how can i tell what is a good balance between root and the top? is there any way to measure this? or do i just eyeball this? would having much large root then the top give any advantage?

pete

bullet08:

If I remember correctly, Al Tapla had addressed this very question in some of his postings...I think within some root-pruning topics.

Not a very scientific way of paraphrasing, but I think that the top end of the tree will only grow what the root system can support...so the tree keeps itself in balance.

Sorry, I can't give you a link to the Al Tapla explanation.

Frank

frank,

i guess that means i root prune somewhat and the top. the tree itself will grow the top to match the root mass. cool. that makes it easy.

thanks,

pete

I'll add to what Frank said:

When the root pruning is done while the tree is dormant (or otherwise defoliated), the tree will leaf out as the roots can support the top. That is not to say there won't be any impact on the growth of the tree.  The tree will do what it can do with what it's got.

I've bare-rooted, root pruned, and repotted hundreds of trees.  I did not ever prune the top to "balance" the roots.  If I had, in some cases there would have been very little left on top.

~james

The only time it's advantageous to prune tops in an attempt to 'balance' roots & shoots is when A) you're lifting a tree from the landscape & leaving a substantial fraction of the root system in the ground B) when you're doing emergency root work when the tree is in leaf (e.g., when remove rotted roots due to over-watering, or  C) when you have an attractive tree and you want to guard against the possibility that the tree will shed (weak) branches that you need as part of the composition. Essentially, you would be selecting branches to be mechanically shed with a purpose, as opposed to the tree randomly shedding branches it cannot support because of severe root work during dormancy/quiescence.

The plants only source of food is the leaves (except for the tiny bit of photosynthesis that goes on in green bark tissues), so there should be some thought put into removing significant volumes of foliage or wood that supports foliage. The more leaves you have on the plant, the faster roots will regenerate and recover from work. Physiologically, your only concern with balancing lies in trying to gauge if the root volume will support the volume of the canopy, and as James mentioned, if you work on dormant/quiescent trees, the tree will tend to only activate buds as the root system grows into being able to support them, so there is a little respite therein.

Al 

I have to root prune different types each season as they get rotated with root pruning.
I always trim the canopy some after wards.
The one time i forgot several years back with my elder hardy chicago that growing season it dropped 50% of its figs.
Mind you my trees do not drop there figs with exception of Belleclares Kalamata Black which drops them all and i have never had a ripe fig from that tree and my Pastilliere which last season started to hold on to more of them .