Silver birch pruning advice

[AlpacaMittens]

Hi everyone!

I have a very large silver birch in my back garden, we bought the house 2 years ago and I don't think the tree has had any maintenance done to it for ages. I'm planning to get a tree surgeon in this year to do some work on it, make sure it's safe, reduce the canopy a bit, etc

I will be very much driven by their professional recommendations, however when I was in the process of getting various quotes the various tree surgeons had different ideas about not only the time of year when this work needs to be done, but also on the work itself.

I have a feeling some are more knowledgeable than others, so I will do more research and make the right choice on who to go with.

If you have a silver birch in your garden, please would you mind sharing some info like how often do you do any maintenance on it, what type of maintenance, how big is your tree etc, what time of year have you had work done on it etc

Such a long post just to say "please tell me stuff about your silver birch" 😅

Many thanks in advance

Our tree surgeons recommended no more than a careful 30% crown reduction, because our initial idea of 'just chop it down to 10ft' would result in it growing back a weird shape.

That would have left it still snagging the phone wires, and in need of an annual trim, so we insisted on going with our radical way. It grew back to a lovely shape and seems none the worse for its experience. I think it was late winter when we had it done.

It was almost the height of the house when we had it chopped.

I have a large Betula jacqemontii (Himalayan birch) in my garden, planted 30 years ago as a sapling. I had the crown reduced about 7/8 years ago in late April, which was cutting it fine time wise as they can bleed sap profusely, and it did bleed for a couple of weeks. It’s recommended to prune in late autumn/early spring while still dormant to prevent sap bleeding.
It looked very ugly for a year or so, then put on much more growth, so is now even larger.
I think I paid a local tree surgeon about £400 at the time.

I’ll post a pic of it which will have to be reviewed before it shows.

Thank you!

Perhaps ask the tree surgeons for examples of other birches they've worked on (and check they actually have qualifications) - and a photo a year on.
I'd do it in the winter and carefully, because birch are quite notorious for not liking their tops chopped off. There are some terrible ones near me.

My parents had a large sliver birch in their garden. Pruned every other year in autumn. Taken down to about the hight of the house each time, with any sideways straying branches that could be a problem to the neighbours removed too!

They need to be pruned during the growing season so they can repair the damage themselves.

What I'd suggest is not to reduce all the branches in height, because if that happens, you will completely lose the beauty of their shape in the winter months when there are no leaves. What the tree surgeon needs to do is remove some branches and leave other, smaller ones to take over. You do not want stumps. Otherwise you will get what can only be described as a poodle. You want the lovely shape retained, just smaller.

My mum pruned a branch when the sap was rising and it bled a lot of sap. They have since had select branches pruned to thin it out and it looks good.

Yes, I've heard that they can sometimes do that in fairly early spring. so this time of year is better. And of course because they are fairly open in structure it is easy to check for any nesting birds before you do anything.

Birches need pruning late summer to mid winter, when the sap flow is slowing otherwise the bleed a lot. Pruning now when already drought stressed is not a good idea. They are best thinned and selected branches removed than hard pruning. You could look for a qualified professional through the Arboricultural Association
https://www.trees.org.uk/Find-a-professional

I have a weeping one in the garden and it has to be trimmed every year. The tree guy I've used for loads of other things showed me what to do (easy and saves quite a lot of money every year). It should only be pruned in late autumn or early winter when it has fully shed its leaves. It regrows no problem and is very healthy (I take off about 3 feet in length every year!)