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How To Prune Shade Trees

"As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined." This insightful saying about education also serves as the cardinal principal for pruning trees. How you prune your tree during its first few years will affect its shape, strength, and life span. Proper pruning will save you money and give you safer, healthier, more beautiful, and easier-to-maintain trees.

Keys to good pruning
1. Prune early in the tree's life so pruning wounds are small, but do not start until the third year or so. A new transplant needs its leaves to produce for new growth.
2. Identify the best leader and lateral branches before you begin pruning and remove any defective parts before pruning to form. Try to find and use lateral branches that form "10 o'clock" or "2 o'clock" angles with the trunk. Branches with such angles will have greater strength than those with sharper angles.
3. Keep your pruning tools sharp. One-hand pruning shears with curved blades work best on young trees.

Prune with an eye to the future
As you prune, remember that the branches do not move up the trunk as the tree grows. A branch 5' from the ground now will be 5' off the ground in 10 years -- only thicker and longer than it is now. Try to visualize what a particular branch will look like later, and remove any branches that will cause an obvious problem. Prune shade trees as lightly as possible and only when there is a good reason to prune. Never remove more than one-fourth of a tree's crown in a season.

How to make a pruning cut
Pruning large limbs: large, heave limbs could tear loose during pruning, stripping bark and creating jagged edges that invite insects and disease. That will not happen if you follow these steps.
A) Cut part way through the branch from beneath.
B) Make a second cut on the top of the branch, several inches out from the first cut. This will allow the limb to fall and be safely removed.
C) Make a final cut next to the trunk, just outside the branch collar, with the lower edge farther away from the trunk than at the top.
Pruning smaller limbs: smaller branches should be cut just beyond a lateral bud or another small lateral branch. The ideal cut is sharp and clean, and made on a slight angle.

Pruning in general:

• After the tree is planted - leave branches on during the first year, unless broken.
• By age 3-4 years - prune off water sprouts in the crown, cut off suckers growing from roots or base of trunk, remove one co-dominant leader, thin out branches to reduce competition for light, remove any branches that rub others or are growing in an undesirable direction.
• By age 5-7 years - thin out branches for more even spacing, prune off lower branches to raise crown.
• Double leaders - select a single leader and protect it from competition, remove co-dominant leaders that have crooks or other defects.
• Water sprouts and suckers - as soon as possible, remove these rapidly growing, weakly attached branches that can occur at the base or in the crown.