If you feel as though your home needs tree trimming, then you might be looking for a professional tree trimming service—one that will know exactly what they’re doing.
After all, your trees are important to you and while you don’t want to spend a fortune, you also don’t want to hire a company that will do something cheap that’s going to damage your tree or even cause it to die.
That’s why you’re looking to understand a bit more about what it involves. You want to make sure that you hire a company that’s doing what it’s supposed to.
First and foremost, you should know that tree trimming and tree pruning aren’t really the same thing—even though the terms are often used interchangeably.
What's the Difference Between Tree Trimming & Pruning?
Trimming is generally talked about in terms of shrubs and hedges and is a service used to tidy their appearance. More specifically, it’s generally talked about in terms of reducing their size and tightening their form.\
Pruning, on the other hand, is performed on trees and shrubs whose health and growth capabilities are greatly improved when infected, dead, and broken branches are cut away with a skillful approach. It has an aesthetic impact, but it’s more than just “cleaning things up.”
While pruning can minimally correct the overall size and shape of a tree, pruning is meant to correct the overall structure and health of the tree—not just chop off growth like most people imagine when they think of trimming a shrub.
Tree pruning is both an art and a science and is a lot more involved than most people realize. We’ll explain a little bit about what you should expect from a professional tree pruning service.
Tree Pruning Techniques
As we mentioned, tree pruning is the process of removing specific branches or stems in order to benefit the tree as a whole.
Before you understand why proper tree pruning is so important, it’s helpful to understand CODIT, or the Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees. This means that trees respond to threats by attempting to grow both internally and externally to compartmentalize an injury or decay.
Keep that definition in mind as we explain the four common tree pruning techniques that may be performed based on your specific needs and give you some insight on why that drives recommendations.
Let’s take a look at each of them and what they entail.
Crown Cleaning
When the objective of tree pruning is crown cleaning, the goal is to identify and remove the dead, dying, and diseased wood. By doing this, you’re aiming to prevent future problems, such as the advancement of decay.
A pruning cut is a purposeful injury, like a surgical incision. Removing a small branch or a limb that has decay in it gives the tree the ability to grow and compartmentalize where the cut was made—assuming it was made in the proper place and at the proper angle. The surgical cut reduces the chance of decay spreading to parts of the tree you can’t afford to lose.
This is why it’s ideal to prune trees while they are young and to prune often. Doing so will give your trees a better chance to fix small problems before they become big ones.
Crown cleaning could be considered the most basic form of tree pruning but is important in maintaining your tree’s health. This tree pruning service is needed every 2 to 5 years.
Crown Thinning
Similar to crown cleaning, crown thinning also aims to identify and remove dead, dying, and diseased wood. But on top of that, this method will also begin to remove some live limbs with the goal of reducing the overall weight of the tree. Crown thinning will remove about 20 to 30 percent of the tree’s growth uniformity.
Crown thinning doesn’t change the overall size and shape of the tree but should produce a uniformed density of foliage around an evenly spaced branch structure. One reason for crown thinning is to reduce wind resistance and in turn, reduce the risk of the tree uprooting in strong winds.
Crown thinning will also improve sunlight filtration. This can be beneficial for a diseased tree that is holding a lot of humidity. Allowing more sunlight to filter through can help dry out the tree. Crown thinning is generally performed on a 3- to 7-year rotation, depending on the species of the tree.
Again, doing this periodically while trees are young will go a long way. It’s also good to prune a branch before it rips and falls during a storm. Crown thinning will help prevent some of these storm damage issues later.
Crown Raising
When crown raising, the objective is to remove lower limbs of the tree and, as the name says, raise the crown. This tree pruning service would be performed for specific purposes, such as if the limbs are hanging over a sidewalk and need to be removed or if the lower limbs are blocking the view of a house and impacting curb appeal.
Crown raising would be performed at the same time as crown thinning if we’re already performing that service.
Crown raising demonstrates why it’s important to prune often, and in particular, when trees are young. You can fix a problem like this early on, when only a small cut is necessary, as opposed to having to make a huge cut on a fully grown tree with massive limbs.
You can still prune trees with larger cuts. It doesn’t mean it will cause your tree to die. It’s just always better as a preventative measure early on.
Crown Reduction
You might think of crown reduction as a combination of the cleaning and thinning services. But whereas those two services do not change the overall size and shape of the tree, the ultimate goal of reduction is reducing the overall height and spread of a tree.
This is a service that would be performed on a tree that is getting too big for the area and needs to be scaled back. But it absolutely must be performed with precision as crown reduction can ultimately kill a tree if too many live limbs are removed.
It’s important not to remove more than 25 percent of growth. Crown reduction is generally performed every other year and is only advised in some species of trees.
The Importance of Proper Tree Pruning
It’s important to note that tree pruning must be done with precision and care. That’s because even receiving just one improper pruning could damage a tree for life. It may not die, but it will absolutely impact its development and structure.
That’s why it’s so critical that you don’t hire the wrong tree pruning service to prune your tree. If they ruin the tree it will negatively impact its value and maybe even create future problems such as increased maintenance or leaving the tree weakened and therefore more susceptible to pests or disease.
A big part of tree pruning is the knowledge and skill to know where to make cuts and it’s important to adhere to stringent guidelines. This is where having an ISA Certified Arborist can really make a big difference in the overall success of your tree pruning.
When a Problem Can’t Be Fixed
While tree pruning can improve the overall health of a tree and therefore prevent (and even fix) a lot of problems, it’s not a magic cure. For one, the right tree has to be planted in the right location in order to truly thrive.
If this is not the case, your tree may never be fully healthy. While pruning can correct some problems due to improper planting for a time, there comes a point where more drastic measures will need to be taken as the tree will never reach optimal health and could even pose future hazards.
At some point, if a tree was planted in a bad location, you may have to remove it.
Choosing a Tree Pruning Service
Now that you understand what a good tree pruning service should be doing, you’ll want to make sure that you choose the best tree care service out there.
One of the biggest factors to look for is extensive training. You want to be sure that whoever is working on your tree knows what to look for and makes smart cuts that benefit the overall health of the tree—doesn’t negatively impact it in any way.
At Joshua Tree, we have 7 ISA Certified Arborists (and more taking the test at the time this was written), which is important as a Certified Arborist is trained to actually be able to identify and diagnose problems. They’ll know exactly where to make cuts to benefit the overall health of the tree.
By choosing the right company, you can rest assured that you’re doing what’s needed to protect your investment in your tree. Instead of causing you future problems, your tree will be on its way to better health.
With the right care for your trees, you’ll gain valuable peace of mind. If you’re interested in having your trees inspected and their health assured, contact us for a free consultation or give us a call at 833-JTE-TREE.
