Pollarding cherry trees

I was reading an article on the BBC about cherry trees, banksy, and pollarding.

Pollarding is a lot like coppicing, but instead of cutting the tree back to the level of the soil, pollarding leaves a large amount of tree trunk above ground.  

They interviewed people from different professions.  The arborists and counsel suggested that pollarding cherry trees is an old tradition and a good way to prolong the life of a tree if it's suffering from infection or other issues.  Another side suggested that a tree cannot survive that much pruning.  



Looking at the mass of the branches, it looks like they removed about 30-40%.  That would be disastrous if they wanted a heavy fruit production in the next two years, but it looks like a decorative cherry tree.  Then again, we usually pollard our decorative cherry trees as it just makes a nicer display and more open tree (more flowers).  We don't normally leave so many branches as these did, but instead, bring it back to a central trunk.  Sometimes we'll put a weeping flowering cherry on that central trunk and pollard it back every year or so.  

They also mention a fungal infection.  For infected trees, I'll often prune it back 75% although sometimes I prune it to just above the graft (if it has any) or 90% if it's not grafted.  I've never had a cherry (or other established fruit tree) die from this - I didn't know they could.  I find it extens the life of the tree, promotes flowering and fruiting after about 3 years, and makes it easier to keep the infection at bay.  

It's interesting to read these different views in the BBC article.  I hope the trees we pollarded this year don't hear what these 'experts' have to say as we haven't lost one yet.  


So what's your style?  Do you pollard your cherry (or other fruit and flowering trees)?  

I read Coppice Agroforestry by Mark Krawczyk cover to cover and did a book review here .

I agree - it's complicated! City trees have a hard life. Frequently, they're pretty much left to fend for themselves, often with no leaf mulch beneath them, always exposed to all sorts of "city air" from vehicles, industry, and homes, and usually with a lot of foot traffic compressing the soil over their roots.

The benefits of a tree to a neighbourhood and cities as a whole has been frequently neglected and for all the efforts to change that, it often seems to me that it's a drop in the bucket.

A quickie on "what is pollarding":
1. Removal of branch matter higher above the ground than coppicing. The info I've read does suggest this is harder on the tree than a proper schedule of coppicing, but the goals are different.
2. Often done as a form of "tree hay" - the new growth has to be higher than the animals that might want to eat it can reach, so this is why it's done higher up.
3. Often done to certain ornamentals either to produce more flowering branches or to keep the tree shorter than its natural height.
4. To decrease the shade created by a tree, reduce its wind-load so it doesn't break in storms, over all, manage its height.

Pollarding is something normally done on a repetitive schedule. Fig trees in my area are a commonly pollarded tree, but since that word isn't known well, people will likely just say they "pruned" it. However pollarding done right, results in mini-stool type bulge at the end of the branches where they're cut back on a regular schedule. I've seen Magnolia trees with "pollarding" bulges, but for a long time, I didn't actually know that was what I was looking at.

Yes, there is evidence that properly coppiced trees live *much* longer than their native counterparts. Pollarding is so rare these days, I haven't read of statistics on it. I have seen city trees collapse due to wind, snow and ice. Balancing costs of care and being supportive of trees has led to situations where pruning is happening on less than ideal schedules from my experience.

Following several serious Heat Dome situations both in North America and Europe, the need to reduce hardscape and increase the number, location and density of city trees to literally save human lives is creeping into Civic consciousness.

Will this particular cherry tree live? If they arborist is correct that the tree is already struggling, all bets are off. I'd have been more impressed by the article if I'd read that not only are they trying to save the tree's life, they are planning to give it some friends other than what looks like 'just grass' to support it in its old age, and maybe out-grow it so that normal succession gets to happen.

Do we need a "permaculture approach" article to get the readers of BBC thinking in new directions? More research would be required!

Here's an image of long-term pollarding of a tree:

I'm not familiar with pollarding, but it sounds like a big job that has to be done at least yearly.

Is this a task that requires ladders? That increases some personal risk if it is the case every time you performed the task. Perhaps for a government agency with bucket trucks it is one thing but I'm wondering how to Permiefy it.

how often depends on the goal of the tree.  For flowering we usually do it every couple of years when we remember.  

In woodlot management, pollarding is awesome when coppicing won't work.

For example, if one is growing hazel or willow for furniture, one might pollard at 2 feet high so that the rabbits won't eat the new shoots.  For furniture use, one might go 5-12 years between pollarding depending on the size of the wood needed.  

If one is growing fruit in a sheep pasture, one would want to pollard at at least 4 feet high.  For the sheep we have, 6 feet would be about right.  I would probably cut it back every couple or three years depending on how the tree is performing.  

Decorative urban trees seem to do better with yearly pollarding.  It's a bit like bonsai maintenance where you trim back a major part of the branches to help keep the rootball happy in a limited space.  A bonsai can live many times longer than a wild tree of the same variety.  Pollarding is ideal for places with poor soil and drainage.   At least that's what I've read in 19th Century woodlot manuals, and our family oral history confirms it

Coppicing and pollarding has been a vital part of woodland management in Britain since at least Roman times although it fell out of favour in the 20th Century.  There's a long history there of what works and what doesn't so I'm surprised there is so much backlash against this technique in the UK.  It's a vital part of the cultural heritage.  

Timothy Norton wrote:I'm not familiar with pollarding, but it sounds like a big job that has to be done at least yearly.

There are some ornamentals, and the fig I mentioned, where it's done yearly. However, just as with coppicing, the schedules vary widely depending on the goals with 3 years often being the shortest, and my memory says (it's old - I don't quite trust it - no time to double check) 10 years isn't uncommon.

Is this a task that requires ladders?

I have a ten foot orchard ladder and I'm a wimpy female who's over 60 years old. Most pollarding is done at reasonable ladder height, but I've also seen higher pollards accomplished with ropes and harnesses and younger humans.

Perhaps for a government agency with bucket trucks it is one thing but I'm wondering how to Permiefy it.

That might best be done by building community. I had a couple of young teens come by the other day and spend a couple of hours moving pallets with me and hammering extra boards to them, and I paid them in duck eggs (although, alas, I suspect mom will get stuck with the cooking, as they boys are much keener on outside tasks than kitchen ones). If we can work on building community cooperation, where younger, stronger people with better balance (balance statistically decreases with age, but statistics are broad, not individual specific) do tasks like pruning from ladders and I get to mend the pants they tear doing so, I'm happy to call that "permaculture"!

Here are some photos of some pollarded cherry trees in my area.  These weren't doing so well (probably because of the location) so they cut them back hard quite a few years ago and pollard them every few years.

They are gorgeous when they are growing.