you said: But I DO NOT want to harm NOR significantly disfigure the trees.

====>>>> IN MY HUMBLE OPINION YOU ARE HARMING THEM AND DISFIGURING THESE TREES ....

if you dont like them .. get rid of them ... period ...

needle fall is normal for pines ... NOTHING went wrong ...

why torture and maime a tree ... just get over the guilt and replace it with things that please you ...

ken

Unfortunately, topping and trimming these trees will not lead to nice, flat-topped or rounded, shorter trees. It begins a wild scramble by the tree to re-establish a leader. It completely unbalances the root-to-shoot ratio, and it opens a clear path for disease and pests to make the problem worse. I'm with Ken. Either take a few trees out entirely to open up the property a bit, or live with them.

Thank you for the helpful comments.

If needle-fall is significantly greater than in other autumns it may be because the cohort now being shed (probably the 2003 needles) are more numerous than in the other years. This suggests a good year for bud formation in 2002.

I see. This is good knowledge for me. Thank you Pinetree 30.

This is the time of year for needle drop. Rake them up and save them. They do have some utility in mulching.

If your trees are too dense and make too much shade, either remove a couple of trees, or remove limbs from your trees up to a certain height on the trunk. This will let in more light and improve air circulation so you can grow understory plants. I had some tree guys limb up my 60 foot pine. We took off all branches up to 30 feet on the trunk. This solved many problems, such as too much shade, squirrels using low branches as a highway to jump onto buildings, and the danger of low branches being buffetted by high winds and being blown into contact with buildings.

Any good tree workers can help you decide how to best prune or remove your trees.

Here's some more reading on conifer topping:

http://www.plantamnesty.org/stoptopping/window_conifertopping.htm

That's from this website: http://www.plantamnesty.org/stoptopping/5reasonstostoptopping.htm

Hurricane Katrina took the top off our very large pine tree. It still has live, green branches. However, we worry that our pine tree will die because it lost its crown. We live in Covington, La.

I just had a pine tree in the corner of my backyard "trimmed" well I had all it's branches removed. It was overhanging our backyard and dropping pine needles everywhere. My wife is pretty mad at me for making this call. When I was out there with the tree trimmers I told him to continue trimming all the branches. Now what do I do? Is the only thing left removing this tree? will leaving it there cause it to die?

Stupid in California.

You had ALL the branches trimmed off?? As in there are none left? Yes, you have effectively killed the tree. Call your tree guy back and have him finish the job by cutting down the naked truck.

Tacking on a separate posting to an existing (as well as rather stale) thread is not considered good 'Netiquette and often results with the late post/query being overlooked. Next time try starting your own thread for your questions. It's easy - just follow the directions.

i agree about a new post... i bet the original poster is wondering what the heck is going on ....

but in response.. let me put it to you this way .. as long as that stick is there.. you are going to get heck from wifey ... ergo .. it has to go .. so she will start to forget.. and you MIGHT have a chance of recovering matrimonial bliss ...

ken

I agree, topping out your pines may not be the best idea. It will put a huge amount of stress on the tree, and in my opinion doesn't look all that good. My recommendation is thin them out. Step back and take a good look at your yard, decide which trees can go. Also i have found that a bit of trimming every year will give them a nice "full" look. Prune just enough to keep the shape you want. Trim in late winter or very early spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: kennedy tree service

I have a 12-15 white pine tree. Some of the top got damaged in a storm - tree branches cut it off. Will the tree die if the top opf it is half gone? Can I take a stem and root it to start another tree?

iuno shrugs...
I have several pines and my one pine out front grew two crowns, when, just before I bought this place they took the crown off for a xmas tree hah but it grew 2 back.
Also, I have seen hedges made out of pine trees that LQQk ok, they seem fine. Seen the neighbour cut his short all the time and they just keeeeep goin. So try it see what it does.. if it goes bad then take it right out.

Here is a link that might be useful: pruning pine trees

Anyone else notice more spam with Houzz?

Not on my end. Of course I have AB. I kind of like the new format with Houzz.

no junkie ...

sorta dave

coping with change.. ken

Dave & Ken,

What I meant was, camlguerrier pulling up a post from 2013 just to hype a tree sevice.

tj

Ken, Just coping with winter here.

Houzz OK, but can't left click for photo enlargement. I have found lately if you up grade, no matter what, it usually ends up a down grade.

hey junk .... i missed the date and spaminess of this .. ken

I dreamed of having a beautiful pine tree in the corner of my yard so that I could decorate it for holidays, especially Christmas but it is out of control. Three quarter of the way up the tree it grew larger and branched out more than the bottom. I do not want to trim or top it and possibly kill it. What's left for me to do with it ? I prefer not to replace it either for sentimental reasons !

Coletta, it works better to start a new thread. Likely, not much interest left for this item from 2005!

If you do start a new thread (highly recommended), then please also include a photo of the tree in question. It is very difficult to visualize what is going on with a specific tree and how to correct or adjust its growth just based on a verbal description.

Pines have been especially hard hit with drought in the past several years. Once the trees weaken they will drop their needles but are especially prone to spiders which suck even more moisture from the needles and eventually kill the tree.

HU and a bunch of numbers, I don't understand your comment. Not sure you can generalize about drought conditions being uniform across the country nor can you generalize about all pines being adverse to drought conditions. Some species are extremely drought tolerant.

And you must mean spider mites, not spiders :-) And it would take a massive infestation of spider mites to kill an established pine!!

btw, this is a 16 y.o. thread with the most recent comments five years old!! I doubt the issue is still of much concern :-)