It is very common for you to make mistakes in tree pruning when you don’t have any knowledge about it. Therefore, hiring experts to perform the same task is always advisable.
You can easily avoid mistakes if you know the techniques involved in the process. Before performing any task, you must understand why you want to trim & prune your trees.
Through training, arborists and aesthetic pruners understand the physical structure of trees and shrubs and their growth patterns. They assess the plant’s general form first, and only those branches that threaten the plant’s health or detract from its overall form and character are removed or modified.
One key to successful pruning is to use as little cutting as possible to get the desired results because every pruning cut causes a wound to the plant.
People who are more into caring for trees and taking proper care of them have knowledge of every technique. So they don’t make any mistakes.
But for the new ones, we have shared some mistakes that must be avoided. Here are some of them. Have a look…
Follow the accurate timing.
There is a proper time to prune the trees, and you should know not to make a mistake.
Winter pruning is good.
When plants and trees become dormant in winter, it is a great time to prune most trees and shrubs. It is not only less stressful for the plant, but it also makes it simpler for you.
You can examine the branch structure and make hazardous infections less likely to spread. Trees are pruned before spring bud break and recover more quickly.
Don’t prune in the fall.
Pruning cuts might encourage new growth, which will regrettably be terminated as soon as it gets below freezing.
As the growing season concludes, trees and shrubs produce less energy. Thus new growth in the fall uses the plant’s energy reserves. The energy utilized for this growth was inefficiently employed because of dieback caused by a freeze.
Cutting leaves, flowers, or buds is not essential.
The leaf and blossom buds a tree has already formed during summer growth may be removed during fall pruning. These buds remain dormant throughout the winter and bloom in the spring after.
The plant will have to expend more energy to generate new buds for foliage if you remove these dormant buds, which increases the likelihood that you may lose springtime blossoms. For instance, it is preferable to do tree pruning and conifers in the late summer before they begin to form buds for the following year.
Follow the proper cutting pattern.
The cutting pattern is always necessary whenever you prune the trees, whether in your yard or a public garden. You must follow these tips-
No flush cutting
Flush cuts are the most common mistakes made by most people. This happens when a branch is cut off flush with the tree trunk’s or a larger branch’s surrounding bark.
A flush cut removes the branch collar, a region of tissue required to establish a seal over the pruning cut, despite the fact that it may appear streamlined and clean. A flush cut prevents pests and pathogens from penetrating the plant and harming or killing it since the plant cannot seal over the incision.
Finding the branch collar—an expanded area surrounding a branch’s base—and cutting just beyond it will help you avoid making a flush cut. The tissue in the branch collar is encouraged to grow over and seal the wound when a pruning cut is made in this area.
If you find it difficult, then contact tree arborists for better results.
Avoid Lion tailing
Lion tailing is when inner branches are cut off, and only the branch ends’ growth and leaves are left. This method is not advised because it:
- Too much foliage is removed.
- Causes the tree’s structure to be compromised by shifting weight to the ends of branches.
- It exposes the crown to wind damage and sunburn.
Sprouts of growth along the trunk and branches in response to stress. These reaction sprouts indicate over-pruning because the tree is trying to produce energy through photosynthesis by quickly producing new growth.
Avoid Heading cuts
Heading cuts, especially on huge branches, are ugly and harmful to the structure.
A heading cut removes the branch’s tip at an arbitrary position or a branch junction, leaving just a little side branch growing in the opposite direction.
An indiscriminate branch point pruning cut encourages the growth of several small, weakly linked branches surrounding the wound that does not follow normal branch growth.
In addition to being unsightly, leaving only a small branch at the end of a large branch heading cut runs the risk of the branch stub being unstable and the little branch growing upward and outward.
These are some common mistakes you must avoid while performing tree pruning.
