Pruning Your Landscaping and Fruit Trees

 Knowing the right time to prune landscape 
trees and fruit trees is a key part of your yearly landscape maintenance. Late winter, at the end of the dormant season is generally the best time to prune most trees and shrubs. When pruning takes place between February and early April, the wounds on the plants are only open for a short time before new growth occurs and begins to seal them. On deciduous plants, it is also easier to see the shape of the branches when they have no leaves. 

While dormant season is the best time for

 pruning most plants, early blooming trees 

 and shrubs, such as ornamental plum, lilac, witch hazel, or cherry, should never be pruned in the dormant season. Instead they should be pruned as soon as they are done blooming in order to promote the new growth that will produce blossoms the following year.

Using the proper equipment is very important when pruning so you don't damage to your plants. Hand pruners are for making cuts up to 3/4 inch in diameter - bypass not anvil shears. Lopping shears are great for cuts of 3/4 to 1 inch. Larger branches should be removed using a hand saw or a chainsaw. 

Be sure to clean your tools often and consider cleaning after each cut to ensure that you aren't passing a possible infection from one tree to the next. Making sure that your blades are sharp will ensure that your cuts are clean and any damage to the tree is minimal. These small things will keep your trees healthier and your job easier. 

Pruning all of the trees in your landscape should not be a scary task. With some instruction, a little patience and a willingness to prune year after year, you can keep your trees healthy and and your fruit trees producing. It is important to follow the guidelines for the particular cultivar. When you start pruning, step back and look at your tree and visualize what the end product may look like. Start with the dead, dying, diseased, and crossed branches. When they are out of the way, you will have a better picture of the starting point of trimming and pruning your fruit trees.

There is a plethora of instruction documents and videos available online and, of course, you can go to your local Extension Office and ask them for help. 

Happy pruning!

Turf/Tree Team Part 2

The Tree and Turf Team has been busy so far this summer. Part 2

Our next site visit was near Greenleaf to help answer the question on why a resident’s spruce tree was showing signs of failing health. What we found was a single spruce tree next to a barn where it was starving for water, which was making the tree unhealthy. That in turn attracted Spruce Beetles which started their slow death of the tree. Look at 3rd photo below where bark is missing, also notice the 4th photo below of a neighbor’s spruce tree with severe beetle damage. We took a small walk around and noticed several more spruce trees in neighborhood with similar signs of beetle damage.

Signs of beetle damage are where the needles on infested trees may turn a pale yellowish-green color and tend to drop to the ground after high winds, but rarely turn rust colored on the tree. Needles typically drop from branches the second summer after the tree has been infested. Boring dust, produced when beetles bore new entry holes, may accumulate in bark crevices and around the base of the tree. Streams of resin along the main trunk are often associated with recently attacked trees.

What can you do to help protect your spruce tree?

• Maintain the health and vigor of trees: The Spruce Bark Beetle prefers to attack weaker trees or ones that have fallen so maintaining the health and vigor of your trees is important. Tree culturing activities such as watering and fertilizing trees early in the growing season will help develop and maintain healthy trees.
• Prune lower branches to retain a fully crowned tree. Topping mature evergreen trees as illustrated in the pruning link, page 6, sets a tree up for disease and damage: Pruning should be done in the fall and the branches removed from the site if disease is present.
• Spray the tree with an insecticide registered for use on spruce trees to prevent Spruce Beetle attacks: This should be done in spring by early May to protect the tree prior to the beetle’s emergence and dispersal flight.

Severe dieback

Spruce tree next to barn

   

Neighbors tree with severe beetle damage

Noticeable beetle damage

           

Spruce beetle impact: from Colorado State forest management

https://csfs.colostate.edu/forest-management/common-forest-insects-diseases/spruce-bark-beetle/

Pruning Your Trees & Shrubs at the Right Time

Knowing the right times to prune trees and shrubs is a key part of your yearly landscape maintenance. Pruning is essential in order to keep your woody ornamentals growing in the desired shape and free of dead limbs. Additionally, certain types of plants will flower more when pruned correctly. It is important to prune consistently every year to avoid allowing undesirable limbs to continue growing.

Late winter, at the end of the dormant season, is generally the best time to prune most trees and shrubs. When pruning takes place between February and early April, the wounds on the plant are only open for a short time before new growth occurs and begins to seal them. On deciduous trees and shrubs, it is also much easier to see the overall shape of the branches when they have no leaves. For many plants, pruning during the spring and summer can promote disease. One example of this is many trees and shrubs in the Rosacea genus, such as crabapples, may suffer from fireblight that is spread through pruning during the growing season.

While dormant season pruning is best for most woody plants, it is not always the best time to prune. Early-blooming trees and shrubs, such as ornamental plum or cherry, blooms on the previous year’s growth. These types of plants should never be pruned in the dormant season if flowers are desired. Instead, they should be pruned as soon as they are done blooming in order to promote the new growth that will produce blossoms the following year.

Hedge shrubs often times need a couple prunings per year to promote uniform, dense foliage. While simply shaping the plant with hedge trimmers is needed to maintain the desired shape, many times this is not enough to achieve a thick layer of foliage. Large, overgrown branches can often lead to bare spots in the hedge. In late winter or early spring, remove approximately one third of the oldest, thickest branches all the way to the ground in order to promote new growth. For severely overgrown deciduous hedges with multiple stems (cane-growth habit), another option is to cut all of the canes down to the ground. The plant may take a year or two to regrow, but this allows for a fresh start to shape the hedge properly.

Using the proper equipment is very important when pruning in order to avoid damage to your plants. Hand pruners may be used to make cuts up to 3/4 inch in diameter. If you can’t make the cut using only one hand on the pruners, you should probably be using a different tool. Lopping shears are the ideal tool for cuts of 3/4 to 1 and 1/2 inches. Larger branches should be removed using a saw or chainsaw. Make sure to take care of your tools by cleaning them after use and sharpening as needed. This will make your job of pruning easier as well as extending the life of the tool.

Source: https://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/trees-shrubs/pruning-trees-shrubs/