Off with their heads! Keeping big trees short...

Ok, I would love some hardy pecan, Chinese chestnut , and or/ other trees that get pretty large, but I don't have the space.
Mulberries apparently respond well enough to being kept shortish, but what about the pecans, chestnuts, and other trees?

Europe and other parts of the world have practiced pollarding for centuries (millennia?), keeping trees at a certain size by repeatedly cutting the branches off at specific points. It has been done with many different species, so I suspect it would work with those you mention. I would search for "pollard" and the species you are interested in to see if there is any specific relevant information.

Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, did just that, came up with bumkiss.
Maybe if I try "pollarding nut trees" as the search terms.
Pollarding seems to be aimed at fuel and small diameter timber, but it's as close as I can get.
Maybe I should research how these trees are grown commercially.

Pollarding is popular where I live in France . Mostly oak trees but not solely Chestnuts are usually stooled not pollarded I dont know why the difference though . I dont think its due to nuts though .

This talks about chestnuts being coppiced: http://www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/morestuff/The+Sweet+Chestnut

http://www.mast-producing-trees.org/2010/02/coppicing-with-mast-producing-trees/

As I understand Coppicing includes both Pollarding and stooling . Pollarding is cutting the tree about 6 to 12 foot up usually Stooling about 18 inches . Since the authors are talking about making posts and fencing from chestnut I think its fairly safe to assume they are talking about cutting the teree back to the base thus causing long straigh shoots

David

Thanks for the link, and for the new search term. "Stooled" huh?
You permies teach me something new everyday!

When we bought land it came with a large fully grown walnut tree. The next summer it was cut in half by a freak storm that twisted and threw smaller trees around the orchard.

Since then the walnut tree has regrown beautifully. Judging from this I would say that walnuts + heavy pruning, whatever you call it = OK.

Concerning edible chestnuts, I think chinese chestnut is immune to the widespread bacterial disease of chestnuts so unlike castanea sativa, cutting it should not be a problem as far as disease is concerned. Don't know about regrowth.

I have always heard "coppicing" to refer to cutting close to the ground, and "pollarding" as cutting higher up. A coppice stool is a term I have seen. I think it is probably better, unless someone can confirm that coppicing commonly worldwide refers to all forms indiscriminately, to keep the terms separate.

I came across this article and am trying it with some pear trees:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/gardening-techniques/small-fruit-trees-zm0z15onzdel.aspx

So it is still not entirely clear to me that these trees will thrive and produce nuts while being kept short, but the certainly will survive and create timber and fuel.

This site: Mast Producing Trees is full of permie oriented info.
This site: coppiceagroforestry.com is probably where I will find my answer.

This sounds positive:
"The most common mast-producing trees to be coppiced include hazel, chestnut, and oak. In addition to traditional wood and charcoal products, coppice woodlots containing mast-producing trees can also produce nuts that can be eaten, sold, or used as livestock feed. The newly developed woody agriculture system uses intensively managed hazel and chestnut coppice to produce crop yields per acre that rival or even exceed those of annual crops, in addition to wood products."

American hazelnuts are already in bush form. Mine only get about 6'.

Chinkapins are small trees.

Carpathian walnuts are a lot smaller than black walnut or pecan.

Yeah, I am planning on chinkapins and hazelnut trees. The chinkapins could be a great niche product, both for oil and meal.
The hazelnuts, I am not sure beyond dig Nutella. I have never had hazelnuts any other way?
Pecans are very healthy and marketable,chestnuts very productive and I found both trees available locally and cheap, so I thought, maybe I could fit them into my postage stamp food forest.

William Bronson wrote:Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, did just that, came up with bumkiss.
Maybe if I try "pollarding nut trees" as the search terms.
Pollarding seems to be aimed at fuel and small diameter timber, but it's as close as I can get.
Maybe I should research how these trees are grown commercially.

FYI - Its "bupkis". Bumkiss does give a more amusing visual, I grant you.