I'll readily admit that I tend to be self-taught about most things related to my work and the rest of life since back in the day. I never quite fit into school the way I wanted since formality, regimen, being part of a group, standardization, taking tests, sitting at desks, having weird classmates and things like that were never all that fun for me. I seemed to do best to have seeds planted in whatever way they would be, and go off on my own with discovering how to do things in various ways, outside a classroom. Since the days of the internet, education has been a double-edged sword. Tons more information available than ever before, and immediate access. There's plenty of places for debate and Q&A, too. Problem is, so much of what's out there is just plain wrong, or very bad opinion. So you really need to be able to sort it all out.
However, it's very hard to be certified, accredited, licensed, and so forth without going through courses about this or that. Much of my main profession (construction) doesn't really require such formality. But in the world of tree management, there are certain instances where you either can't get work, or get the work you want without the esteem of going through the schoolin'.
There happens to be an aesthetic pruning course at Merritt College in Oakland, not far from my house. This is one of very few around the country, and maybe the only one, dedicated to this. Since there are billions of trees, it's needed. Just like how there's not nearly enough access to education about construction, my other full-time passion.
I enrolled in these classes. I believe there are 14 classes required within the realm of certification. Rather than the normal system of needing to take all the classes in a course in order to be legit, each class is more or less stand-alone, but all would be needed to actually become certified. There are another 5 or 6 classes that are more specific to this or that, and not part of the required classes. I know some hobbyists and homeowners may want to take a specific class or two without the goal of certification.
OK. So the first class was an introduction. This covered the history of pruning, which was very interesting. I'll probably delve into this more and write another post about this. We then went through the biology and science, and then the specifics of pruning, lightly touching on the basics. The instructor was engaging and very passionate about trees. His interest goes way beyond pruning, into such things as how the interaction with trees led to human civilization, how trees affect our lives in health and mind, how we view trees, how trees have a mechanism for communicating chemically between themselves and how they respond to their surroundings as if they have a brain, and some other areas of interest. We covered how good pruning is every bit as much about art as about health and safety and survival.
I gained a lot of knowledge that isn't easy to happen across from books and web-browsing. Things you can only get when you talk to people that have been around a while. It's easy to ask a question that might be hard to phrase or categorize, and rather than trying to figure out how to arrive at the answer, the instructor is immediately available. From there, you can go off and explore more about the subject at hand.
The second class delved more into pruning how, why an when, specifically about deciduous trees, with some crossover into all plants. There was a bit more science and biology, and a lot of anecdotal experience, which was shared between the instructor and the students. One instance of this is how we learned that cherry trees don't hide their wounds well at all and nasty scars are hard to avoid, so good and frequent pruning these is even more critical than for most trees. I know from experience that cherry trees can look really bad after getting years of mistreatment, but this explanation put it all in perspective. Learning about the peculiarities about a number of specific species is invaluable, and not always very easy to find on your own.
If I were to summarize the classes so far, I would say that everything covered so far is on target with what I've been doing all along, and more of a reinforcement than a revelation. As the teacher and I were discussing during some off time, the more you learn, the more you realize what you don't know and want to learn more about, as is true with any level of expertise in any profession or area of knowledge. The word "expert" is something that people need to be careful to use, since it's not set in stone. I supose the very best of the best in any field would be considered experts, but that absolutely doen't mean that their knowledge won't advance or even change direction as things evolve. The medical industry evolves in such a way. Experts from 50 years ago would be wy outside their league today. Most other industries are similar that way. And just cuz the world of horticulture includes trees and plants that haven't changed much in thousands or millions of years, the understanding does, as does the list of diseases and such, requiring constand updating. So I would call this instructor an expert based on what I experienced, and probably one of the best maybe dozen or so pruners in the state. He may actually dispute this, since actual experts are usually hesitant to call themselves such. He might mention that there are Japanese pruning experts that have been doing this for 70 years, and are truly the best. That may be the case, but I maintain that much of the Japanese method of learning is too involved in tradition, often losing sight of the evolution of the subject. And not to get off topic too much, but Japanese pruning is considered the premier method of pruning, though that certainly doesn't mean they do eveything right and everything else is a step down.
I can't think of anything we learned that is a contradiction of what I've been practicing, but rather a deeper understanding and refinement, along with some stories that increase the interest of this or that. I haven't yet felt any tedium in the class, or that it's just not for me.
So if you're in the SF Bay Area, and want to learn more about pruning or appreciating trees and shrubs, this is possibly the best way to do it. Classes are eaily accessible without red tape and reams of paperwork. The cost is affordable. They're interesting and fun, and the first instructor is a pleasure. I would guess that the other instructors teaching the remaining classes will also be enjoyable. I'll find out in a couple weeks.
