Should I top my eucalyptus tree

ItMightBeUsefulOneDay

I have a recently bought large(ish) garden which has required some taming work over the summer. We're talking about nearly 10 years of "let nature take its course" followed by my arrival which heralded some serious prunage. I'm left with a ~30ft eucalyptus tree which is ok at that height (for the size of the garden) but I'm worried it will go layandii on me and soar to the sky making it expensive / impossible to reduce in size. It's quite spindley at the moment and doesn't cause light problems for me or my neighbours.

I've been told, "Yes, cut it now while you still can" and "No leave it or it will grow much faster and much taller if you take the top off".

I've no idea how old it is now as I didn't plant it.

Browntoa

had mine cut down as it was too close to the house and worse than sycamore for causing problems with subsidence

glasgowdan

I have never heard of trimming causing much faster growth so I would be inclined to go for that. You could safely bring it down to 20ft or so, just trim wisely so you don't lose the natural look of the tree.

OK_Sauce

Eucalyptus trees (as do sycamores) grow faster if pruned. Ours was twice as high as our house so had it topped last year. It grew a further 20ft from then (in a year) so decided to cut it down completely a few weeks ago. The sycamore was cut back last year too and although no higher it's shrubbery is now twice as dense.

ItMightBeUsefulOneDay

OK_Sauce wrote: »

had it topped last year. It grew a further 20ft from then (in a year)

Thanks - someone who's actually done it and seen the results.

For the moment it doesn't seem to be growing much so I think we'll leave it for a year or two. If it starts to shoot up I can get the ladders out and deal with it at that point. For the monent it's a beautiful spindley tree where the bark offsets nicely against the forest behind. It would be a shame to cut the whole thing down.

Sambucus_Nigra

glasgowdan wrote: »

I have never heard of trimming causing much faster growth so I would be inclined to go for that. You could safely bring it down to 20ft or so, just trim wisely so you don't lose the natural look of the tree.

The whole reason to prune plants is to encourage growth.

OP - Eucys grow to monstrous proportions, it can grow 20m in a year if it's allowed to] and if you don't chop it back now then you may well be left with a huge tree that will cost you to keep at a reasonable height. We prune ours down each year, to keep it both at the height we want and the width so that it just sits behind our Sambucus Nigra Black Lace, and shows the foliage off just right. I burn the trimmings once dried out and the smell in the house is lovely.

WestonDave

When I was a kid we had one in our garden planted by a previous owner about 10ft from the rear of the house. We discovered that in strong winds it was whipping the roof of the house, and so in order to avoid damage we eventually had it chopped down completely. Might want to bear that in mind before the gale season hits!

annie123

Your 10 year old tree may or may not regrow upwards after a chop and it certainly won't be as vagarious as the first 5 years of growth.
How much more it will grow depends on your soil, the weather and sunlight.
Are there other trees nearby that could, say in 5 years time, have grown several feet more? if there are, then your tree will grow taller to reach as much sunlight as possible. They will grow to 50' in this country as we have a lot of rain.
30ft is a good height for any tree and if it were mine I'd top it so it put out some lower growth or coppice it, they look lovely coppiced.
If you do decide to chop any of it its best to do it late winter just before spring.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=136

HTH

glasgowdan

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

The whole reason to prune plants is to encourage growth.

ONE reason to prune them is to encourage growth... not the whole reason! Many of my jobs involve pruning back excess growth to thin it out and encourage flowering, not plant growth. Improve air flow and fruiting, improve plant/tree shape, remove dead wood, etc.