Tree of the week

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Good morning. Spring is just around the corner, which means gardening. Accordingly, Pieter Severynen’s ‘Tree of the Week’ is not about a tree this week, but about how to take care of your trees.

Pruning Trees

‘Just like any other subject, pruning isn’t that hard once you understand the principles involved. It also gets easier the more you practice. A tree needs pruning only for specific purposes, such as to remove dead, diseased, damaged or crossing wood or branches; to develop a certain shape (single leader or excurrent, versus open vase shape or decurrent); to develop a strong scaffold or main branch framework when the tree is young; to stimulate new growth in a desired direction; to limit the size; to increase fruit or flower production; or to accentuate character. A good trimmer can prune just about any tree in just about any shape, but that it isn’t necessarily a good thing. You should have a mental picture of what you want to achieve before you start pruning. If there is no convincing reason to prune, the tree is better off without it.

‘The most important shaping is done when the tree is young; the older it gets, the less pruning it needs, provided it was trained well all along. It takes years to train most trees in the desired shape, especially since one can do only so much at one time. When you prune, you wound and you remove some of the reserve food that is stored in the branches and trunk. For that reason, pruning shouldn’t take off more than 25% of the leaves at any one time.

‘It is very important to make the pruning cuts in such a way that the wounds (which should be small) heal fast. Only the tree’s natural healing process works; wound coverings actually do harm. A tree trimmer who doesn’t know where to cut in relation to branch bark ridge and collar, or who leaves branch stubs, takes off too much wood, ‘heads’ the main branches back into bare wood or uses climbing spikes will cause severe damage. Other pruning considerations include tree species, flowering habit and time of year. The ‘Sunset Western Garden Book’ provides some elementary pruning knowledge; Edward Gilman’s ‘An Illustrated Guide to Pruning’ goes into exhaustive detail.’

Thanks, Pieter.
Photo Credit: Amazon.com