Be a Tree Dawg Knight!
Showing posts with label aesthetic pruning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aesthetic pruning. Show all posts
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Cutting Up: Pruning Cuts, Reasons and Exceptions
If you get the hankering to study pruning to any extent, you'll find that the opinions are diverse and contradictory. Using logic helps much of the time, but much of the time the science doesn't seem intuitive, as biology often exemplifies.
There are certainly many cases where the rules apply almost absolutely, but there are almost always some exceptions, so the words "never" and "always" have to be carefully regarded. There are certain situations where you have to break a rule for the better good, just like if you have to break into someone's home if it's on fire to save their baby, or drive over the speed limit to outrun a racing tornado.
You first need to understand that much of the information out there is dumbed down. Those who write or teach realize that very few people will get a comprehensive education, so they make it as simple as they can with some rules to follow. Better safe than sorry. But most of the time, the finer points are missed or just disregarded. If you're one of those that just shrugs your shoulders, it's really best to find someone who knows what they're doing. Once they do what they need to do, then maybe you can do maintenance following their examples. If your tree hasn't been touched in years, or has been badly pruned, like most trees have, just once, hire an aesthetic pruner who knows what to do. Well worth it.
TYPES OF CUTS
Generally, you hear about only two types of pruning cuts, thinning and heading. Well, it's more complicated than that. Let's go on.....
THINNING is a type of cut where you remove a whole branch. Can be a huge branch or a tiny branch. It can be removed to a larger or parent branch, or to the trunk.
This is almost always the preferred cut. Confusion abounds, where people think that thinning means taking a lot of branches out of the middle of the tree and leaving almost all the branches except for the bare minimum major branches, at the very fringes of the tree. This is wrong. I'll explain why a bit later.
HEADING is generally the other cut you hear about. This is basically when you just cut off the end of a branch or tip of the trunk or main vertical leader. With anything bigger than a fraction of an inch, these cuts usually look terrible and are ill-advised. But once in a while, they're the best option or necessary. In most trees, if you make a heading cut, the end becomes blunt and stays that way, unless a new branch sprouts from that point. It may or may not depending on the situation. And if it does, it may go off in a weird direction that won't look good. HOWEVER, if you prune roses, pruning is generally made up of a bunch of heading cuts. In most trees, heading cuts are almost always avoidable if you follow a yearly proper pruning regimen and never let things get too far.
RE-LEADERING is a term you'll rarely see, and is generally reserved for those who know their stuff. Consider it a combination heading and thinning cut, from which you'll train a new leader or growing tip. This is done all the time in bonsai, but in landscape trees it has to be carefully considered. HOWEVER, if a branch is growing lengthy and lanky, and you want to promote tapering or side branching (ramification), cutting the tip back to a smaller branch or bud that's heading in the right direction would be smart. In reality re-leadering more like thinning, but back to a branch that either doesn't really exist yet or doesn't quite have enough oomph, even though you know it's there waiting to do its thing.
I use this technique a lot, since I'm very big on proportion and tapering, and re-leadering is frequently the only way to get there. Since apical dominance is so powerful, sometimes a branch wants to head straight out and never look back. This conflicts with creating important side branching and can weaken the branch and mess up the proportions. With re-leadering, you want to avoid cutting anything larger than about 1/2" in most cases, but you need to know what the results will be in any situation. If it's a huge tree, maybe a bit bigger, say up to an inch or more, and on small trees, maybe 1/4" is a bit too big. In any case, it's usually smart not to cut back to anything less than 1/3 the diameter of what you're removing. And it's also best to avoid taking off more than 25% of a given branch, since taking more than that can sometimes lead to die-off, since what's left doesn't have enough vigor, or it can sprout profusely since that removed energy has to go somewhere.
It's best to take out branches before they get to be no larger than about 2" in diameter, since above that thickness requires much more time to callous over. We're very careful not to use the word "heal", since unlike human skin that eventually becomes just like the original in most cases, think of a branch wound as an injury that remains either an open wound or a scab FOREVER. Trees are very susceptible to rotting within the branch column under certain conditions. The larger the wound, the more likely the rot, not to mention the ugliness. In all fairness, some wounds are actually pretty cool looking if they get a nifty ring around the collar. In bonsai, these wounds can enhance the apparent age, but these aren't always desirable. In most cases, it's advised to cut back to a branch that's at least 1/3 the diameter of the branch you remove.
