Some trees when lopped severley, or at the wrong time of year, may never recover and die.
The remaining end of the stub will not callus over and the exposed tissue will be vulnerable to decay and rotting caused by fungi, bacteria, insects, water and sunscald. The stubs become pathways for pathogens to enter and spread into the part of the tree to where they're attached.

Lopped trees try to replace their lost foliage by growing "Epicormic shoots" from various parts of their remaining structure - especially the stub ends. The Epicormic shoots only grow from the outer most living tissue layer of that year's growth, they are weakly attached and prone to falling out or breaking off, especially when they arise from the stub ends.

Epicormic shoots are extremely vigorous and quick growing. They may even out grow the original height and spread of the tree.

Our experience also reveals that after a few years many trees develop a cavity in the base which progresses up the trunk, usually followed by termites. The reason for this is that trees have foliage/root ratio and when the canopy is removed (lopped), the tree responds by losing some of the roots through decay and it is usually the roots closest to the trunk.

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