A Complete Guide to Pruning and Trimming Trees

Trees are of vital importance to human beings. Nurturing and maintaining them helps in reaping enormous benefits in a long run. Pruning and Trimming are two of the most crucial horticulture techniques used for landscaping. These grooming steps help in raising healthy, fruitful, and aesthetically-pleasing trees.

If you are wondering what is pruning and trimming? Here it is! Pruning is the process of selective removal of certain branches of trees to enhance the tree’s health, shape, and beauty. This method of grooming is slightly different from Trimming. Trimming focuses on aesthetics. It involves cutting overgrown branches and foliages to give them shape.

This job is mainly done by arborists who are experts when it comes to the maintenance of trees. But this doesn’t mean you can’t do it on your own. With proper knowledge and equipment, landscaping is a piece of cake.

If you all in for the hard work. Let’s get started!


Why is it important to prune and trim trees?

Here are 7 reasons why you should consider pruning and trimming your trees.

1. Healthy growth of the trees- It is important to train your trees to grow right after planting them. By making strategic cuts in the branches of the tree we stimulate the growth of the tree into a mature one, with a healthier form and sturdy branches.

2. Decrease in risk of disease and pest- Lack of sunlight makes trees vulnerable to pest manifestations and diseases. Creating an opening in the canopy of the tree allows increased penetration of sunlight and air through the branches. This protects the trees by making conditions miserable for the tree pest. You need not give up on the tree because of some bad branches. Cutting off the dead, weak and diseased branches is extremely important because if left unchecked in the initial stages, it will stunt the growth, by taking up the essential nutrients required by other parts of the tree.

3. Manipulate size and shape of trees- Penetration of sunlight through the tree’s lower branches is an important factor for the increase in quantity and quality production of fruits and flowers. With pruning we can lower the height of trees for increased sunlight penetration, thereby, encouraging flowering or fruiting of trees. Reducing the size of the tree from the apex by pruning can result in increased lateral growth of foliage which increases the water and nutrient uptake to the rest of the shoots and buds thus, resulting in a flush of growth. It also gives you chance to control the size, form, and shape of the tree.

4. Eliminates potential safety hazards to people and property- Falling branches are unsafe for your family and property. Trees that have an unbalanced structure may crack and cause damage. Trimming and pruning help in minimizing destruction by dead, weak, and diseased branches.

5. Reduces damage by storms and hurricanes- The probability of unbalanced and heavily branched trees uprooting from the ground is really high. So it is necessary to take care of leaning or heavily branched trees before the storm season.

6. Obstruction of view- Trimming or pruning is done in case your tree is obstructing a path or view of a building. Trees are also pruned if more sunlight is required as in cases where solar panels are installed.

7. Aesthetics- It is an obvious point of importance. Trimming overgrowth of branches and leaves can increase the overall attractiveness of your backyard. Perfectly pruned trees can increase the overall value of your backyard apart from making it inviting and presentable.

What is the ideal time for pruning and trimming trees?

The tree pruning cycle takes from 2–3 years in the case of young trees and 3–5 years in the case of mature trees. These pruning cycles depend on the type, size, and health condition of the trees. You can also ask an expert Arborist to help you figure out the best pruning period.

Sometimes there is a need for emergency pruning and trimming when the safety of a property is at stake or if the overgrowth of branches is obstructing your view or if your tree has weak, dead, or diseased branches.

Pruning is prominently done during the winter season, where the growth of the tree is dormant. It is easier to find specified branches for removal when the tree is bare with little or no leaves. Pruning during winter helps you cut back the 80 % chance of damage by pest infestation. It is said that pruning in winters can flush the growth of foliage and branches to a greater extent in the growing season(spring season).
Trimming is done after winter when you find damaged branches.

Even though summertime is not ideal for pruning dome experienced gardeners and prefer pruning when the trees have reached their full growth. During summers you give shape and size to evergreen trees by reducing the nutrients sent to roots by clearing out most of the leave from the tree’s surface.

Types of tree pruning methods

The crown of the tree needs to be healthy for the rest of the tree to be healthy. This is because the crown is important for producing leaves for photosynthesis.

Crown thinning, crown raising, crown reduction, and crown cleaning are the four important pruning methods. Let us understand them in detail.

