Prepare your Yard by Pruning Trees

Every season has a purpose when it comes to yard maintenance and upgrades. Pruning is imperative to preserving the longevity of your shade trees. The areas throughout the canopy of your trees that did not grow new foliage is considered dead wood and needs to be removed in order to encourage new growth.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO PRUNE YOUR TREES?

The important reasons of pruning your trees all result in a better looking and better performing tree. Trees do a great job at growing naturally without pruning; however, this routine landscape maintenance allows your trees to reach their full potential and live a long life.

Simply put, pruning focuses on removing dead, dying and diseased branches, or branches that rub together and any branch stubs so the entire tree continues to grow in a healthy way. Opening up the canopy to let light and air filter throughout the entire tree allows for increased foliage while decreasing the risk of disease. By pruning and trimming trees in specific ways, you can encourage fruiting and flowering, shape plants into specific forms and control plant size.

Pruning is typically done for beautification purposes; you can encourage fruiting and flowering, and shape plants into specific forms and control plant size. On the other hand, for safety reasons and to help prevent weather damage, limbs need to be properly pruned. Dead branches, diseased trees and weak limbs are all a danger to people and property. Too much foliage can result in trees being top heavy and falling over easier in storms, and falling branches may damage a house or plants below.

But in some cases, this growth is too much weight for the trees to handle. there are a lot of low hanging limbs, heavy limbs and limbs that are breaking due to the heavy foliage weight throughout trees.

HOW TO PRUNE

Pruning helps encourage new growth, so you’ll want to be sure to properly cut the limbs to prevent water damage and disease. Cut limbs at a 45 degree angle and ¼ inch above a bud that faces the outside of the plant.

Large, established trees should be left to the professionals to prune; however, ornamental and fruit trees are perfect for homeowners to handle alone using simple tools. As a homeowner, one should practice regular pruning throughout the life of a tree, which reduces the amount of work necessary and the stress on the tree. Pruning a tree a little each year creates a strong and beautiful tree from the very beginning.

Trees should pruned at any signs of damage or decay, although the best time to prune during the year falls in the mid to late winter months. Pruning during these dormancy months encourages new growth as soon as the warmer months arrive.

Be aware that pruning trees in the fall can introduce disease. If it is a warm fall, the new growth could be damaged when the temperatures drop. 

PRO TIP: Pruned limbs can be used to create mulch in a wood chipper, so nothing is left to waste.

Let us help you provide your trees with best start they need for this growing season so they can be beautiful, healthy shade trees throughout the summer.

Schedule the professionals at Pacific Northwest Arborists for a free site visit to ensure that all trees will have the healthiest start of the season.