I found David Lloyd-Jones Tree Morphogenesis Book 1 Reduction Via Thinning as an Amazon freebie, and was soon drawn into the book despite (or perhaps because of) its density.  The author has spent the last 28 years as an arborist, pruning huge trees in a city setting in London.  In the process, he developed his own theories about how trees grow and how we can prune them in ways that promote their natural growth rather than hinder it.

The author's thesis is that the shape of wild trees is determined by what he calls growth phase shifts.  What's that?  Well, imagine a young tree: due to apical dominance (the highest bud suppressing everyone else's growth), young trees tend to shoot straight up if left alone.  At a certain point, though, something damages that apical bud --- maybe wind, a spring frost, or a midsummer drought.  This is the growth phase shift, when side buds get a chance to grow for a short while, until a new apical bud takes over.  Each growth phase shift results in a complication in the tree's growth form, whether that means a double trunk or simply a larger branch that is able to compete with the central leader for a short time.

From an arborist's point of view, growth phase shifts are important because they tend to create acutely-angled branch forks when two branches compete for the role of central leader.  In contrast, when a tree is growing straight up, branches tend to come off at a more shallow angle since the upward growth of side branches is being suppressed by the central bud.  As orchardists know, acute branch forks are weaker, and Lloyd-Jones goes through a long and fascinating hypothetical account of how evolution may have favored these acute branch angles because those branches snap off during heavy winds rather than taking down the whole tree.

While most of you, like me, probably aren't planning on becoming arborists any time soon, homesteaders spend a lot of time thinking about trees, whether that's fruit trees, trees you're harvesting for firewood, or a woodlot you're managing to create prime lumber.  And even though Lloyd-Jones doesn't speak to those topics specifically, understanding how trees grow will help us all do a better job managing those working trees on our homestead.  Since the price is only $2.99 even if you don't catch the book on sale, you don't have much to lose from giving it a shot.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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