Pruning
Reasons for Pruning
Pruning Techniques
Specific types of pruning may be necessary to maintain a mature tree in a healthy, safe, and attractive condition.
Cleaning is the removal of dead, dying, diseased, weakly attached, and low-vigor branches from the crown of a tree.
Thinning is selective branch removal to improve structure and to increase light penetration and air movement through the crown. Proper thinning opens the foliage of a tree, reduces weight on heavy limbs, and helps retain the tree’s natural shape.
Raising removes the lower branches from a tree to provide clearance for buildings, vehicles, pedestrians, and vistas.
Reduction reduces the size of a tree, often for utility line clearance. Reducing a tree’s height or spread is best accomplished by pruning back the leaders and branch terminals to secondary branches that are large enough to assume the terminal roles (at least one-third the diameter of the cut stem). Compared to topping, reduction helps maintain the form and structural integrity of the tree.
How Much Should Be Pruned?
When to Prune:
- Remove dead branches.
- Improve form.
- Reduce risk of malformation, diseases, and pests.
- Increase light and air penetration to the inside of the tree’s crown or to the landscape below.
- Increase flowering.
Pruning Techniques
Specific types of pruning may be necessary to maintain a mature tree in a healthy, safe, and attractive condition.
Cleaning is the removal of dead, dying, diseased, weakly attached, and low-vigor branches from the crown of a tree.
Thinning is selective branch removal to improve structure and to increase light penetration and air movement through the crown. Proper thinning opens the foliage of a tree, reduces weight on heavy limbs, and helps retain the tree’s natural shape.
Raising removes the lower branches from a tree to provide clearance for buildings, vehicles, pedestrians, and vistas.
Reduction reduces the size of a tree, often for utility line clearance. Reducing a tree’s height or spread is best accomplished by pruning back the leaders and branch terminals to secondary branches that are large enough to assume the terminal roles (at least one-third the diameter of the cut stem). Compared to topping, reduction helps maintain the form and structural integrity of the tree.
How Much Should Be Pruned?
- The amount of live tissue that should be removed depends on the tree’s size, species, and age, as well as the pruning objectives.
- Younger trees tolerate the removal of a higher percentage of living tissue better than mature trees do. Care should be taken to minimizing live branch loss and wound size.
- Poor pruning can cause damage that lasts for the life of the tree. Learn where and how to make the cuts before picking up the pruning tools.
When to Prune:
- Newly planted trees should be prouned only in order to remove dead or broken branches. All other pruning should be withheld until the second or third year.
- DO NOT prune in the Fall unless a specific tree requires it.
- Prune in the winter, after the coldest part has past, to get vigorous burst of new growth in the spring. (Trees and shrubs that flower in mid to late summer should be pruned in winter or early spring.)
- Prune in the summer to direct the growth by slowing the branches you don’t want. Another reason to prune in the summer is to correct the defective limbs.
- Pruning should be done soon after seasonal growth is complete.
Mulching
The generally recommended mulching depth is 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm). Adding this amount of organic mulch can mimic a more natural environment and improve plant health.
Too much mulch can be harmful!
Make sure you leave a space of about 2 inches between the mulch and the trunk of the tree. If the mulch is too close to the tree, the mulch’s moisture will damage the tree.
Benefits of Proper Mulching
Choosing the right mulch and how to add it to the tree can be very important to the health of the trees you plant. Some of the following resources have good information to help you.
Too much mulch can be harmful!
Make sure you leave a space of about 2 inches between the mulch and the trunk of the tree. If the mulch is too close to the tree, the mulch’s moisture will damage the tree.
Benefits of Proper Mulching
- Retains water helping to keep the roots moist.
- Insulates the soil helping to provide a buffer from heat and cold temperatures.
- Improves soil biology, aeration, structure (aggregation of soil particles), and drainage over time.
- Improves soil fertility as certain mulch types decompose.
- Keeps weeds out to help prevent root competition.
- Reduces lawn mower or other lawn care equipment damage.
- Gives the planting beds a uniform and well-cared-for look.
Choosing the right mulch and how to add it to the tree can be very important to the health of the trees you plant. Some of the following resources have good information to help you.