Balance Issues
Rock N Rose Landscapers asked me to fix their client’s crazy, off-balance tree.
The mayten tree (Maytenus boraria, from Chile) tolerates heavy pruning. The more you prune, the more they grow.
In San Francisco, I see this tree get drastically reduced in size just to bounce right back a year later. So I know from experience that removing this much of the tree will not cause irreparable harm.
WARNING! Don’t be fooled. Some tree trimmers head each limb until there is barely any green left. Some people mistakenly think this is acceptable. They may even call it pollarding. It is neither. It is topping. It is not good for the long term health of the tree. I’ll insert a picture of this style of pruning the next time I see it.
In this case, the large unbalanced lateral branch had become the dominant leader. Left unchecked it would eventually break. It is best to take care of these structural issues early on, before they get so out of hand.