TOPPING is when you simply cut off the top of a leader or trunk, with no regard to how it looks or will respond. This almost always looks terrible, and unless the tree is about to hit something, or has a bizarre protruding angle, or is dead or diseased, there's no reason to do it. EXCEPT if someone else has already done it, and in the course of making it right, you actually need to cut it back even more, as is the case with re-murdering Crape Myrtles that have been previously murdered. People do this a lot with Fruitless Mulberry trees too, and they always look terrible in the dormant season. No reason exists to do this. Why have a terrible tree instead of putting a good one in its place, and making sure it fits?
Re-leadering could technically be considered a form of topping if done on a trunk or vertical branch, though refined and with good reason. So anytime you see it stated that topping is NEVER ok, well, there are some exceptions. But generally it's a terrible thing to do to anything bigger than maybe 3/4" in diameter. And you'd better know what the heck you're doing.
LIONTAILING is the practice where people cut most branches out except for a few major ones, and leave almost all the branching at the fringes. This may actually look ok at a glance, but it eliminates most of the taper which is so important to branches, visually and for strength. What you really want in most cases is one heavy trunk, a few beefy major scaffold branches, a number of secondary branches coming off of those, and then finer and finer branches multiplying all the way out to the tips. There's probably some equation out there that makes sense of how many branches and what size they should be at any point within the tree, but it would be quite variable from tree to tree and always changing as a tree grows. I really find most people really don't get this, including lots of arborists and nursery growers. There's an artistic sensibility. There's also the need to understand how some branches are purely temporary. You may leave them near the base of a branch to increase bulk at that point, but remove them before the removal scar creates problems.
WATER SPROUTS are almost always to be avoided. These are the reactionary sprouts that shoot up vertically following pruning or injury, or other stresses, and some will happen with almost no apparent encouragement. In almost all cases, these are to be removed. I would sometimes leave these in place if I want to fatten up a branch at that point, and remove them before they're the size of a pencil. And if you get a bunch of these in the Spring, or after a flush of growth, it's a good idea to rub them off or cut them when they just emerge. Even if you rub them off, some will re-emege, and it may have to be done several times until the tree settles down. But in some cases, these sprouts may become a viable secondary branch. Probably not if they're coming right out of the top of the parent branch. But I guess a water sprout by definition is really a vertical shoot heading straight up. You'll see these in most vigorous trees, and perhaps the most obvious is plum trees and birches. I just pruned a mature Valley Oak that had some, in response to some major (not good) pruning by the utility company to keep a chunk of the tree from messing up phone or power lines. These companies lack much desire to prune correctly. They want to spend 1/2 hour removing a big chunk instead of 3 or 4 hours making it look good and equally avoiding the impending entanglement. My job is now to try to get that tree to balance out better over time. This will take a long time, since the tree is already at least 50 years old. But even a compromised Valley Oak is usually a pretty cool tree.
Well, maybe this strayed a bit from the main subject, but these are all connected points. Hopefully I made some sense out of it. I'm sure some professionals may disagree a bit on some of the terminology and remedies, but it's mostly dead-on, at least in practice.
I guess the most important thing to take away is, DON'T CUT ANYTHING UNLESS YOU HAVE A GOOD REASON AND A PRETTY GOOD IDEA OF THE REACTION.
TreeDawg out.
There are certainly many cases where the rules apply almost absolutely, but there are almost always some exceptions, so the words "never" and "always" have to be carefully regarded. There are certain situations where you have to break a rule for the better good, just like if you have to break into someone's home if it's on fire to save their baby, or drive over the speed limit to outrun a racing tornado.
You first need to understand that much of the information out there is dumbed down. Those who write or teach realize that very few people will get a comprehensive education, so they make it as simple as they can with some rules to follow. Better safe than sorry. But most of the time, the finer points are missed or just disregarded. If you're one of those that just shrugs your shoulders, it's really best to find someone who knows what they're doing. Once they do what they need to do, then maybe you can do maintenance following their examples. If your tree hasn't been touched in years, or has been badly pruned, like most trees have, just once, hire an aesthetic pruner who knows what to do. Well worth it.
TYPES OF CUTS
Generally, you hear about only two types of pruning cuts, thinning and heading. Well, it's more complicated than that. Let's go on.....
THINNING is a type of cut where you remove a whole branch. Can be a huge branch or a tiny branch. It can be removed to a larger or parent branch, or to the trunk.
This is almost always the preferred cut. Confusion abounds, where people think that thinning means taking a lot of branches out of the middle of the tree and leaving almost all the branches except for the bare minimum major branches, at the very fringes of the tree. This is wrong. I'll explain why a bit later.
