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Keys to Good Tree Pruning
| The following information is provided to assist you in the pruning of low hanging tree branches that may be interfering with pedestrian traffic or trees located in your backyard: |
- Prune early in the life of the tree so pruning wounds are small and so growth goes where you want it.
- Begin your visual inspection at the top of the tree and work downward.
- Identify the best leader and lateral branches (scaffold limbs) before you begin pruning and remove defective parts before pruning for form.
- Don't worry about protecting pruning cuts. For aesthetics, you may feel better painting larger wounds with a neutral-color tree paint, but the evidence is that it does not prevent or reduce decay.
- Keep your tools sharp. One-hand pruning shears with curved blades (secateurs) work best on young trees.
- Make safety a number one priority. For high branches use a pole pruner. Some, like the one pictured at right, have both a saw and shears on the same tool.
You may reserve and borrow a pole saw at no charge from the Stockton Tree Division. A major job on a big tree should be done by a professional arborist.
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- When you prune back to the trunk or a larger limb, branches too small to have formed a collar (swollen area at base) should be cut close. Notice in the drawing of the pruning shears (above) that the cutting blade is cutting upward for less effort and a close cut. Otherwise, follow the rules of good pruning of larger limbs by cutting just outside the branch ridge and collar and at a slight down-and-outward angle (so as not to injure the collar). Do not leave a protruding stub.
- When simply shortening a small branch, make the cut at a lateral bud or another lateral branch (referred to as "head" or "headback pruning".) Favor a bud that will produce a branch that will grow in a desired direction (usually outward). The cut should be sharp and clean, and made at a slight angle about 1/4 inch beyond the bud.
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6 E.Lindsay St.