Green Horizons

Volume 3, Number 4
Autumn 1998

Leaf removal affects roots

As a rule of thumb, it is a good practice never to prune more than one-third of the branch area of a tree in a single year. Some research indicates that a tree can lose up to 50 percent of its leaf volume before roots are affected. At the 50 percent level of leaf volume removed, the root growth stoppage percent is less than 5 percent. However, when 60 percent of leaf volume is removed, up to 50 percent of the root growth is stopped. At 80 percent leaf removal, there is 100 percent root growth stoppage.