HEADING is generally the other cut you hear about. This is basically when you just cut off the end of a branch or tip of the trunk or main vertical leader. With anything bigger than a fraction of an inch, these cuts usually look terrible and are ill-advised. But once in a while, they're the best option or necessary. In most trees, if you make a heading cut, the end becomes blunt and stays that way, unless a new branch sprouts from that point. It may or may not depending on the situation. And if it does, it may go off in a weird direction that won't look good. HOWEVER, if you prune roses, pruning is generally made up of a bunch of heading cuts. In most trees, heading cuts are almost always avoidable if you follow a yearly proper pruning regimen and never let things get too far.
RE-LEADERING is a term you'll rarely see, and is generally reserved for those who know their stuff. Consider it a combination heading and thinning cut, from which you'll train a new leader or growing tip. This is done all the time in bonsai, but in landscape trees it has to be carefully considered. HOWEVER, if a branch is growing lengthy and lanky, and you want to promote tapering or side branching (ramification), cutting the tip back to a smaller branch or bud that's heading in the right direction would be smart. In reality re-leadering more like thinning, but back to a branch that either doesn't really exist yet or doesn't quite have enough oomph, even though you know it's there waiting to do its thing.
I use this technique a lot, since I'm very big on proportion and tapering, and re-leadering is frequently the only way to get there. Since apical dominance is so powerful, sometimes a branch wants to head straight out and never look back. This conflicts with creating important side branching and can weaken the branch and mess up the proportions. With re-leadering, you want to avoid cutting anything larger than about 1/2" in most cases, but you need to know what the results will be in any situation. If it's a huge tree, maybe a bit bigger, say up to an inch or more, and on small trees, maybe 1/4" is a bit too big. In any case, it's usually smart not to cut back to anything less than 1/3 the diameter of what you're removing. And it's also best to avoid taking off more than 25% of a given branch, since taking more than that can sometimes lead to die-off, since what's left doesn't have enough vigor, or it can sprout profusely since that removed energy has to go somewhere.
It's best to take out branches before they get to be no larger than about 2" in diameter, since above that thickness requires much more time to callous over. We're very careful not to use the word "heal", since unlike human skin that eventually becomes just like the original in most cases, think of a branch wound as an injury that remains either an open wound or a scab FOREVER. Trees are very susceptible to rotting within the branch column under certain conditions. The larger the wound, the more likely the rot, not to mention the ugliness. In all fairness, some wounds are actually pretty cool looking if they get a nifty ring around the collar. In bonsai, these wounds can enhance the apparent age, but these aren't always desirable. In most cases, it's advised to cut back to a branch that's at least 1/3 the diameter of the branch you remove.
TOPPING is when you simply cut off the top of a leader or trunk, with no regard to how it looks or will respond. This almost always looks terrible, and unless the tree is about to hit something, or has a bizarre protruding angle, or is dead or diseased, there's no reason to do it. EXCEPT if someone else has already done it, and in the course of making it right, you actually need to cut it back even more, as is the case with re-murdering Crape Myrtles that have been previously murdered. People do this a lot with Fruitless Mulberry trees too, and they always look terrible in the dormant season. No reason exists to do this. Why have a terrible tree instead of putting a good one in its place, and making sure it fits?
Re-leadering could technically be considered a form of topping if done on a trunk or vertical branch, though refined and with good reason. So anytime you see it stated that topping is NEVER ok, well, there are some exceptions. But generally it's a terrible thing to do to anything bigger than maybe 3/4" in diameter. And you'd better know what the heck you're doing.
LIONTAILING is the practice where people cut most branches out except for a few major ones, and leave almost all the branching at the fringes. This may actually look ok at a glance, but it eliminates most of the taper which is so important to branches, visually and for strength. What you really want in most cases is one heavy trunk, a few beefy major scaffold branches, a number of secondary branches coming off of those, and then finer and finer branches multiplying all the way out to the tips. There's probably some equation out there that makes sense of how many branches and what size they should be at any point within the tree, but it would be quite variable from tree to tree and always changing as a tree grows. I really find most people really don't get this, including lots of arborists and nursery growers. There's an artistic sensibility. There's also the need to understand how some branches are purely temporary. You may leave them near the base of a branch to increase bulk at that point, but remove them before the removal scar creates problems.
