By Sharon Brandwein
What to Do When the Top of Your Tree Dies
06.06.2023 - 17:42 / gardenerspath.com / Gretchen Heber
What to Do When the Top of Your Tree DiesI don’t know if we’re cursed or what, but we’ve had two trees exhibit a strange, disfiguring phenomenon wherein the top part of the trunk — the “leader” — has died, taking with it numerous scaffold branches and leaving an unsightly, shortened trunk surrounded by perfectly healthy branches.
One was a cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia), and the other, a Texas red oak (Quercus buckleyi).
The cedar elm was fairly young, only about 8 feet tall, when its top died. The tree was located in a prominent place on our corner suburban lot, so we dug it up and moved it to our side yard, behind a fence.
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We didn’t hold much hope for it, because after we lopped off the top, all that was left was a crazy array of lateral branches radiating out from what was left of the center trunk.
The red oak was about 10 years old and 40 feet tall when its top died. As large as it was, quite a few large scaffold and lateral branches also became firewood.
Read on to learn more about the fate of our trees!
Common CausesWhat causes the top part of a tree to die? It could be any of a number of things. Let’s examine them in more detail:
Root StressRoot stress is among the most likely causes of the demise of the top of the tree.
“A tree tries to maintain a balance between the top and the underground system,” says Skip Richter, county extension agent in horticulture for Harris County, Texas. “There’s a constant flow both ways. If you lose roots, you’re going to lose something above ground.”
Recent construction near the tree, or soil compaction from other causes, can stress roots. “In suburban environments, we build
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