University of Florida

Home > Pruning shade trees > Thinning the canopy > Photo examples of thinning > Inappropriate thinning > Drooping canopy

Drooping canopy

back buttonnext button

drooping canopy

Lions-tailed canopy is now drooping three years after pruning. As these get in the way of vehicles the property owner will hire a company to remove the large low branches. The result will be huge pruning wounds. This can initiate massive decay in the trunk. Instead of lions-tailing, the large low branchecs could have been reduced in length using reduction cuts. In this manner, branches could have remained on the tree much longer, perhaps indefinitely.