Tag Archive for: pruning

The Delicate Balance of Tree Pruning: Common Pruning Mistakes To Avoid

Pruning is an important and necessary step in caring for your trees. When you prune correctly, you’ll keep the yard looking polished, protect your property from falling dead branches, and keep your tree healthy for years to come. 

That being said, pruning should be done carefully and thoughtfully! In many cases a professional touch is needed. Not many homeowners realize that it is possible to prune too much or incorrectly. 

Keep reading to learn more about common pruning mistakes you should be aware of and avoid.

Common Pruning Mistakes

  • Open wounds on trees are easy targets of disease and pests. Unprofessional, rushed, or uneven cuts on a tree can leave open marks that invite disease and pests in.
  • Similarly, if a limb is not removed properly it can cause damage to other limbs or even the trunk of the tree as it’s coming down. This increases the risk of tree or property damage, or even worse, personal injury. 
  • Poorly pruned trees are also more likely to get damaged from storms or winds. You want to be sure that your trees are made stronger by pruning, not weaker.
  • Cutting the wrong branches or limbs can actually shorten the lifetime of a tree. If too many healthy branches are removed, this can impact a tree’s access to sunlight and water, making it impossible for the tree to create energy or food. Additionally, over-pruning can trigger a tree’s stress response.
  • Injuring a tree’s bark in the process of pruning is also a common mistake we see. While this isn’t always a big issue, larger wounds to the tree’s bark can kill them.

Have any questions about what pruning your tree wrong can do to them? Feel free to reach out to us by clicking here or by giving us a call at 404-252-6448.

Why Pruning Is Needed for Trees

Trees are absolutely necessary for our happiness and our health. They provide us with much-needed shade, look gorgeous standing tall and strong, and keep our environment livable. But, when we grow trees in our own backyard and they’re left to their own devices, sometimes they can end up growing in a way that is dangerous or unsavory.

That’s why pruning is an essential step for owning and growing trees. If you’re wondering why pruning is needed for trees, keep reading below to learn from the experts at Premier Tree Solutions.

The Benefits of Tree Pruning

Here is a list of some of the benefits of pruning trees:

  • Improves the health of the tree
  • Removes parts of the tree that could be dangerous to you or others
  • Stops the spread of disease
  • Brings out the best features of your trees
  • Builds a great structural foundation for your tree to build grow strong
  • Controls new growth and influences the way the tree grows
  • Improves the aesthetics of the tree, such as how much sunlight comes through the leaves

How to Prune Your Trees Properly

The biggest tip for pruning your tree is to make sure that you don’t trim too much. If you do so, you run the risk of accidentally killing your tree by stripping away too much of what makes it happy and healthy (aka the leaves).

However, there are a few key ways you can trim a tree:

  • Cleaning: This involves trimming away branches that look like they are about to fall off. Simple cuts like this make the tree look tidier.
  • Thinning: Trimming like this means cutting branches all the way back to the trunk, thus thinning the overall look of the tree.
  • Reduction: Want to cut back a tree’s height or weight? This is the method you’ll use.
  • Structural: A combination of multiple types of pruning above.

Overall, the best way to prune your trees is to get professionals to help. At Premier Tree Solutions, we provide expert pruning by our trained crew members, practice spike-less pruning, and conform to ANSI 300 Standards.

Premier Tree Solutions has been providing quality, professional tree services to the metro Atlanta and surrounding areas for more than ten years. If you need any help with any of your tree services needs, including pruning or removal, click here to contact us or give us a call at 404-252-6448.