February Tree Care Tips

Now’s the ideal time to prune, while the trees in your landscape are still dormant. Regular maintenance is important to your tree’s health and longevity, but sometimes it’s difficult to know where to start the pruning process.  That’s when pruning at this time of year, or dormant pruning offers many advantages. Pruning opportunities express themselves more readily due to a lack of leaf cover. 

Begin by noting any obvious problems such as broken, dead and damaged limbs. Look for branches that are crowding or rubbing together, branches growing straight up or straight down and any water shoots emerging from the base of the tree. 

Using a sharp pair of bypass pruners or loppers, cut cleanly at the branch collar. Next, look for any evidence of disease. In the spring of 2018, we experienced an extensive outbreak of fire blight. Many ornamental and orchard trees were affected, including apple, pear, mountain ash and crabapple. 

Once started, it can be a challenge to control fire blight. The most effective approach is a combination of good cultural practices, pruning and the application of topical controls. If your trees exhibited these symptoms, now’s the time to prune out the affected branches. Because the disease is dormant at this time, there is no need to disinfect your pruners between cuts.  Plan to make your pruning cut eight to ten inches below the infected tips. It’s important to avoid removing more than twenty five percent of the tree at any one time. 

For heavily infected trees, this means leaving some blighted branches intact. As soon as the tree sets blossom in the spring, spray with a fire blight control. 

Choose a mild, dry day to do your pruning. Proceed slowly. Don’t try to make up for years of neglect. Pruning, like anything else, gets easier with practice and done consistently, represents a significant influence on the heath of your trees.