when do we prune young trees ?

[roger 4400]

Hi everyone.
     I have a young plantation of white spruces , they are 11 years old and some are 3 to 4 in.DBH.and 10 to 12 feet tall, they have branches all way down to the ground.
     Do I have to prune them or mother nature will take care of that? Or if I have to do so, at what size do I have to prune them (6 in. and more ?) and to what height???
     I also have over 1000 Tamaracks ( meleze laricin in french) They are only 4 years old but 10 to 12 feet tall, they look very happy.....but around 1 1/2 in DBH. I guess I will not prune them till they get 4 to 6 in. but they will be over 25 to 30 feet tall or more...
I also have a few thousand of 4 years old Norway spruce but the are only 4 to 6 feet tall. I live in Québec 30 miles north of Montréal. Thank you for the answers. Roger
     

[Ernie]

Here are a couple of links to information on how things are done here in New Zealand.  The only difference that we have uased on our bit of dirt is that we prune to 8 to 10 meters as our fertility and climate lends itself to fast growth and we want to be able to supply longer timbers for specialised uses.

This link is to our local council
http://www.trc.govt.nz/assets/Publications/information-sheets-and-newsletters/land-management-information-sheets/agroforestry-information-sheets/43managingtreeswoodlot.pdf

This is the NZ Farm forestry site
http://www.nzffa.org.nz/farm-forestry-model/resource-centre/farm-forestry-association-leaflet-series/no-9-pruning-and-pruned-stand-certification/

[Ianab]

Do you get a premium for clear logs when you go to sell them?

The info Ernie posted relates to NZ, where there is a BIG premium payed for clear logs, and the only way to get them on fast grown plantation trees is to prune off those lower branches early. If you get payed the same for knotty or clear logs, just let nature take it's course, and allow the trees to self prune. You will actually end up with slightly more volume in the logs as you are not removing some of green growth with each prune.

If you do decide to prune, do it early and go up the tree to your pre-determined dia, usually 4-6" for our pines. Repeat untill it gets too high to be practical. Also you have to keep going up to at least the minimum log length the mill will take. No premium for having a 16ft log that's only pruned to 8ft, it's still a knotty log.

Ian

[SwampDonkey]

We don't prune spruce and fir, we space them 6-7 feet apart to prune naturally. Pruning spruce and fir introduce rot in the majority of cases because they do not heal fast like pine and larch. If your just knocking off dead dry limbs that's fine. They used to have pruning programs on the west coast and they only pruned western hemlock. We get no premium here for clear spruce unless your selling veneer and that market comes and goes. The only spruce veneer market I can remember was owned by a New Brunswick company. They had their plant in Maine and would not buy NB spruce veneer direct. They only bought it for sawlog price in their NB mills, separated the veneer and hauled it over. Then if I was to high grade my but logs from tree length they would reject the load. Lovely bunch eh? :D

[Clark]

As the Donk says, it probably isn't worth your effort to prune the fir and spruce.  If you feel the need to then take only the dead limbs off.

Really you need to ask yourself why you are doing it.  If it's just to clear it out underneath then do as you please.  If you want to do it with the intent of getting a premium for the trees then you've got some thinking to do.  For one, I would never prune more than 150 trees/acre.  More than this and you are pruning trees that will be taken out before final harvest.  I also don't think I would prune trees before they reach 5" dbh.  Let them sort themselves out by establishing dominance, having tops break off and other natural hazards befall them.  It makes choosing which trees to prune easier and lessens (is that a word?) the chance your effort will be for naught.

Clark

[Ron Scott]

Ditto to the above. Not much value in prunning spruce and fir, especially at an early age. Their low limbs also provide wildlife thermal and escape cover if wildlife is one of your objectives.

[roger 4400]

     Thank you pros for the info. I guess nature will do a better job than me and mother nature have a lot more time then all of us have....I,m busy now.....the new baby just arrived at my dealer ( a new 1643 Massey Ferguson that will help me logging with a Farmi winch.....hours of fun to come ) See you all and take care.

[Ernie]

We look forward to the "baby" pics

[Pilot1]

Here in the Pacific northwest, we prune Douglas-fir--I haven't heard of anyone pruning  hemlock.  Prune the trees to leave about 40% live crown ratio.  Prune before limbs are 1" in diameter.  Waiting longer means it is more difficult to cut them and they take longer to heal.  And pruning makes economic sense by leaving tree density low, so remaining trees can grow faster and you get your return earlier.

Pruning was a big fad here about 15 years ago because some research said it would pay.  But things are uncertain and complicated.  The mill wants to be sure of the amount of clear wood they will get, so you need to document the tree diameters when pruning was done.  Since the payoff will be many years into the future, are you sure there will be a market for clear wood?  With finger jointing and perhaps other technology that might come along, the premium for clear might disappear.  If no local mills have a market for clear, they won't pay a premium.

On the other hand, one might want to prune to 8' or so to make the stand more accessible or to reduce the potential for crown fires--or maybe just for aesthetics.  8' is easy to reach with loppers so the job is quicker and easier.  You can go higher with a lopper style pole pruner, but if you have to start sawing limbs, you are looking at a lot of work.

[SwampDonkey]

Pilot, where they were pruning, from my perspective, there was no Doug-Fir or any other Fir species. It was on the Queen Charlottes in the area I worked. It was western hemlock second growth from past cuts. Most of the cuts grew back to western hemlock. They were thinned first and later pruned. Those programs ended in 1994. Nationwide the Federal government had silviculture cooperation agreements with the provinces.

[Pilot1]

Ah, up in Canada.  I am not familiar with how they manage up there, but I imagine there is a lot of hemlock on the islands.

BTW, I forgot to mention for anyone who wants to prune, you shouldn't use a chain saw.  Too easy to damage the tree.  Now, for the "Do as I say, not as I do" department, I do use a chain saw.  It's a little arborist's saw, weighs about 8 lbs., is easy to control with a short bar and the bark on my Douglas-firs is usually thick enough that I don't get bole damage.  I am very careful and don't mess up very often--maybe once in 25 trees.  But the main reason I use it is because many years ago I developed "tennis elbow" and it flares up when using the loppers.