What is going on inside the tree
A tree reads the loss of leaves as an emergency. Buds that were dormant along the trunk and limbs wake up and race to replace the lost leaf surface. The shoots grow fast, are weakly attached, and crowd the crown. They are the opposite of the strong structure good pruning is meant to build.
Utah State University Extension lists sucker growth along the trunk as a later sign of drought stress, so sprouts can follow a dry year as well as a haircut.
The usual causes
Topping is the worst: the cut stubs sprout a thicket of weak stems, and decay enters the wounds. The ISA calls topping perhaps the most harmful pruning practice known. Heavy thinning that opens the crown to sun on the inner limbs does the same. So does removing far more than the roughly 15 to 20 percent of live wood UNR Extension advises for mature trees, covered at how much can be pruned at once.
What helps
Do not respond by cutting every sprout flush to the branch every year. That repeats the injury. An arborist can remove sprouts that are crowding or crossing, and leave a few well-placed ones to rebuild the crown when a limb has been lost. The fix is to stop the cause: lighter pruning, no topping, and regular watering in dry years. See watering mature trees.
Sprouts at the base of a tree are a different thing, called suckers, and some species do this naturally. A cottonwood, willow or black locust will sucker whether or not it was pruned.
Getting it looked at
If a tree has been topped before, the sprouts are only the start; the old stub wounds may be decayed. We can look at it for free and say whether it can be rebuilt. Call 775.232.8243.
Sources
- International Society of Arboriculture, Trees Are Good: Pruning Your Trees (read October 17, 2026)
- University of Nevada, Reno Extension: Getting Started with Backyard Fruit Trees in Northern Nevada (read October 17, 2026)
- Utah State University Extension: Leaf Scorch (read October 17, 2026)