Tree Pruning Tutorial

Recent cold temperatures significantly reduce the chance of arboreal disease, so if members or homeowners have young trees now is the time to prune.  The following tutorial, a summarized version of the one crew members received from arborist Julie Stachecki, should help members prune their trees for maximum effect. 

When to Prune?
Timing is important and as stated above, pruning during the dormant season is ideal because of the lack of disease pressure, the visibility of the branching (w/o foliage) and minimal reduction in plant vigor.  For evergreen pruning wait until late winter, the tree will suffer the least amount of setback stress in the spring.  Heavy bleeders (trees with excessive amount of sap i.e. Maples) can be pruned in the summer to avoid a sticky situation. 

Why Prune?
Pruning is done for a variety of reasons including the removal of dead, damaged or diseased branches, size control, structure development and design intent to name a few.  Younger trees which are usually the most vigorous stand to benefit the most from pruning.  When a tree reaches maturity, not only are branches to big or high to correct structural defects but the the tree will not recover as quickly. 

What to Prune?
As alluded to before, remove any dead, damaged or diseased branches to prevent the tree from wasting resources.  Remove water sprouts and suckers (small twig-like branches that are growing straight up from the trunk or branch).  Cross branching, branches that touch, should be removed as they will cause structural integrity problems further down the road.  Co-dominant headers (which will appear as two main trunks) should be removed as well but it is important to pick the straighter of the two headers, and gradually remove limbs off the other header over a period of a couple years before removing this header all together.  On younger trees do not remove more than 25% of the branches.  Unions in the trunk that have more than one branch will cause structural problems in the future as well and should be removed. 

How to Prune?
It is important to have sharp equipment.  Dull saws and pruning shears result in poor quality cuts that do not heal nearly as fast as a precise, clean cut. 
When actually removing limbs, use the two following techniques:

 




The 3 Cut Method ensures that the bark will not tear when removing the limb.  If the bark tears, resources are wasted healing over the exposed tissue and disease pressure increases.








By pruning at the suggested angle, the tree will recover the fastest.  DO NOT make flush cuts. 


















The following photos show a young tree prior to pruning and after. 




After Pruning

Before Pruning

 

On this tree, a co-dominant header was removed, along with branches that joined the trunk at too steep of an angle and unions that held more than 3 branches. 

While this article is not all encompassing, it should be enough to get small tree owners started in the right direction.  Remember to not remove too much material and take a step back and observe the shape of the tree before and after each cut.  If members are interested, a very detailed power point discussing pruning techniques is available upon request.  Enjoy.