WATER SPROUTS are almost always to be avoided. These are the reactionary sprouts that shoot up vertically following pruning or injury, or other stresses, and some will happen with almost no apparent encouragement. In almost all cases, these are to be removed. I would sometimes leave these in place if I want to fatten up a branch at that point, and remove them before they're the size of a pencil. And if you get a bunch of these in the Spring, or after a flush of growth, it's a good idea to rub them off or cut them when they just emerge. Even if you rub them off, some will re-emege, and it may have to be done several times until the tree settles down. But in some cases, these sprouts may become a viable secondary branch. Probably not if they're coming right out of the top of the parent branch. But I guess a water sprout by definition is really a vertical shoot heading straight up. You'll see these in most vigorous trees, and perhaps the most obvious is plum trees and birches. I just pruned a mature Valley Oak that had some, in response to some major (not good) pruning by the utility company to keep a chunk of the tree from messing up phone or power lines. These companies lack much desire to prune correctly. They want to spend 1/2 hour removing a big chunk instead of 3 or 4 hours making it look good and equally avoiding the impending entanglement. My job is now to try to get that tree to balance out better over time. This will take a long time, since the tree is already at least 50 years old. But even a compromised Valley Oak is usually a pretty cool tree.
Well, maybe this strayed a bit from the main subject, but these are all connected points. Hopefully I made some sense out of it. I'm sure some professionals may disagree a bit on some of the terminology and remedies, but it's mostly dead-on, at least in practice.
I guess the most important thing to take away is, DON'T CUT ANYTHING UNLESS YOU HAVE A GOOD REASON AND A PRETTY GOOD IDEA OF THE REACTION.
TreeDawg out.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Thick at the Base, Thin at the Tip: Trunk and Branch Taper
Taper is one of the most overlooked issues with tree pruning, and perhaps causes the most problems that allow trees to get destroyed by wind or snow. The problem is that a trunk or heavy branch can't be strong if there's not enough taper, or if there's too much weight only at the ends. It can't always support the weight it's holding including its own, especially if there's fruit or heavy flowers. And it really just doesn't look right and shows a history of neglect or improper pruning. If you want to keep a tree a desired size, at least in the near term, it's imperitive that you encourage tapering so that once it's the desired size you can't go back and start over. Tapering gives you more options.
The tricky part is determining how much taper there should be. A trunk and main branches will ever increase in diameter over the years, and you can't stop it. You can slow it down or speed it up with various techniques. Eventually, the trunk diameter will be a good proportion to the overall height, but if the taper is lacking, it won't look right no matter what the base diameter.
There are some different patterns that dictate the amount of taper to a degree. Willows and maples and some birches and various other trees are known to be more slender, so the amount of taper isn't as obvious. But take a look at an old oak tree, and you'll usually see great taper throughout the tree, unless someone has pruned it incorrectly. That's one of the reasons the trees look (and are) so strong. Like a muscleman with thick upper arms, tapering to fairly thin wrists, instead of looking like Popeye.
In bonsai, taper is usually much more encouraged. Some of these old trees are merely 2 or 3 times as tall as the diameter of the trunk, and the trees look very old and permanent and strong. I have a little olive tree with about a 3" diameter base that's only about 10" or 12" tall, but I got it that way from a previous bosai grower and frankly the taper is too abrupt and needs refinement. I strive for a minimum 20 to 1 ratio in all my trees in my collection. In landscape trees, however, you'll never achieve a ratio of probably 10 to 1 or better in your lifetime, at least not in a good way.
As a very rough estimate, without studying many trees with a tape measure, I would probably see good trunk taper as anything more tapered than about 30 to 1, height to base trunk diameter, and 20 to 1 is really good. Once again, I wouldn't expect the latter thickness to be common on a Japanese Maple or a Willow, but on more stocky trees, it's something to strive for. And the taper should really be fairly even all the way to the top, ending at a mere tiny stem at the tip.
Branches wouldn't have this kind of taper, but I would say that in the range of between 30 to 1 and 75 to 1 is pretty good. But you'll often see trees with almost no taper, and the branches might be 200 to 1! Pear trees commonly have nearly untapered branches, and this is one of their downsides. Do what you can to avoid this.
So for a good example, if you have an adolescent ornamental tree that's 20 feet tall, maybe the same width or maybe wider, the trunk should be 8 to 12" in diameter, and thicker as it gets old. A 3" branch coming off the trunk at about 6' off the ground should be from about 8' long to say 15' long, while keeping it all in proportion (height to width of the tree while tapering of branches thoughout). This takes some thought and planning and a good aesthetic sense.
Proper pruning will also allow you to control the direction better, and promoting more horizontal branching than vertical is usually better, even in fastigate or upright trees like poplars or liquidambers, some birches, and lots of conifers.
