Topping Rubber Trees

[guyshown]

Question: My chap that takes care of my trees just told me he wants to "TOP" the trees since they have now reached 3 meters in height.

Has anyone heard of this? To me it just does not seem right; yes I think that it would encourage growth in regards to thickness in the trunk of the tree. Anyone that has advice please don't hesitate to reply.

Thanks in advance

TonyG~

[stoneman]

Question: My chap that takes care of my trees just told me he wants to "TOP" the trees since they have now reached 3 meters in height.

Has anyone heard of this? To me it just does not seem right; yes I think that it would encourage growth in regards to thickness in the trunk of the tree. Anyone that has advice please don't hesitate to reply.

Thanks in advance

TonyG~

Tony..I am certainly not an expert in rubber trees, but we do have 2,000 of them ranging in age from 1 1/2 years to 6 years and we have never "topped" one of them and I have never seem it done anywhere around our area..

Stoneman

[sbk]

Topping trees is generally not healthy for the tree. It forces the tree into a weakened unnatural shape and in heavy, high winds, the misaligned branches snap more easily.

Also, have to point out that in my drives around Southern Thailand and its hectares of rubber plantations, I have never seen a topped rubber tree.

[thaipete]

I have a couple of rubber farms here in SE Thailand and they are everywhere here, My staff one of whom is an agricultural graduate has never hard of topping, my newer farm the trees are less than 3 years old are already over 4 metres.

Are you sure he does not mean cutting off the side branches, this is necessary to allow good cutting

[guyshown]

THANK you all for the response. I wil double check to make sure actually means topping not cutting the side branches. I have ran several landscape companies and topping was used to promote lower growth or more branching, which would not be usefull in this case.

[MudDoc]

I have a small young (2-3 year old trees) rubber plantation down near Klaeng. My wife is friendly with the local temple and they had some monks from the South visiting who came out and showed us that topping was not needed but you do need to trim off excess branches to make the tree as a whole stronger and straighter. Some people around us thought we were crazy, but after 6 months the trees are looking better than any one else around and they are now trimming off their excess branches.

[Lickey]

I have a small young (2-3 year old trees) rubber plantation down near Klaeng. My wife is friendly with the local temple and they had some monks from the South visiting who came out and showed us that topping was not needed but you do need to trim off excess branches to make the tree as a whole stronger and straighter. Some people around us thought we were crazy, but after 6 months the trees are looking better than any one else around and they are now trimming off their excess branches.

Totally agree with you there MudDoc, Sisters rubber treers on our farm were pruned but never topped, now they are 5 years old and out of reach for more pruning, the trees that are inter-cropped with Papaya do recieve water in the dry season and are near 2 mtrs taller than the others, so another point to think about,

Cheers, Lickey.

[thoongfoned]

Question: My chap that takes care of my trees just told me he wants to "TOP" the trees since they have now reached 3 meters in height.

Has anyone heard of this? To me it just does not seem right; yes I think that it would encourage growth in regards to thickness in the trunk of the tree. Anyone that has advice please don't hesitate to reply.

Thanks in advance

TonyG~

hi,

not sure if topping is the right term.

if your three metre trees have not got lateral branches and continue to shoot up and up you could have top heavy crowns when the said trees start to form their first lateral branches. a poorly balanced or heavy crown may induce bending of the trunk and is at the mercy of strong winds.

it is up to you really when you think the trees should start to have their first branches.

if you wanted to induce branching i would surgest you remove the leaf blades of around 10 leaves below the terimal bud, in time this will then lead to a crown developing. i have seen some thai farmers who just pinch out the terminal bud itself, this also works but it can promote the growth of all the buds on the whorl below, this in turn can then lead to to much branching.

if you wanted to

[guyshown]

Thank you all for the comments... It has been usefulll and also comforting to hear not to top. To come to find out it was not topping that he was talking about it is or was pruining to cause lateral growth, what I gather is that the trees are grwoing like weeds but with only the orginal branching from the sapling stage. They are growing straight up.

Thank you all again for the comments.

TonyG~

[chownah]

Thank you all for the comments... It has been usefulll and also comforting to hear not to top. To come to find out it was not topping that he was talking about it is or was pruining to cause lateral growth, what I gather is that the trees are grwoing like weeds but with only the orginal branching from the sapling stage. They are growing straight up.

Thank you all again for the comments.

TonyG~

The way to prune for lateral growth is to top the tree. To top small trees essentially all you have to do is to pinch out the central bud. How high should lateral growth begin on rubber trees? I don't really know anything about rubber trees specifically. I'm just a bit concerned because for SOME plants the central growing bud produces alot of growth hormones and cutting it off will significantly slow the growth rate....I don't know if this is true for trees in general or rubber trees in particular.

Chownah

Edited December 4, 2007 by chownah