees are north of the hives, right? And they are about 7 ft high now, right?  Can you move the hives south a bit? 

Perhaps look at how others have used a natural style to prune Juniper Torulosa.

[cao]

As it ages, lower branches will rise and trunk will thicken.

Are you sure about branches rising?  I have never seen this.

[FloridaGardener]

Depends on whether it gets to full height.
[attachment=0][/attachment][attachment=1][/attachment]

[Ben Framed]

As it ages, lower branches will rise and trunk will thicken.

Are you sure about branches rising?  I have never seen this.

Usually the lower branches on trees are the thicker ones, older ones, as the tree grows up higher, new branches grow from the edge of the new higher growth of the tree and so on. For instance, if you had a tire swing and the limbs rose with age and time, soon you would not be able to reach the swing? Perhaps we are not fully understanding FGs' meaning?  Or we are mistaken?

[FloridaGardener]

A tire swing doesn't usually go on a tree until the branches are big, strong, and high.  At that point the mature tree is growing very slowly.  The latest pics show mature Eastern red cedars (Juniperus virginiana).

I think Duane says he has a 7 ft tree now, expecting 50 feet eventually, and he's looking for attractive pruning suggestions for his windbreak on the Kansas prairie.  Basically, my suggestion was to thin it for shape, don't decapitate it, or cut in half vertically.  Move hives not trees, if the trees are unexpectedly wide.   That's all folks.

[Dallasbeek]

FloridaGardener either misspoke, is misinformed or BenFramed misunderstood what Florida wrote.  A branch that emerges from the trunk of a tree at 5 feet remains at 5 feet, regardless of the full height of the tree.  Tree growth, like most all plants, is at the tip, not from the base.  I  think the advice given about this OP has, for the most part, been good and accurate.  And should by this point be considered complete.  Duane is free to take the advice or not, but belaboring the topic seems now to be leading to bickering among those seeking to advise.  As Florida wrote, that's all, folks.

[Duane]

Thanks all for the advice.  And I was more for the decapitating and cutting in half type of idea.  I never intended the trees to get full size.  And if I were going to move the boxes, I would have planted the trees further away.  So with the advice given, I will start my chainsaw, or perhaps the loppers at this size, and shape them up.

Just an interesting note about branches moving.  There is the something like a solstice slump around the middle of the summer, where branches, even fairly thick ones, will bend quite a bit to fill open areas, seeking light.