diff --git a/internal/restic/find.go b/internal/restic/find.go
index 4d6433d60..c7406d750 100644
--- a/internal/restic/find.go
+++ b/internal/restic/find.go
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import (
 // TreeLoader loads a tree from a repository.
 type TreeLoader interface {
 	LoadTree(context.Context, ID) (*Tree, error)
+	LookupBlobSize(id ID, tpe BlobType) (uint, bool)
 }
 
 // FindUsedBlobs traverses the tree ID and adds all seen blobs (trees and data
diff --git a/internal/restic/find_test.go b/internal/restic/find_test.go
index c599e5fdb..4d9bc5a13 100644
--- a/internal/restic/find_test.go
+++ b/internal/restic/find_test.go
@@ -166,6 +166,10 @@ func (r ForbiddenRepo) LoadTree(ctx context.Context, id restic.ID) (*restic.Tree
 	return nil, errors.New("should not be called")
 }
 
+func (r ForbiddenRepo) LookupBlobSize(id restic.ID, tpe restic.BlobType) (uint, bool) {
+	return 0, false
+}
+
 func TestFindUsedBlobsSkipsSeenBlobs(t *testing.T) {
 	repo, cleanup := repository.TestRepository(t)
 	defer cleanup()
diff --git a/internal/restic/tree_stream.go b/internal/restic/tree_stream.go
index 871ba8998..f6982efc2 100644
--- a/internal/restic/tree_stream.go
+++ b/internal/restic/tree_stream.go
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import (
 	"golang.org/x/sync/errgroup"
 )
 
-const streamTreeParallelism = 5
+const streamTreeParallelism = 6
 
 // TreeItem is used to return either an error or the tree for a tree id
 type TreeItem struct {
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ func loadTreeWorker(ctx context.Context, repo TreeLoader,
 	}
 }
 
-func filterTrees(ctx context.Context, trees IDs, loaderChan chan<- trackedID,
+func filterTrees(ctx context.Context, repo TreeLoader, trees IDs, loaderChan chan<- trackedID, hugeTreeLoaderChan chan<- trackedID,
 	in <-chan trackedTreeItem, out chan<- TreeItem, skip func(tree ID) bool, p *progress.Counter) {
 
 	var (
@@ -78,7 +78,12 @@ func filterTrees(ctx context.Context, trees IDs, loaderChan chan<- trackedID,
 				continue
 			}
 
-			loadCh = loaderChan
+			treeSize, found := repo.LookupBlobSize(nextTreeID.ID, TreeBlob)
+			if found && treeSize > 50*1024*1024 {
+				loadCh = hugeTreeLoaderChan
+			} else {
+				loadCh = loaderChan
+			}
 		}
 
 		if loadCh == nil && outCh == nil && outstandingLoadTreeJobs == 0 {
@@ -152,16 +157,21 @@ func filterTrees(ctx context.Context, trees IDs, loaderChan chan<- trackedID,
 // on the errgroup until all goroutines were stopped.
 func StreamTrees(ctx context.Context, wg *errgroup.Group, repo TreeLoader, trees IDs, skip func(tree ID) bool, p *progress.Counter) <-chan TreeItem {
 	loaderChan := make(chan trackedID)
+	hugeTreeChan := make(chan trackedID, 10)
 	loadedTreeChan := make(chan trackedTreeItem)
 	treeStream := make(chan TreeItem)
 
 	var loadTreeWg sync.WaitGroup
 
 	for i := 0; i < streamTreeParallelism; i++ {
+		workerLoaderChan := loaderChan
+		if i == 0 {
+			workerLoaderChan = hugeTreeChan
+		}
 		loadTreeWg.Add(1)
 		wg.Go(func() error {
 			defer loadTreeWg.Done()
-			loadTreeWorker(ctx, repo, loaderChan, loadedTreeChan)
+			loadTreeWorker(ctx, repo, workerLoaderChan, loadedTreeChan)
 			return nil
 		})
 	}
@@ -175,8 +185,9 @@ func StreamTrees(ctx context.Context, wg *errgroup.Group, repo TreeLoader, trees
 
 	wg.Go(func() error {
 		defer close(loaderChan)
+		defer close(hugeTreeChan)
 		defer close(treeStream)
-		filterTrees(ctx, trees, loaderChan, loadedTreeChan, treeStream, skip, p)
+		filterTrees(ctx, repo, trees, loaderChan, hugeTreeChan, loadedTreeChan, treeStream, skip, p)
 		return nil
 	})
 	return treeStream
diff --git a/internal/walker/walker.go b/internal/walker/walker.go
index e06343ac3..3c8e723a8 100644
--- a/internal/walker/walker.go
+++ b/internal/walker/walker.go
@@ -10,6 +10,11 @@ import (
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/restic"
 )
 
+// TreeLoader loads a tree from a repository.
+type TreeLoader interface {
+	LoadTree(context.Context, restic.ID) (*restic.Tree, error)
+}
+
 // ErrSkipNode is returned by WalkFunc when a dir node should not be walked.
 var ErrSkipNode = errors.New("skip this node")
 
@@ -33,7 +38,7 @@ type WalkFunc func(parentTreeID restic.ID, path string, node *restic.Node, nodeE
 // Walk calls walkFn recursively for each node in root. If walkFn returns an
 // error, it is passed up the call stack. The trees in ignoreTrees are not
 // walked. If walkFn ignores trees, these are added to the set.
-func Walk(ctx context.Context, repo restic.TreeLoader, root restic.ID, ignoreTrees restic.IDSet, walkFn WalkFunc) error {
+func Walk(ctx context.Context, repo TreeLoader, root restic.ID, ignoreTrees restic.IDSet, walkFn WalkFunc) error {
 	tree, err := repo.LoadTree(ctx, root)
 	_, err = walkFn(root, "/", nil, err)
 
@@ -55,7 +60,7 @@ func Walk(ctx context.Context, repo restic.TreeLoader, root restic.ID, ignoreTre
 // walk recursively traverses the tree, ignoring subtrees when the ID of the
 // subtree is in ignoreTrees. If err is nil and ignore is true, the subtree ID
 // will be added to ignoreTrees by walk.
-func walk(ctx context.Context, repo restic.TreeLoader, prefix string, parentTreeID restic.ID, tree *restic.Tree, ignoreTrees restic.IDSet, walkFn WalkFunc) (ignore bool, err error) {
+func walk(ctx context.Context, repo TreeLoader, prefix string, parentTreeID restic.ID, tree *restic.Tree, ignoreTrees restic.IDSet, walkFn WalkFunc) (ignore bool, err error) {
 	var allNodesIgnored = true
 
 	if len(tree.Nodes) == 0 {