Of course, as you bring a tree home from the nursery, they're usually 6' to 10' tall, with a base diameter of about 3/4" to 1-1/2". Nobody's gonna wait for great tapering before putting it in the ground. They want to get the trees in the ground and on their way. And then they stake the tree so it won't fall over or curve too much, though staking weakens the tree, and in my opinion makes trees grow too perfectly straight. So it'll take at least 7 to 10 years in most cases before the trees get decent trunks and scaffold branches. As a side note, remove those stakes as early as you can. I've seen trees with stakes left in for 20 years or more, with the trunk growing around and devouring the big black rubber band. That REALLY shows that people paid no attention to their trees after the first couple years.
I'll keep working on this and see if I can get some better numbers and some pictures to demonstrate. In the meantime, give this some attention when you start to prune a tree. Strive for even tapering, never blunt tips of long, untapered branches. Ramification is so important.
The tricky part is determining how much taper there should be. A trunk and main branches will ever increase in diameter over the years, and you can't stop it. You can slow it down or speed it up with various techniques. Eventually, the trunk diameter will be a good proportion to the overall height, but if the taper is lacking, it won't look right no matter what the base diameter.
There are some different patterns that dictate the amount of taper to a degree. Willows and maples and some birches and various other trees are known to be more slender, so the amount of taper isn't as obvious. But take a look at an old oak tree, and you'll usually see great taper throughout the tree, unless someone has pruned it incorrectly. That's one of the reasons the trees look (and are) so strong. Like a muscleman with thick upper arms, tapering to fairly thin wrists, instead of looking like Popeye.
In bonsai, taper is usually much more encouraged. Some of these old trees are merely 2 or 3 times as tall as the diameter of the trunk, and the trees look very old and permanent and strong. I have a little olive tree with about a 3" diameter base that's only about 10" or 12" tall, but I got it that way from a previous bosai grower and frankly the taper is too abrupt and needs refinement. I strive for a minimum 20 to 1 ratio in all my trees in my collection. In landscape trees, however, you'll never achieve a ratio of probably 10 to 1 or better in your lifetime, at least not in a good way.
As a very rough estimate, without studying many trees with a tape measure, I would probably see good trunk taper as anything more tapered than about 30 to 1, height to base trunk diameter, and 20 to 1 is really good. Once again, I wouldn't expect the latter thickness to be common on a Japanese Maple or a Willow, but on more stocky trees, it's something to strive for. And the taper should really be fairly even all the way to the top, ending at a mere tiny stem at the tip.
Branches wouldn't have this kind of taper, but I would say that in the range of between 30 to 1 and 75 to 1 is pretty good. But you'll often see trees with almost no taper, and the branches might be 200 to 1! Pear trees commonly have nearly untapered branches, and this is one of their downsides. Do what you can to avoid this.
So for a good example, if you have an adolescent ornamental tree that's 20 feet tall, maybe the same width or maybe wider, the trunk should be 8 to 12" in diameter, and thicker as it gets old. A 3" branch coming off the trunk at about 6' off the ground should be from about 8' long to say 15' long, while keeping it all in proportion (height to width of the tree while tapering of branches thoughout). This takes some thought and planning and a good aesthetic sense.
Proper pruning will also allow you to control the direction better, and promoting more horizontal branching than vertical is usually better, even in fastigate or upright trees like poplars or liquidambers, some birches, and lots of conifers.
Of course, as you bring a tree home from the nursery, they're usually 6' to 10' tall, with a base diameter of about 3/4" to 1-1/2". Nobody's gonna wait for great tapering before putting it in the ground. They want to get the trees in the ground and on their way. And then they stake the tree so it won't fall over or curve too much, though staking weakens the tree, and in my opinion makes trees grow too perfectly straight. So it'll take at least 7 to 10 years in most cases before the trees get decent trunks and scaffold branches. As a side note, remove those stakes as early as you can. I've seen trees with stakes left in for 20 years or more, with the trunk growing around and devouring the big black rubber band. That REALLY shows that people paid no attention to their trees after the first couple years.
I'll keep working on this and see if I can get some better numbers and some pictures to demonstrate. In the meantime, give this some attention when you start to prune a tree. Strive for even tapering, never blunt tips of long, untapered branches. Ramification is so important.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
So Disagreeable Like on Capitol Hill: Experts Confuse the Pruning Universe
I don't know if I've seen any other subject besides politics and pruning, where the experts and people we look to for guidance can so disagree on fundamentals.
I can't say most of them are wrong, but approaches can be quite contrary. I've read hundreds of articles on most aspects of pruning. The only thing I can do is try to understand where they're coming from, see if there's a consensus, throw out what doesn't make sense, put some logic to it, apply personal experience, and in many cases think outside the box.
