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Buckingham Palace pruning trick left my sycamore bare three seasons out
Got a tip from a retired arborist in Portland who used to work heritage gardens in the UK. He swore by cutting sycamore back to two year old wood right after leaf drop. Tried it on three trees here in November 2023, and every one of them barely pushed new growth through spring and summer. Now I'm wondering if that method only works with English conditions or older trees, has anyone else seen this setback with heavy fall pruning on sycamores in the PNW?
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the_felix1mo ago
I hear you, and I had nearly the same thing happen with a couple of maples up here in the foothills. A buddy of mine who does restoration work on old estates back east gave me the same advice, and when I tried it on a young sycamore, it sulked for two full summers before it finally woke up. What ended up working for me was waiting until late winter, just before the buds start to swell, and then only taking out about a third of the older wood at most. That gave the tree a chance to heal while it was already getting ready to push, and it didn't seem to shock the system the way a hard fall cut did. Your Portland guy probably knows his stuff for older trees with established roots, but young ones or trees that are still settling in just don't have the energy stored up to handle that kind of cut here.
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