Why Is Pruning and General Tree Maintenance Important?
Trees are a precious commodity that require long term planning and a lot of tender loving care. One of the most common procedures when it comes to tree maintenance is tree pruning.
Now, you must understand that forest trees are pruned naturally. However, those that are located in towns, cities and our backyards require a higher level of care to maintain their aesthetics as well as their safety. You shouldn’t prune without understanding how a tree handles each cut. If you’re not pruning correctly, you may affect the tree’s health, and even shorten its lifespan.
Why Should You Prune A Tree?
There is no age limit when it comes to pruning, so you should prune both young and old trees. It will help to develop a stronger structure and to keep a desirable shape.
Also, you should never cut a certain branch without a specific reason. Every cut that you make can seriously impact further growth of the tree.
Health, aesthetics and safety are the most common reasons for tree pruning. Although, if you want to protect your trees from declining, regular maintenance, including tree pruning and trimming, is a must. It will also help to:
- Ensure proper form and structural safety
- Achieve penetration of light and air into the tree’s crown
- Get a healthier and regulated growth of your tree
- Prolong tree’s lifespan
- Improve the overall aesthetic of your tree
- Prevent dangerous growth over your property
- Lower the damage that can be caused by storms
- Increase overall strength
Whatever the reason is, our company can provide a highly professional pruning service.
When Should You Prune?
Basically, you can trim and prune dead, diseased or weak limbs at any time during the year with almost no effect on the tree. However, the tree’s wounds will heal better if you do the pruning before the Spring growth begins
Trees that are susceptible to diseases like oak will wilt and shouldn’t be pruned during the periods when their transmission is active. Diseases can easily be spread through open tree wounds.
If you have a wide variety of different trees on your property, you should know that many of them will require different pruning techniques. That is important in order to keep them healthy and in the best possible condition.
What Are the Most Common Pruning Techniques?
You’ll need specific types of pruning in order to keep your trees healthy and in good shape. Some of them are:
- Overhaul Cleaning — The basic tree care It is used to reduce liability and improve a tree’s health by selectively removing all diseased, dead, and weakly attached parts.
- Crown Thinning — Crown thinning is very important, as it is used to increase the air flow and light penetration while maintaining the tree’s structure and form. If done properly, it will open the crown and allow it to breathe, reduce the weight from heavy limbs and help to retain the natural shape of the tree.
- Crown Raising — Crown raising is used in order to provide clearance for pedestrians, buildings, and vehicles. It is done by removing the lower branches of the tree, and thus raising the overall height of the main crown itself.
- Crown Reduction – is the reduction of the tree’s size, often used for utility line clearance. You can say that it aims to preserve the structural integrity of the tree and the form itself. It’s done by pruning every branch leader all the way to secondary branches that are both large and strong enough to become new branch leaders.
- Pollarding – is a technique that is used to form and control the size of large trees that are growing uncontrollably. Moreover, pollarding is also used if you want to achieve a highly formal look of your trees.
Why Do You Need Tree Maintenance?
Most people usually don’t realise how much regular tree maintenance can be important until they have a tree on their property that starts dying out or causes other problems. That can happen if you have tried to do the maintenance on your own without previous experience or if you’ve let your tree overgrow.
These are the most frequent signs of an improperly-maintained tree:
. If your trees are leaning, bottom-heavy or top-heavy.
. If your trees grow near utility lines.
. If your trees hang over your roof.
. If your trees have signs of disease.
. If your trees have dead or damaged branches.
. If you find mulch that is piled around the base of the tree.
. If your trees are simply too large for their location.
. If your trees block the sunlight from other trees or the undergrowth.
Tree Maintenance from Grasshopper Services
As a full-service tree maintenance company, Grasshopper Services is proud to offer a complete range of services including tree maintenance, tree trimming, tree pruning, tree removal and stump grinding, to keep your landscape in top condition and flourishing for many years to come.