How does an american sweetgum hold up in a storm?
This is one of the better ice performers in the Midwest — sweetgum lands on the resistant side of ice-susceptibility rankings alongside black walnut, hickory, and Kentucky coffeetree, because the branch attachments are strong and the crown is upright rather than broad. When one does fail, the cause is usually decay behind an old topping cut, a codominant stem with included bark, or the whole root plate letting go in saturated clay during a wind event — not routine limb shedding.
What pruning can and can't prevent
Prune in dormancy, late fall through winter, and prune early — sweetgum holds a strong central leader if you keep one, and the classic mistake is leaving a codominant fork in a young tree that has to be cabled at 50 feet. The species-specific trap is chemical fruit control: growth-regulator sprays for gumballs have to hit a narrow window at full bloom, results vary year to year, and they should never be sold as a permanent fix on a tree that is coming out anyway.
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