Keeping trees on the straight and narrow can yield big dividends

Straight trees are worth money. Because to make furniture, you need to ensure that the tree develops a long, straight, clean length of tree trunk. That requires plenty of TLC from the moment they are planted.

The place on the trunk where the first fork appears is the start of the tree crown.

If the fork occurs a metre above the ground when the tree is two years old, it will still be about a metre off the ground many years later. This would make for a very short saleable length of trunk…

By gradually removing forks as the young tree grows, you can ‘move’ the crown higher up the tree, thereby lengthening the trunk. This process is called ‘formative shaping’.

This simple operation early on may well determine whether you will be selling quality timber or firewood many years later.

And financially, the difference is vast: You will be lucky to get €150 for a cubic metre of kiln-dried hardwood firewood, whereas kiln-dried, premium-grade hardwood timber may sell upwards of €1,500/m3.

The choice is yours.

Process

Keep in mind that formative shaping is very different from high pruning. Formative shaping creates long, straight lengths of timber. High pruning gives you clean, knotfree timber by removing the lower side branches. This process is started later.

There are several reasons why young trees may fork.

The severe night frost we had three weeks ago brought home to me why it is important to leave shaping and pruning until after the middle of June. The frost caused the new young end shoots of trees to die off. This end shoot will be replaced by side shoots, thereby creating a fork.

Other causes of damage to end shoots include exposure, livestock, insects and diseases.

Check your trees regularly for forking. It is much easier (and cheaper) to shape when branches are still light. This will also give you much better results later on.

Trees can be shaped in either summer or winter. See the table below for preferred periods.

It is straightforward work and can be enjoyable, especially on a sunny day. It gives great job satisfaction to see a rapid improvement in tree form. So how do you go about it?

■ Correct forks by removing the weaker (and/or crooked) shoot.

■ Remove exceptionally large side branches.

■ Do not remove light side branches.

■ Don’t remove too much of the foliage, the tree needs its leaves to grow strongly.

■ A correct cut is made just outside the branch collar without leaving a peg (see image).

Shaping should start early once trees are growing vigorously. This usually means when the trees are two to four years old.

It is usually necessary to

Big difference:

Formative shaping creates long, straight lengths of timber, and straight trees are worth a lot more money than forked ones; above right: A correct cut is made just outside the branch collar without leaving a peg carry out more than one shaping.

Use good quality, clean, sharp secateurs.

Loppers and a pruning saw may have to be used if shaping is left very late.

Further detailed information on formative shaping is available from www.teagasc. ie/forestry including a short video.