1) Crown Thinning: -

In this technique, the branch density is reduced by selective removal of certain branches from the crown area of mature hardwood trees. This increases the penetration of air and light throughout the crown of the trees. Crown thinning helps in the reduction of stress due to climate and pests.

Make sure to prune the branches that only ¾ grow out from those stems. By removing these kinds of stems we can reduce stress due to climatic conditions

While performing thining make sure you don’t so much as to change the shape and size of the tress. Remove about 10–20% of branches

In the case of large trees remove about limbs in 1–4 inches in diameter from the end portion. For small landscape trees and fruit trees, you can remove ¼ to ½ inch thick branches.

2) Crown Raising:-

It is the removal of the lowest branch or preparing it for removal for the future. This method helps to deal with the obstruction of view problem. The bottom tree limbs are removed so as to provide clear sight.

The following practices should be avoided while performing crown raising:-

● Removal of large branches from the trunk should not be done because large wounds can become more extensive and cause long-term biomechanical instability problems.

● Crown raising should not be done on matured hardwood trees.

● If you are doing crown raising on a mature tree, you should not do it on a whole, instead, you can do it on primary and secondary branches.

3) Crown reduction:-

As the name suggests this method has to do with the reduction of branches in the peripheral of the crown. This method is most commonly used on more mature trees; this method prevents the lateral growth tree branch. In the spring seasons, when the tree grows the lateral branch becomes a part of the new crown.

4) Crown cleaning: -

This method helps stop further damage of trees by removal of dead or diseased branches. This removal ensures safety to surrounding people and property.

Recommended Tools

1. Pruning shears (pruners/clippers/secateurs): -This tool comes in handy while removing small growth on trees. With the help of these hand-held cutters, we can cut twigs about three-fourths of an inch thick.

Anvil, bypass, and ratchets are three basic types of pruning shears.

● Anvil: — It consists of a long straight blade. They are used to split branches and stems.

● Bypass: — There are two curved blades in a bypass shear, one of which is sharpened helps in making nice clean cuts in the growing stems. This tool looks like a scissor.

● Ratchets: — These shears have an extra mechanism that makes them easier to cut through branches. It has a latch that lets you release and squeeze again

Out of these three, bypass is the most recommended one by experts. This is because it can give a clean-cut, also it is a lot easier to use and parts are replaceable.

2. Loppers: -They are great for thick branches and stems. It can cut through two and a half inches’ thick branches. These are very similar to hand shears except for the fact that they come with longer handles. These also have an anvil, bypass, and ratchet styles.

3. Pruning Saws: -The most important tool in tree pruning is the pruning saw. It can cut through branches of 1½ to 5 inches.

4. Hedge Shears: — These hedge shrub cutters can cut through 2–4 inch thick branches

5. Pole Pruner: — This pruning tool can reach a height of 8 inches or more and help you get rid of the deadwood in trees. This tool eliminates the need for a ladder to reach higher branches.

Steps in regular pruning.

● Decide about what you want to prune. Whether you want to prune the height or the shape of the tree.

● Evaluate the tree. Take some time and imagine how the tree should look when pruning is done.

● Figure out the skeleton by identifying the main branches of the tree

● Cut off any branch that is dead, or diseased.

● Next up, make the thick branches thin.

● Also, cut off branches that are acting as an obstruction.

● Give the branches some shape according to your wish. But make sure it’s not overdone.

Tips and Tricks

1) While pruning thick branches, make a cut on the underside, then cut off the branch several inches away from the trunk, then precisely remove the stub.

2) Make sure your pruning tools are clean.

3) Use the proper pruning tool

4)You can do pruning on the day you plant the tree.

5)For large trees are not easier to prune so, ask an arborist to prune them for you.

Conclusion

Make sure you have complete knowledge about pruning a particular kind of tree because if you use the wrong methods there is a high chance that you may harm the tree.

Statistically, pruned trees are found to be healthier than unpruned ones. Equipped with the knowledge you can try your hand at pruning and trimming. So this winter, take your pruners and tree trimmers out of hiding and upgrade the trees in your backyard to safe, beautiful, and healthier ones.

This blog is written by the content writers of YashaaGlobal, a digital marketing agency Jacksonville. We think it’s our responsibility to spread awareness about the maintenance of the tree in order to keep it healthy.