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Qualified Arborists understand
how plant material will respond to specific treatments. Timing depends
on species and the desired result. Most routine pruning can be performed
at any time of year.
Cabling/Bracing:
Involves the installation of threaded steel rod braces and/or
high strength cables to preserve the integrity and natural structure
of trees.
Crown Cleaning:
The removal of dead, dying, diseased, crowded, weakly attached, low vigor branches,
and water sprouts from the tree canopy, shrub or hedge. Crown Cleaning and
Thinning are the most popular APM maintenance procedures. This differs from
crown reduction in that very little of the live crown is removed.
Crown Elevating:
Removes the lowermost branches of a tree in order to provide clearance for
pedestrians, buildings, vehicles or vistas.
Crown Thinning and Restoration:
The selective removal of branches to increase light and air
penetration/circulation throughout the canopy, or to lesson wind
resistance and damage potential from storms. Thinning opens the
foliage of a tree, reduces weight on heavy limbs, distributes ensuing
invigoration throughout a tree and helps restore the tree's natural
shape.
Crown Reduction:
Thins or heads back branches to reduce tree height
and /or spread of the tree canopy by pruning back leaders to lateral branches.
In most trees (exceptions being most apples and some crabapples), this procedure
is only done as a last resort instead of complete removal.
In crown reduction pruning, generally not more than 1/3 of the total area is
removed in a single operation. Crown reduction and deadwood removal have frequently
been done in large Ponderosa and Lodgepole pines close to buildings. This allows
the winds to move through the tree, lessening chances of tree failure. Also,
because more light and air reach the inner portion of the branches the trees
experience less needle loss. Consequently, there is less mess below. We believe
this also enhances the natural shape of the tree.
Reshaping or Shearing:
For hedges or evergreens where a formal, neat compact appearance
is required. Should be started early in the life of a tree or hedge
and repeated at least once per season for hedges and every two
to three years for evergreens, for best results.
Skirting and Thinning:
Various pruning techniques such as skirting and thinning provide a healthy
solution to conserving views without completely removing trees.
Tree Removal (Cutting to Grade):
Means to cut a tree or shrub as close to the ground as possible.
Structural Pruning:
Recommended to improve appearance, maintain space between other
trees, buildings or power lines.
Why Prune?
After pruning watch for the following reaction from your trees.
Increased vigor because pruning effects the trees hormonal balance.
Pruning stimulates the healing of wounds, and redirects the distribution
of nutrients making the leaves a deeper, richer colour.
Eight Good Reasons Not to "Top" Trees
1. Starvation: Good pruning practices rarely remove more than
1/4 to 1/2 of the crown, which in turn does not seriously interfere
with the ability of a tree's leafy crown to manufacture food. Topping
removes so much of the crown that it upsets an older tree's well-developed
crown-to-root ratio and temporarily cuts off it's food making ability.
2. Shock: A tree's crown is like an umbrella that shields much of the tree
from the direct rays of the sun. By suddenly removing this protection, the
remaining bark tissue is so exposed that scalding may result. There may also
be a dramatic effect on neighbouring trees and shrubs. If these thrive in shade
and the shade is removed, poor health or death may result.
3. Insects and Disease: The large stubs of a topped tree have a difficult time
forming callus. The terminal location of these cuts, as well as their large
diameter, prevent the tree's chemically based natural defense system from doing
its job. The stubs are highly vulnerable to insect invasion and the spores
of decay fungi. If decay is already present in the limb, opening the limb will
speed the spread of the disease.
4. Weak Limbs: At best, the wood of a new limb that sprouts after a larger
limb is truncated is more weakly attached than a limb that develops more normally.
If rot exists or develops at the severed end of the limb, the weight of the
sprout makes a bad situation even worse.
5. Rapid New growth: The goal of topping is usually to control the height and
spread of a tree. Actually, it has the opposite effect. The resulting sprouts
(often called water sprouts) are far more numerous than normal new growth and
they elongate so rapidly that the tree returns to its original height in a
very short time - and with a far denser crown.
6. Tree death: Some older trees are more tolerant to topping than others. Beeches,
for example, do not sprout readily after sever pruning and the reduced foliage
most surely will lead to death of the tree.
7. Ugliness: A topped tree is a disfigured tree. Even with this regrowth it
never regains the grace and character of its species. The landscape and the
community are robbed of a valuable asset.
8. Cost: To a worker with a saw, topping a tree is much easier than applying
the skill and judgment of good pruning. Therefore topping may cost less in
the short run. However, the true costs of topping are hidden. These include,
reduced property value, the expense of removal and replacement if the tree
dies, the loss of other trees and shrubs if they succumb to changed light conditions,
the risk of liability from weakened branches, and increased future maintenance.
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