Dormant Tree Pruning Tips

Dormant tree pruning has two distinct advantages over pruning when trees are active during the growing season. First, it’s easy to assess the general health of your trees because the interior of the tree is visible. In addition, at this time of year most of the tree’s energy is held in their root systems. Pruning now allows the tree to direct all that stored energy into the remaining healthy branches and limbs resulting in a more vigorous growth come spring.  Take advantage of some of these warmer late winter days and walk through your garden, paying particular attention to the crabapple, apple, pear trees and other deciduous trees. At this point, you’re looking for broken branches or limbs, diseased branches, branches and twigs that crisscross or rub against one another as well as odd shaped branches. Removing these twigs, branches and limbs will open the center of the tree allowing more light and air to get through and improve the tree’s overall health and vigor. 

 To accomplish your pruning task safely and effectively, you need a sharp set of pruners, a pair of long handled loppers and for extra high limbs, a telescoping tree saw and pruner. Safety is key in any tree pruning effort which means, if you can’t reach a branch or limb while you’re standing on the ground, you’re better off hiring a professional arborist or garden landscape service. For mature trees, plan to remove no more than one-third of the canopy. For trees that have been planted for five years or less, don’t remove more than twenty percent of the canopy. Start with the obvious candidates: damaged, broken limbs need to come down first. Small twigs and branches can be cut easily with hand pruners or loppers. 

For large branches that need to be removed, invest in a pruning saw and follow the three-step method. Starting about a foot from the main branch make the first cut upwards about half way through the branch. Finish the cut from the top side  down to meet the first cut. This will remove most of the weight of the branch and prevent damage to the main trunk, when the branch falls. The third cut is made downward just outside the collar, where the branch meets the trunk. 

Next look for water sprouts and sucker shoots. These are easy to identify because they tend to grow straight up. Sucker shoots originate from the base of the tree. Water sprouts spring up from a branch. Water sprouts and water suckers are signs of stress. They’re indicators of root or trunk damage, poor soil conditions or inadequate levels of  moisture, light or nutrients.

With crabapple, apple, pear trees we’re also looking for signs of fire blight. Fire blight gets its name from the burnt appearance of blossoms and branches. The flowers will turn brown and small branches and fruit will shrivel up and blacken. Fire blight is a bacterial disease, spread by wind, rain, snow or insect activity and occurs while the tree is in bloom. Now’s the time to remove these branches, while the bacteria is dormant. Another advantage of dormant pruning fire blight now is you don’t have to disinfect your pruners between cuts, as you must do during spring and summer pruning. With any of this information, if you’re not sure what to prune or which tool to use, stop in and see us. We’ll help you.