Tree Trimming Tips You Should Know About

Maintaining healthy and beautiful trees in your yard is a vital part of your property’s overall appeal and value. No one wants to gaze out their window on a summer day only to see sad, wilted trees. But taking care of trees requires more than just planting and watering them. To keep your trees healthy and green, you need to keep up with regular tree trimming. Trimming the trees in your yard is essential to ensure that they grow strong and healthy, prevent safety hazards, and maintain their aesthetic appearance to boost your curb appeal. But how do you know how and when to trim your trees? 

In this article, we’ll provide you with tips to help you keep your trees healthy and beautiful all year round. Whether you’ve got the greenest thumb or are a total beginner, these tips will give you the knowledge you need to keep your trees in top shape.

What’s tree trimming?

Trimming your trees is the art of shaping and pruning trees to enhance their beauty, health, and safety. It involves removing dead or diseased branches and shaping the tree to improve its appearance. Think of it like giving your trees a well-deserved haircut! And, unlike the 1985 hair days, trees don’t look great when they grow too wild.

But trimming (aka, “pruning”) isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s also crucial for maintaining the health of your trees and thus, avoiding common tree problems. When you remove damaged or diseased branches, you prevent further damage and promote healthy growth. Plus, you also ensure that out-of-control branches don’t pose a safety risk. As a result, the proper trimming of trees can make your yard a more inviting and relaxing space to enjoy.

Let’s go over a few tree trimming tips so your trees can thrive all year round.

Trim the right branch

Advanced tree care is an art. You can’t just look at any branch that “looks too long” and chop it off haphazardly. Trimming should be limited to dead or dying branches, branches that grow inward or down, and suckers. Incorrect trimming can severely damage the tree’s health by limiting its growth and leaving it vulnerable to infection or common tree diseases. 

How to tell if a branch is dead

To make sure you don’t prematurely trim any branch, you need to be aware of what a dead or dying branch looks like. The first sign of a dead branch is a lack of leaves or buds during the growing season. Dead branches may also appear brittle or discolored, with cracked or peeling bark. Another way to check for dead branches is to perform a scratch test, where you gently scrape the bark with a knife or fingernail. If the underlying tissue is brown or dry, the branch is likely dead. You can also test the flexibility of the branch by bending it slightly – if it snaps easily, it is likely dead.

Find the sweet spot

After selecting the branch you’ll be removing, you need to identify the branch collar, which is the area where the branch connects to the trunk or another branch. This is the sweet spot where you’ll be able to make the healthiest cut while tree trimming. The branch collar may be more noticeable on some trees than others, but it’ll look like a raised ridge, a circular boundary, or an area with thicker bark.

You’ll need to cut the outside of the branch collar is critical to ensure proper healing of the wound. And make sure to avoid damaging the branch collar, as this can prevent the formation of a strong callus. As a result, it can lead to decay in the future.

Cut at the right angle

To ensure proper tree care, you need to have a keen understanding of the exact angle you’ll cut at before selecting which limb or branch to prune. A general rule of thumb for tree trimming is to make a clean cut at a slight angle just outside the branch collar. The branch collar is the raised area where the branch meets the trunk.

If you don’t want to make pruning trees your next summer project, don’t worry– any tree planting service will know how to properly cut dead branches. But, if you’re going to tackle tree pruning on your own, you need to make sure you cut at a downward angle. This will help prevent water from accumulating on the wound. When water pools in and around the wound on the limb or branch it can lead to rotting. Thus, making cuts at a downward angle helps to minimize the chances of water entering and accumulating on the cut. This ensures that your tree will remain healthy and free from damage.

Don’t become a “tree topper”

Tree topping means what it sounds like– cutting the top of a tree off. So, let’s say you’ve just moved into a new home, and the gorgeous tree in your backyard is blocking the view from your bedroom window. You might be inclined to chop the top right off. And sure, this practice works when you bring the Christmas tree home and need to shave off a few inches on top. I mean, how else are you going to place the star on top of the tree without it hitting your ceiling? 

But, tree topping any of the growing trees in your yard is a destructive practice that causes significant distress to trees and makes them more prone to falling over. It involves indiscriminately removing the main trunk of the tree at a random point below its apex to reduce its height. Not only does this harm the tree’s health, but it also leads to branch decay and can ultimately result in the death of the tree. 

Plus, when a tree is topped, it responds by sprouting weakly, suckering branches that are more susceptible to breaking. This will only require more maintenance to control the tree’s size and appearance. Thus, one of the most critical tree trimming tips is to avoid tree topping at all costs.

Don’t trim too much

No matter how excited you are with your new tree-trimming equipment and a summer DIY project in front of you, you need to be careful to not over-trim your trees.

Over-pruning is a serious concern that can cause significant stress to trees and increase their vulnerability to disease, especially during the growing season. This can impede a tree’s future growth and limit its ability to absorb sunlight and produce food. In turn, over-trimming may create entry points for wood-decaying fungi and ultimately cause the tree’s demise. When branches begin to die, it poses a risk to people, homes, and vehicles when the dead branch falls.

Tree trimming at the best time

It’s important to avoid pruning your trees during certain times of the year. Inclement weather, such as strong winds or heavy rain, can make it difficult to handle equipment and perform precise pruning. And pruning a tree heavily during the spring or late summer can both be risky times of the year to trim trees. This is because pruning during these seasons can result in trimming too many branches which starve the tree. Likewise, drought conditions during the summer can put stress on trees, making them less resilient to harsh weather and dry weather. 

While the best time of year to prune trees depends on the specific species of tree and your location, there are a couple of general rules. In most cases, the best time to trim trees is during the dormant season, which is usually in the late fall or winter. During this time, most trees aren’t actively growing, and pruning can promote healthy growth when spring arrives. So, if you’re tree trimming in Minneapolis, you’ll have to bundle up before you prune so you can face the cold Minnesota winter!

In a nutshell

Tree trimming is a key element of tree maintenance that you can’t afford to ignore. To ensure your trees remain healthy and beautiful you can follow the tips we’ve mentioned above. Just remember to always prioritize safety when trimming trees, use the right tools for the job, and never hesitate to seek help from an expert professional if you’re unsure or uncomfortable with the task at hand. 

By practicing our tips, you can keep your trees growing strong while enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal of your landscape. Then, you’ll be able to reap the many benefits your trees will provide for years to come. Happy trimming!