Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Top pruning

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Controlling plant height is always a challenge because shoot growth is stimulated in modem nursery environments (Figure 1). To further aggravate the problem, economics forces nurseries to grow their stock at high densities and so plants want to outgrow their neighbors. Inducing mild stresses helps to slow height growth but this has only limited application. Chemical treatments like paclobutrazol have proven effective with floral crops, but have not found wide application in forest and conservation nurseries. Therefore, many growers resort to top pruning which is also called top mowing or clipping.

Citation

Landis, Thomas D. 2005. Top pruning. In: Dumroese, R. Kasten; Landis, Tom D.; Watson, Rae. Forest Nursery Notes. R6-CP-TP-06-2005. Portland, OR: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, State and Private Forestry, cooperative Programs: 13-16
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/20907