Understanding how to prune your New England trees is important when it comes to ensuring that you are promoting their good health and longevity. The age of the trees that you’re pruning can make a difference in what’s required.
In this article, we’ll dive into some of the differences of pruning young trees vs. pruning mature trees. We’ll also share helpful advice on what’s involved in pruning that should help you have a better understanding of this service.
At the end of the day, we want to be your helpful guide when it comes to caring for your property’s trees.
What is Tree Pruning All About?
Before we get into more specifics on pruning young trees vs. pruning mature trees, let’s talk about what pruning is and why it’s important. We know that people often think of pruning as an aesthetic service (and that’s definitely a component of it), but there’s much more to it than that.
Tree pruning is the process of removing specific branches in order to benefit the tree as a whole. It involves making strategic cuts to remove diseased, dead, or dying wood.
Doing this helps to improve the tree's overall health and well-being. When the undesired wood is removed, it allows the tree to put its energy into healthy growth (instead of trying to repair the damaged wood).
The benefits of tree pruning include:
- Overall structural improvement
- Preventing the spread of disease
- Eliminating safety hazards and risk
- Encouraging healthier growth
- Enhanced longevity and overall appearance of the tree
There’s often a lot more to tree pruning than people tend to realize. Knowing how and when to prune trees can make a difference in the results.
How to Prune a Young Tree
When thinking about pruning, it’s important to keep in mind that you’re still causing an “injury” to the tree. A pruning cut is a purposeful injury (much like a surgical incision). Removing a small branch that has some decay in order to give the tree a chance to compartmentalize where that cut was made, is beneficial to the tree as a whole…even though you are injuring it.
When you prune properly and make a clean cut, you help reduce the chance that the decay will spread to other parts of the tree.
When a tree is young, you have a unique opportunity to fix small problems before they become big ones. Carefully removing a diseased branch early on will give the tree plenty of time to heal as it grows.
But young trees often don’t have much wrong with them. You have to be particularly careful that you don’t prune too much and harm the tree. Young trees are also fragile.
Often, pruning young trees is just a little bit of light clean-up. It’s usually not until a tree is about 2 or 3 years old and established that it requires some heavier and more regular pruning services.
Different tree species will be considered “established” at different ages, so it also depends on what type of tree you have.
Pruning Mature Trees
As you move into mature tree pruning, the service can become a bit more involved. The goal is still to remove diseased, dead, or dying wood. But there are other goals that might be part of your pruning efforts as well.
People don’t always realize that there are different tree pruning techniques that can be used depending on what your goal is for your trees and what’s already going on with them.
When you work with a tree care expert, you can ensure that the proper tree pruning techniques are being used on your property.
At Seacoast, here are four tree-pruning techniques that we commonly use.
- Crown Cleaning: With crown cleaning, the goal is to identify the dying, dead, or diseased branches and remove them. This prevents future problems including the spread of decay. This is considered one of the most basic and common forms of tree pruning and it serves a very vital purpose.
- Crown Thinning: This is similar to crown cleaning in that we are still removing dying, dead, or diseased branches, however, on top of that, this tree pruning method also aims to reduce the weight of the tree. That means that some strategically-selected live limbs may also be removed. One reason to perform crown thinning is to improve sunlight filtration. It can also reduce the risk of the tree uprooting during a storm.
- Crown Raising: During crown raising, our goal is to remove lower limbs. This is very purposeful if lower limbs are causing problems. When crown raising is performed on a younger tree, you can prevent a lower limb from becoming a problem in the first place (such as hanging over a sidewalk or street).
- Crown Reduction: This is essentially a combination of thinning and cleaning, however, the goal is to reduce the overall height and spread of the tree. This would be a tree pruning method needed if the tree is getting too big for the area where it’s planted and needs to be scaled back.
A tree care professional can talk to you about your goals for your property and also recommend what might be best for your specific trees and their needs.
How to Choose The Best Tree Care Company For Your Needs
At the end of the day, making the best pruning decisions for your trees boils down to working with a tree care professional that you trust.
While there are obviously plenty of companies offering this service, you want to choose the best tree care service out there.
Here are some things to look for:
- Companies that employ Certified Arborists, as these will be the top experts in the field. You want to make sure that whoever is working on your property’s trees actually knows how to make the right cuts in a way that will benefit the health of the tree.
- Seek out tree pruning companies that are focused on tree service work (and it’s not just an “add-on” service). There are a lot of companies that can be “jack of all trades.” But that means they may be a master of none.
- Look for companies with the proper insurance coverage. Tree work, like pruning, can be risky. That’s why it’s really important to hire a tree pruning company that is properly insured. It’s important that any company doing tree work on your property has adequate liability insurance so that you are not liable if an accident were ever to occur.
Choose Seacoast for Tree Care Services in Southern NH, Northeastern Massachusetts, and Southern Maine
At Seacoast Tree Care, we take the work that we do quite seriously. We started our business with the belief that we are here to care for and protect trees whenever we can. However, when they do have to come down, it’s absolutely critical that it’s done right.
We are committed to preserving trees in the New England area by performing vital services like tree pruning, the right way.
Ready for safer and healthier trees at your Southern NH, Maine, or Northeastern Massachusetts home? Request your consultation and get a free quote for tree pruning services. We service properties in and around Stratham, NH, Kittery, ME, and Haverhill, MA. By making a wise choice, you’ll know your trees are in good hands.
