Trimming and Pruning Your Way to Healthy Trees

by Mike Mussog
Trees are an important part of your landscape. In addition to their beauty, they provide shade, food, oxygen, and if they’re large enough, a place to climb and explore for kids of all ages. If you’re lucky enough to have trees in your yard, you can help them help you by trimming and pruning them. Trimming isn’t only for cleaning up damage from storms but can provide overall benefits that promote strong, healthy growth and extend the life of a tree. Thinning weaker branches provides better air circulation and access to sunlight, removing rubbing branches reduces stress, and eliminating branches that are growing into buildings or power lines helps keep your trees strong and more resistant to disease and damage.

The tools you’ll need depend on the size and location of the branches to be trimmed. Smaller branches near the ground can be handled with garden snips or loppers. Pruning saws are useful for medium-sized branches and there are pole pruning saws and loppers for branches that are higher up. Rope saws are also a good tool for higher-up branches because you can pull on the ropes to prune branches while standing on the ground. For larger branches there are bow saws and chain saws.

You can trim dead branches at anytime, and should trim them as soon as you notice them but live branches are trimmed during the summer or winter, depending on the tree being trimmed and the desired result. (Generally, you shouldn’t trim your trees during the spring or fall.) After the first year of a tree’s life, the earlier you begin pruning, the more influence you’ll have on its shape and health. Flowering trees are best trimmed once their flowers have faded. If you trim them when there are still buds on the branches, you will be cutting off potential blooms. For successful shaping and dwarfing of trees, prune in the summer once the season’s growth has completed, though it may be easier to shape deciduous trees in the winter when their leaves have fallen off and you can see their shape better. Trimming trees in the winter reduces the resultant stress and chances of insects or fungi infections. It also reduces weeping from the wounds that occurs with some trees such as Maples.

When trimming your trees, take precautions to be safe for both yourself and the trees. Trimming too much or incorrectly can cause more damage to a tree than provide help. Care should be taken with larger branches so that they don’t break and tear parts of the tree you want to keep. Trimming of major branches should be limited so that you don’t weaken the tree and promote the growth of slender, less resilient shooters and suckers. Cutting too close to the trunk of the tree or leaving too much of a nub can create entry points for insects and disease. It’s also bad to top a tree, cutting more than a quarter of its crown, because it can cause permanent structural damage to the tree.

Once you’ve trimmed your trees, do not use any sealants on the cuts. Trees will seal on their own, any weeping that may occur is natural and not harmful, and there is some evidence that sealants may do more harm than good in most cases. Most of all, use caution when trimming your trees. If you have any concerns, ask a professional to avoid damage to your trees or yourself. For help and information about trimming and pruning trees, talk to a tree service contractor.

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Article Source: Article Junction Network

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