Short answer - no, it does not help the tree grow taller or faster. There are often valid reasons for limbing up a tree but neither of those two reasons are considered valid.

Agreed. Same thing is true of roses, BTW. More foliage, more growth.

Thanks all!!!

If you feed and water the tree, it would grow faster. What kind of tree are you talking about? Hardwood or softwood?

o, I just meant in general. For example, I moved a large Paulownia tomentosa last fall and it's putting out leaves on the trunk, as well as on the upper branches, so I wondered if I ought to remove them. I also have a mature oak that was badly battered by an extreme wind storm; it lost one of it's uppermost limbs and has one growing low down, so it's pretty lop-sided-looking. I may well cut that one out,just for the shape.

@bart bart watch those oak limbs to make sure it isn't unbalanced and become a safety issue. The Paulownia is showing you what it wants/needs by pushing all of that foliage. Allow it to make good use of it and it will probably do what you want it to.

As trees grow, not rarely the higher branches shade out the lower ones: at that point it's reasonable to remove the lower branches. I do a certain amount of modest (always modest) limbing up, so that the tree is less able to shade out surrounding plants, or to allow me to pass. But I'm aware that I'm doing this for other reasons than for the tree's own benefit.

Oh the princess tree. I wish I could grow one up north. Before you cut that lower limb, ask yourself if you could hang a swing bench there in the future. I had tree guys to trim off the branches that were over the roof and over the driveway a few years ago, now I am having a hard time to find a lower bench to hang a swing bench. I have a lot of old trees near the house from 70 yrs old maples to almost 200 yrs old Elm trees. I moved 20+ apple, pear trees 2 years ago from one area to another area of the property, trying to create a fruit trees canopied pathway. Watching them growing up is painful. Everytine I ride a zeroturn passing there, can’t stop saying ” grow grow my canopy!” :-)

growth is a function of root mass...

more leaves.. means more energy.. means for leaves.. means more root growth ... when the tree is young....

once you have a mature root mass.. when you remove lower branches.. the tree will grow taller and produce new branches.. usually doesnt sprout new branches from the trunk ...

tree time is counted in decades.. just be patient... in 10 or 20 years.. your trees will be just what you want.. by then.. and trying to find people who wont charge you thousands of dollars to maintain what you planted all those years ago ... and you will be too sick to care for

ken

Limbing up your Paulownia won't help it grow faster but it might be part of its training as a single stem tree. It is far easier to rub off leaves forming on a trunk than it is to cut off branches later in the tree's life. A picture of this Paulownia would help people to make suggestions.

Bart, I assume u are someplace the Paulownia tomentosa isn't invasive.

I will argue limbing up a TREE DOES encourage top growth and discourages low wide growth at least short term. For "bushy" trees or those that want to be low and multi stemmed it definately makes a difference.

Eash species seems to have different tolerances for pumping juices to the top so to say.

I believe Bart Bart is in Italy where Paulownia is, in fact, potentially invasive. I've seen them growing along roads there. But nothing like as bad as Ailanthus which is everywhere. https://www.eppo.int/ACTIVITIES/plant_quarantine/alert_list_plants/paulownia_tomentosa

Oooh, floral, where in Italy did you see these Paulownias? I'd love to see some in bloom. Here in my area you don't see any,but you do see ailanthus. I didn't realize that it was invasive.

Melissa, one of the trees that I want to limb up is that oak that I mentioned on the Mel's Heritage thread that got bullied by Paul'Himalayan Musk. I still need to finish sawing out the damaged limb (couldn't finish it because my shoulder went sort of "AWOL") but there's this other,low-growing limb that bothers me. The leafy twiggy growth on this tree seems-especially on this limb- almost like a weeping willow-like habit. Aesthetically it doesn't look too good,for one thing, but I just have this idea that it might be better for the tree to grow in a little more ...well, it's not the right word for a mature oak, but can't think of any other...grow in a more "compact" manner. I am in the process of eradicating the P's H. Musk that stressed the tree out so much, but if there's anything else I can do to reinforce this tree, I'd like to do it. I was thinking that taking out this limb might help the tree's "core body strength" a bit...does that make any sense?

Bart, concerning pruning your oak, you're out in the ocean of the unknown, and I have no lifeboat to send. In other words, I don't know.

Driving from Naples to Arezzo. And from Arezzo to Pisa. We're there in July. Never seen them in bloom, just as suckering stands. Also around Rome, but we're there at Christmas, so again, no bloom.

Re Ailanthus https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964830520306429#:~:text=Ailanthus%20altissima%20is%20an%20invasive,the%20Aurelian%20Walls%20(Rome).

Ailanthus (tree of heaven) is indeed considered an invasive pest and a noxious weed here in the US. It is also a host for an invasive insect, the spotted lanternfly.

I guess I'm in minority here, but I think a tree with a natural incination to grow upright would be encouraged to grow tall faster if you limb it up. Trees like to balance foliage with their roots. If you trim off leaves, the roots will encourage more foliage growth -- and in the case where apical dominance is strong, this should result in more vertical growth from the the leader. I know this is true with citrus, crape myrtles, etc.

Removing foliage slows down tree growth.

That being said, if a tree has competing central leaders, removing all but one will make the tree focus it's energy into just the one that's left, which will encourage it to grow taller.

But removing side branches will achieve nothing except to slow growth down. All of the side branches feed the central leader that they are attached to.