If you want to clean up your trees or remove hazardous branches, it’s best to turn to a professional tree company. Pruning may seem like a straightforward endeavor, but you risk simple mistakes that can pose serious consequences for your tree’s health and your property’s safety.
Learn a few common tree pruning mistakes below, then schedule professional tree services in Centennial, CO.
1. Pruning During the Wrong Season
Pruning isn’t a task to perform whenever you have a free hour or two. Instead, you need to wait for the right season.
Pruning a tree during the active growing seasons, typically spring and summer, can place a great amount of stress on it. Trimming tree branches creates wounds for which the tree needs to divert energy to heal. But during the growing season, it is already using a significant amount of energy to produce buds and conduct photosynthesis.
Late winter and early spring are generally the best times to prune, but timing can also depend on the species. It’s best to consult a tree service that understands your trees’ unique needs.
2. Pruning Too Much Canopy at One Time
Over-pruning is another serious mistake to avoid when pruning trees. This involves removing too much of the canopy at one time, which can do more harm than good.
It’s typically best to remove less than one-third of the tree’s canopy at once. Trees rely on their leaves for photosynthesis, and removing too many leaves in one go reduces their ability to produce energy. This makes them more vulnerable to pests and disease, which can kill the tree while it is in this vulnerable state.
For trees that require large amounts of pruning, tree services spread the job out across multiple sessions or even over several years to protect the tree’s health.
3. Pruning Using Dull Shears or Incorrect Methods
One of the risks of incorrect tree pruning practices is creating wounds that the tree has trouble recovering from, causing its health to suffer. Using dull shears is one culprit of this problem, as they can rip the bark rather than creating a clean cut.
You also need to make pruning cuts in the right locations. Cutting a branch too close to the trunk can harm the branch collar, which delays healing. Instead, prune a few inches away from the trunk to bypass the collar and create a wound that heals more easily.
4. Topping the Tree To Reduce Its Height
Finally, one of the biggest mistakes to avoid when pruning trees is “topping,” or removing the uppermost canopy to reduce the tree’s height. This can be detrimental to a tree’s health, and professionals never use this method as a result. If you need to reduce a tree’s size, they can strategically remove branches while preserving the tree’s overall health.
Schedule Professional Tree Pruning for Healthy Growth
If you want to avoid these tree pruning mistakes and protect your trees’ health, Bear Creek Tree Service would be happy to take over this task for you. Check out our guide to pruning tall trees, then request a free estimate by calling 720-299-1409.