What to do about leaning trees...

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Active Member
I had a forestry mulcher out earlier in the year to clear out land to release some existing oaks/chinkapins/persimmons. All went well, but now that the trees are fully leafed out, a number of the oaks are leaning over under the weight of the leaves/branches. The trees are anywhere between 15-20ft tall and up to 3 inches in diameter. Being that it was a former pine thicket, all of the trees are thin and straight, with all of the branches/leaves at the top.

On some, I may be able to thin the branches to allow them to go back upright. But the rest I won't be able to do so. I'm thinking it may be best to top them at around six to seven feet and allow them to branch out from there.

Anyone ever done this? Any other suggestions? Being that I already have these established, I'd hate to cut them down and start over.
 
I had that problem years ago. One thing you can do is top the tree about a foot above the lowest branch, and then tie the branch up along the trunk. The root system will quickly regrow the top, like it was never cut.
 
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