I believe that most writers on the subject realize that teaching someone all about pruning within a short article is really hard without the reader losing patience. And the reader may have little, if any experience on the subject. Because of this, most articles really tend to dumb things down to the point where the student can't screw things up too badly or poke their eye out or fall off a ladder or cut their finger off, but they miss the mark on some of the finer or more confusing points.
You should also understand that most people simply ignore their trees for extended periods, then over-prune to make up for it. I never recommend this, but since it's human nature, the guides tend to reflect this approach.
You'll see most articles focus on how to cut properly, but spend less time on where and why to cut or not cut this or that, and consequences of every cut. I find that the instructions on how to cut are usually accurate and quite good. Since you can find these instructions everywhere, I tend to avoid spending much time on that. I spend much more time preaching about the where, why, and when.
I see perhaps the most confusing subject is when to prune this or that. You'll usually see it mentioned that most trees and shrubs should be pruned during late winter, early spring, or summer, depending on the specie, when it flowers, and your goal. I rarely see anything mentioned about how your climate affects this timing. This is puzzling. If you live in Miami, shouldn't your timing be different than if you're in Fargo? Maybe it doesn't change that much with certain species, or a specific tree simply doesn't grow in your location, so the point may be meaningless at times.
Plenty of articles deal with timing your pruning for maximum flowering or fruiting benefit. They're pretty much on the mark, but they don't deal with some finer issues about pruning throughout the year, which I write about a lot. Many articles deal with trees that are problematic, either because they catch disease easily or bleed heavily b or respond to pruning in notable ways. But some of this advice may be contradictory. For instance, pruning a birch or elm during the summer may be best to avoid bleeding or water sprouts, etc., but the cuts can attract well-known pests that can kill the tree. So it seems most articles reflect the better decision, though you have to learn more to make the right decision. Once again, as I can't mention often enough, frequent, minor pruning is much better than infrequent, major pruning.
I have a post or two that deal with timing. My rationale is a based on many hours of research, and as things progress, my approach may change somewhat, just as it may change from one individual tree to another of the same specie.
Regarding thinning, heading back, topping, pollarding, Crape Murder, butchery, etc. I have very strong feelings about all of these treatments and those opinions run rampant throughout my posts. Be very careful while watching videos. Much more often than not, the ones that claim to show you the right way, don't.
Isn't this fun?
I can't say most of them are wrong, but approaches can be quite contrary. I've read hundreds of articles on most aspects of pruning. The only thing I can do is try to understand where they're coming from, see if there's a consensus, throw out what doesn't make sense, put some logic to it, apply personal experience, and in many cases think outside the box.
I believe that most writers on the subject realize that teaching someone all about pruning within a short article is really hard without the reader losing patience. And the reader may have little, if any experience on the subject. Because of this, most articles really tend to dumb things down to the point where the student can't screw things up too badly or poke their eye out or fall off a ladder or cut their finger off, but they miss the mark on some of the finer or more confusing points.
You should also understand that most people simply ignore their trees for extended periods, then over-prune to make up for it. I never recommend this, but since it's human nature, the guides tend to reflect this approach.
You'll see most articles focus on how to cut properly, but spend less time on where and why to cut or not cut this or that, and consequences of every cut. I find that the instructions on how to cut are usually accurate and quite good. Since you can find these instructions everywhere, I tend to avoid spending much time on that. I spend much more time preaching about the where, why, and when.
I see perhaps the most confusing subject is when to prune this or that. You'll usually see it mentioned that most trees and shrubs should be pruned during late winter, early spring, or summer, depending on the specie, when it flowers, and your goal. I rarely see anything mentioned about how your climate affects this timing. This is puzzling. If you live in Miami, shouldn't your timing be different than if you're in Fargo? Maybe it doesn't change that much with certain species, or a specific tree simply doesn't grow in your location, so the point may be meaningless at times.
Plenty of articles deal with timing your pruning for maximum flowering or fruiting benefit. They're pretty much on the mark, but they don't deal with some finer issues about pruning throughout the year, which I write about a lot. Many articles deal with trees that are problematic, either because they catch disease easily or bleed heavily b or respond to pruning in notable ways. But some of this advice may be contradictory. For instance, pruning a birch or elm during the summer may be best to avoid bleeding or water sprouts, etc., but the cuts can attract well-known pests that can kill the tree. So it seems most articles reflect the better decision, though you have to learn more to make the right decision. Once again, as I can't mention often enough, frequent, minor pruning is much better than infrequent, major pruning.
I have a post or two that deal with timing. My rationale is a based on many hours of research, and as things progress, my approach may change somewhat, just as it may change from one individual tree to another of the same specie.
