Mature spruce with double leader

11 years ago

Hi everyone,

I have a question that I can't find the answer to. My house has a mature spruce tree in front of it, most likely about twenty five years old. It has a double leader, with the split appearing to begin somewhere around halfway up, maybe even lower. It seems healthy and fine, but I'm a little worried that one day it could cause problems.

Does anyone know if this is a problem? All the information I could find about this is about much younger trees. I guess most people fix it early instead of letting it grow that way forever.

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Comments (4)

wayne
11 years ago
I don't think that it is much of a worry unless you can see that it is starting to split. Conifers are not like some deciduous trees that split at there crotches, not saying that it can't happen. If it worries you get a company to come and look at it. Post your question in the Conifer forum and see what they have to say, there might be a question already posted about this also.
Violetjune Zone 3
Original Author
11 years ago
Well I had an arbourist come look at it today. He says that it definitely could be a problem, the bark has grown into the wood and the attachment could be weak. He also thought that if one of the branches came down it would be likely to land on a nearby structure, so there's definitely a problem there.

He would like to try to save the tree by drastically pruning back one of the branches to try to create a tree with a single leader and maybe a smaller large branch. This would take place over several years. However the tree is already encroaching on our driveway and the road, so will need to be cut back frequently anyway. But on the plus side it offers good screening of our home from the street and blocks the wind from that direction a bit. The cost of pruning over several years and removing it will probably be pretty close to each other, not including the cost of a potential replacement.

Now we just have to decide if we should keep it for the benefits it offers or start fresh with something much smaller and wait for it to grow, but potentially something more suitable for the space. Decisions, decisions.
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Konrad..just outside of Edmonton Alberta
11 years ago
Yeah..I watched closely for double leaders over many years when I put 2 - 3 footer blue spruce in over 30 years ago. Still love them for shade in summer and winter beauty.
Violetjune Zone 3
Original Author
10 years ago
We had the arbourist cut back the second leader last summer. He did a great job making it look natural, but it sure would have saved a lot of trouble if the previous homeowners had known what to look for early on, like Konrad.

The tree most likely would have been fine, but I feel better knowing that I've done something to keep half a tree from crashing down on our house if the tree gets weaker as it ages.