How to prune evergreen oak for shaping

tomoshea

Hi looking for some advice please, have tried an internet search and cannot find anything of substance.

I have 11 holm oak between 4 and 5 meters tall, clear to about 2 meters high, planted April 2014, all thriving bar one, which we nearly lost last year... shed almost every leaf, but has survived thankfully. I posted about this tree last year.

I need 4 of the trees to reach 6 meters and the remainder to stay at about 4.5 meters. I want to encourage hedge formation for screening purposes.

I have seen these trees looking really well shaped and dense in some locations around Dublin.

I need to understand how to best encourage side growth on the existing branch network to generate the density of leaves.

Has anyone come across relevant materials on the web, or is there someone in the Wicklow area that might be able to provide some guidance.

Thanking you in advance

Greengage · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 6:50 pm Post subject:

Don't understand, side growth, front side or back side or side.
Just prune them in July/August both front and back and leave sides alone they will grow into each other, if they have clear stem are you trying to create pleached effect.

Good guy · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:14 pm Post subject:

Like Greengage says: pruning, which removes the growing tip of the shoot, encourages new growth back down the stem

tomoshea · Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2016 4:40 pm Post subject:

Good guy · Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:15 pm Post subject:

Hopefully that will do the trick.

tippben · Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 3:57 pm Post subject:

If they've lost leaves internally, it's a root problem. Either the top of their root system is not at surface level, or they have suffered drought shock. Both will cause the symptoms you describe, as a result of root death. As others have said, the best way to prune is by "tipping out" every twig. Perhaps training some inwards. You'd need a very well established root system before pruning back to bare branches.