You probably know from numerous other plants that growth or flowering can be significantly increased by cutting back the plant from time to time. This is usually not necessary for sequoia trees. However, offcuts serve some special purposes. You can find out why cutting the sequoia can be useful here.
Why and when should you prune a sequoia tree?
A sequoia tree can be promoted or inhibited in growth through targeted cutting. When thinning out, you remove densely growing and crossing branches, while when stunting growth, only shoot tips are trimmed. The ideal time for cutting is in spring.
What is an offcut used for?
By pruning your sequoia tree
- promote growth by thinning the crown
- inhibit growth by selectively removing shoots
Thinning out the sequoia tree
Thinning out makes sense when branches are too close together and interfere with each other. You should also remove branches with brown needles regularly.
Inhibiting growth
After you put your Sequoia outside in the ground, its height will increase rapidly. For reasons of space or visual requirements, cutting back individual shoots can prevent the growth height from exceeding your expectations. It is particularly advisable to control growth when kept in containers.
The right technique
You have to keep this in mind when thinning:
- remove any branches that grow close inside
- remove any branches that cross each other
- cut the branches so that no residue remains
This is what you need to consider to slow down growth:
prune only the tips of the branches
The right time
Ideally, you should do the cutting in spring. Young shoots then form, which are particularly easy to remove. If necessary, you can also use hedge trimmers later in the year. Cutting a sequoia tree is possible until October.
Tip
You can get cutting tools with telescopic arms from specialist retailers (€115.00 at Amazon). These are suitable for particularly tall plants such as the Sequoia genus.
Tip for propagation
The young shoots and cuttings that you remove when cutting can be planted in a nursery container to propagate your sequoia tree.
