Dec 9, 2022 3 min read

Tree topping involves cutting off all of a tree’s branches above a certain point, like giving a flat-top or buzz-cut to a person’s hair. Tree topping is also known as heading, stubbing, tipping, lopping, rounding-over and dehorning. People top their trees because they have gotten too large for the place they were planted or because the owner has become afraid of their size.

For years, tree scientists and arborists universally have agreed that tree topping is a harmful practice, so you would think word would have reached practitioners and their customers. But, unfortunately, each spring brings a new crop of buzz-cut trees.

Tree topping is harmful in several ways. First, as you remember from school, photosynthesis is the conversion of light to life-giving energy, which takes place in green leaves. Topping that removes more than 1/4 to 1/3 of a tree’s leafy crown causes the tree to go into starvation mode due to vastly reduced photosynthesis. Second, without the shade of the leafy arbor, the remaining branches and trunk of the tree are left open to sunscald. Third, topping results in large cuts in branches that are slow to heal. Like an open wound in people, these cuts serve as points of entry for viruses, fungi and insects. Infection, starvation and sunscald weaken trees and can even kill them.

In a defensive response to topping, the tree uses already taxed nutrient resources to force rapidly growing shoots or sprouts. Not only is the owner’s effort to limit the tree size now completely undone, but these new shoots of rapid-growth wood are weak and prone to break and fall. The falling branches could harm people, animals or property. A topped tree is a disfigured tree – the landscape is robbed of a valuable asset and beauty. As a final argument against topping, it can cost money. Not only will it cost to pay the tree service to do the topping and haul away the branches, but it also reduces property value and the cost of removing and replacing the topped tree, which has a greater risk of dying.

What are the alternatives? First and foremost, plant only a tree that fits the site, including any power lines, water/sewer lines and buildings. Plant a tree only where it will have room to thrive with its natural growth habit. Second, familiarize yourself with correct pruning practices. You may be able to reduce the height of a tree or shrub with a reduction cut, which involves cutting a larger branch back to a smaller branch that can assume the leader role. You can learn to prune yourself correctly or hire a certified arborist.