While you can correct growth defects once a tree grows, doing so requires heavy corrective trimming, which can cause severe stress. Fortunately, trimming a young tree's lower branches helps prevent these defects and allows the tree to maintain its natural shape.
Municipalities and homeowners often remove the lower limbs for pedestrian and vehicular clearance or to let the sun shine in for grass to grow. Mature trees, especially evergreens, benefit when healthy lower branches are left intact. Removing large limbs can increase the risk of decay.
As the tree grows taller, the lower branches may be removed, keeping desirable branches. As a tree grows, branches do not move farther off the ground. Prune off the low temporary branches gradually, over a course of several years, and before they reach one inch in diameter.
You should only remove 10 to 20 percent of the tree branches from the edge of the canopy. Large trees benefit from removing end portions of limbs between 1 to 4 inches in diameter. Small ornamental landscape trees and fruit trees can be thinned by removing smaller limbs between ¼ to ½ inch thick.
Not using the proper techniques can damage the health of your tree and can even lead to disease or premature death. In general, don't cut too close to the trunk. These cuts are too big and can delay the sealing of the wound. Don't cut too far from the surface of the trunk, either.
An improper cut like a flush cut (cutting too close to the trunk) or a stub cut (cutting too far from the trunk) can cause irreversible damage to a tree. A flush cut removes the branch collar and leaves a large wound in the side of the tree that won't heal properly.
If a tree repeatedly loses too much of its canopy at one time, it can become weak or even die from the stress. That's why you shouldn't trim more than 25% of a tree's canopy at one time. Cutting the branch collar can also be a nasty error.
When pruned properly, removed tree branches will not grow back. Instead, the tree will grow what looks like a callous over the pruning cut, which helps protect the tree from decay and infection.
If desired, prune lower branches to make mowing under them easier and to allow sunlight to reach grass or plantings beneath the tree. You can slowly limb a tree up over a few seasons. Cut off any diseased or damaged branches.
Crown Raising (Fig. 4) Crown raising is the practice of removing branches from the bottom of the crown of a tree to provide clearance for pedestrians, vehicles, buildings, lines of site, or to develop a clear stem for timber production.
Leonardo's rule of trees is a law of nature. The thickness of a tree's branches are equal to the thickness of the trunk they branched from. (If you folded the branches in, it would look like one long trunk.) According to scientists, this helps trees transport sap and withstand wind.
Cut too much and you'll risk nutritional deficiencies or branches that are too weak to tolerate the wind or fend off diseases or insect invasions.
If your tree has a less severe problem, one of the best times to remove trees is during the dormant season, between late winter and early spring. Here's why. Dormant trees are leafless and lighter, so it's much easier for a certified arborist to cut and handle the branches.
Generally, the best time to prune or trim trees and shrubs is during the winter months. From November through March, most trees are dormant which makes it the ideal time for the following reasons: Trees are less susceptible to insects or disease.
If you've got a fruit tree, summer pruning will promotes more blossoms (and more fruit!) the following spring. Fruit will mature better in sunlight, so allowing air and sun to reach the fruit will boost its size and sweetness.
Trees will naturally shed their branches so that their crown is not clogged by a profuse amount of branches. This process typically sees lower branches shed as higher branches occlude the light from the lower ones – this trait is particularly common with Pinus spp.
Once a tree branch has been removed correctly (cut at the branch collar) it will not grow back. You will, however, be encouraged to grow on other parts of the tree. When you remove branches from a tree, the tree responds by using excess reserves it would have otherwise used to feed those branches, to grow new ones.
After a tree is topped, it grows back rapidly in an attempt to replace its missing leaves. Leaves are needed to manufacture food for the tree. Without new leaves, the tree will die. The new branches that sprout up below the cuts will continue to grow quickly until they reach the same size it was before it was topped.
Large scale destruction of trees—deforestation—affects ecosystems, climate, and even increases risk for zoonotic diseases spreading to humans. As the world seeks to slow the pace of climate change, preserve wildlife, and support more than eight billion people, trees inevitably hold a major part of the answer.
Removal of large branches and those more than about half the trunk diameter are more likely to initiate decay than removal of smaller branches. Removing branches with a flush cut can begin a process that leads to trunk decay. Cavities, cracks and hollows can result from removing large branches.
Pruning Methods
Side pruning involves pruning branches growing toward power lines on one side of the tree only. Any tree with a base located 15 feet or more away from the center line of BrightRidge conductors will be side pruned. “L” pruning is practiced when tree limbs cannot be pruned to a suitable lateral.
ALWAYS prune back to or just above a growing point (branch or bud) or to the soil line. NEVER leave a stem or branch stub. NEVER top a tree to “rejuvenate” growth.
Webb said pruning typically involves removing dead or diseased wood and thinning out stems and branches to improve the overall health and appearance of a plant. On the other hand, trimming typically involves cutting back plant material for reasons other than health concerns.
While pruning, avoid cutting too close to the node as it can get damaged. However, don't leave more than 1 cm above the nodes. It can compromise the shape of your plant. While pruning, you need to use good-quality pruning tools.