Will a shaded tree fill out when released?

meyerske

Member
I have some persimmons that grew on the edge of the woods. On the field side they have many limbs and are productive, but on the woods side where they are crowded out, there are few or no limbs (no surprise here). If I release them and really open them up on the crowded side, will they respond and start growing limbs on that side or is this a waste of time?

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I released several oaks in the same scenario the last couple of yrs. Progress has been slow but I think I'm seeing them fill in. Considering scoring the trunk of the weak side to promote some new limbs.

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I'm not talking about expanding their canopy, I'm talking about actually growing more limbs on the area that was previously shaded out.

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If the trees already have a southern aspect to them and the weak side is on the north side of the tree...AND if the tree is fairly mature I doubt it will fill out much. If the weak side will be exposed to strong sunlight....then you may see more limb development on the weak side....just my opinion.
 
It’ll take slower growing trees quite a while. It’s not a waste of time, but it will take a few years for you to bear the proverbial fruits of your labor.
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Here you can see an oak on the left and a maple on the right with their weak side to the center; there was a much bigger maple that was taken out about 3-4 years ago. There is still an obvious “hole” where the crown of the previous tree shaded the others out. They have not done much to fill the gap, at least not as much as I would have expected.


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After having released over two thousand apple trees I can say that it was well worth the effort. However every apple tree released was different; some responded with great growth within one year while others responded but slowly.
 
I'm not talking about expanding their canopy, I'm talking about actually growing more limbs on the area that was previously shaded out.

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Simply allowing more sunlight on the shaded side of the tree's trunk will do nothing to stimulate branch production. All of that is happening up in the canopy where the growing points are located.

Suckers and branch sprouts are the tree's response to injury. A persimmon can be a prolific producer of root suckers and that's a good indication there might be a chance to induce some new branching by causing some injury. Sounds ominous, I know. A single ax blow just into the cambium layer might do it...but I'm uncertain and what you need to go thru to try this experiment, well, that's up to you. Maybe give the trunk a light wack to see what happens before you go to any great effort.

See catscratch above. He says, "Considering scoring the trunk of the weak side to promote some new limbs."
 
If you want to stimulate limb growth on a persimmon tree, just top the tree. You will get an incredible flush of new limbs. This is what happens when you topwork one. For weeks you have to break off the new unwanted ones that start competing with your scions.
 
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