Open AccessBranch Union Morphology Affects Decay Following Pruning
Author(s) -
Edward Gilman,
Jason Grabosky
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
arboriculture and urban forestry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 2155-0778
pISSN - 1935-5297
DOI - 10.48044/jauf.2006.010
Subject(s) - pruning , trunk , seedling , bark (sound) , horticulture , botany , maple , morphology (biology) , biology , ecology , paleontology
Branch diameter relative to the trunk diameter (aspect ratio) affected the extent of discolored and decayed wood in the trunk of seedling-propagated red maple (Acer rubrum L.) after branch removal. More discoloration resulted from removing codominant stems than removing branches that were small compared to the trunk. Removing limbs that originated from lateral buds resulted in the same amount of discoloration and decay as removing suppressed limbs that were once the leader. This result provides indirect evidence that a small codominant stem suppressed by pruning techniques designed to slow its growth rate can result in a branch protection zone at the union. There was no relation between the presence of a bark inclusion and decay 4 years after making pruning cuts.