What causes this tree's never been pruned and it's out of control?
Time, and the absence of a decision. Deadwood accumulates naturally as the lower and interior crown gets shaded out — that is normal, not disease. Weak unions come from species habit (Callery pear, silver maple, and hackberry throw codominant stems freely) plus never having had a central leader selected early. Included bark forms where two stems press together and lay bark between them instead of interlocking wood, so almost no fibers hold the union together — that is the defect behind the classic 'the whole tree split in half' call after a summer storm.
What you'd see
Dead branches held up in the canopy, gray and shedding bark, some of them large; limbs long enough to sweep the ground or the driveway; two or more trunks of similar diameter splitting from one low point, often with a seam of pinched bark between them; sprouts from the base and along the main limbs; a crown wider than the tree is tall with the weight out at the ends; branches crossing and rubbing wounds into each other. Foliage may look vigorous — this is a structure complaint, not a health complaint.
Related
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- Can this tree's never been pruned and it's out of control be fixed without removing the tree?→
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- The bark is falling off my tree — what should I do?→
- Is the bark is falling off my tree an emergency?→
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