Regarding thinning, heading back, topping, pollarding, Crape Murder, butchery, etc. I have very strong feelings about all of these treatments and those opinions run rampant throughout my posts. Be very careful while watching videos. Much more often than not, the ones that claim to show you the right way, don't.
Isn't this fun?
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Things Almost All Pruners Get Wrong
Almost everyone who trims trees gets at least some of these things wrong. All these issues are discussed in detail in my other posts, so I'm only going to touch briefly on these items here.
In order, these are the most common errors I see in almost every managed tree:
WHORLS
Too many branches originating from the same point. Branches should be staggered. Bonsai artists are usually exceptionally diligent about this, and everyone else can learn a lesson from their styling. Unfortunately, if you don't avoid them very early, you're stuck with them for good and have to make the best of it.
OVERLY-LONG, DISPROPORTIONATE, UNTAPERING, TOO-STRAIGHT BRANCHES
These branches overwhelm the tree's balance, especially in relation to the trunk, create weakness, and just don't look good. This is equally caused by over- AND under-pruning, ironically usually simultaneously.
WAITING TOO LONG
Once you play catch-up, it's a long recovery that may never turn out right.
LIONTAILING
Cutting out way too many secondary/intermediate branches, leaving almost all growth at the very fringes. Good thinning does not remove everything below the top. Ramification throughout the tree is important.
BLUNT TIPS
A tree will always look pruned (not in a good way) if you cut the tips off the branches, pretty much anything larger than the thickness of a pencil. This also leads to over-thinning the canopy if you're thinning out the ramified tips too much. Sometimes, however, this is necessary and good plans will correct this remedy within short order.
VERTICAL BRANCHES/WATER SPROUTS
These are hard to avoid after major pruning in some trees and usually look bad and are unhealthy, so diligent management is key. Frequent, minor pruning is much better. Pruning more than about 25% in most trees is best avoided, and with good, frequent pruning, more than 10% should rarely be needed.
LOW CROTCH ANGLES
Branches should exit from the trunk at angles that increase strength and look good. Included bark is best avoided.
TOPPING
This is the queen mother of all pruning mistakes, along with its little brothers, pollarding and Crape Murder. Luckily, most people realize topping is just a terrible thing to do in almost all circumstances. Unfortunately, most people are guilty of pollarding to a point, whether unintentional or semi-intentional.
Ok. Pay attention to this in your own trees, learn about and check out what a really good tree looks like, and be careful who attacks your trees. Pruning is, after all, an attack from which it must recover. You can assault it with infrequent bloody violence or give it a frequent attack of sweet, sweet love. You decide.
In order, these are the most common errors I see in almost every managed tree:
WHORLS
Too many branches originating from the same point. Branches should be staggered. Bonsai artists are usually exceptionally diligent about this, and everyone else can learn a lesson from their styling. Unfortunately, if you don't avoid them very early, you're stuck with them for good and have to make the best of it.
OVERLY-LONG, DISPROPORTIONATE, UNTAPERING, TOO-STRAIGHT BRANCHES
These branches overwhelm the tree's balance, especially in relation to the trunk, create weakness, and just don't look good. This is equally caused by over- AND under-pruning, ironically usually simultaneously.
WAITING TOO LONG
Once you play catch-up, it's a long recovery that may never turn out right.
LIONTAILING
Cutting out way too many secondary/intermediate branches, leaving almost all growth at the very fringes. Good thinning does not remove everything below the top. Ramification throughout the tree is important.
BLUNT TIPS
A tree will always look pruned (not in a good way) if you cut the tips off the branches, pretty much anything larger than the thickness of a pencil. This also leads to over-thinning the canopy if you're thinning out the ramified tips too much. Sometimes, however, this is necessary and good plans will correct this remedy within short order.
VERTICAL BRANCHES/WATER SPROUTS
These are hard to avoid after major pruning in some trees and usually look bad and are unhealthy, so diligent management is key. Frequent, minor pruning is much better. Pruning more than about 25% in most trees is best avoided, and with good, frequent pruning, more than 10% should rarely be needed.
LOW CROTCH ANGLES
Branches should exit from the trunk at angles that increase strength and look good. Included bark is best avoided.
TOPPING
This is the queen mother of all pruning mistakes, along with its little brothers, pollarding and Crape Murder. Luckily, most people realize topping is just a terrible thing to do in almost all circumstances. Unfortunately, most people are guilty of pollarding to a point, whether unintentional or semi-intentional.
Ok. Pay attention to this in your own trees, learn about and check out what a really good tree looks like, and be careful who attacks your trees. Pruning is, after all, an attack from which it must recover. You can assault it with infrequent bloody violence or give it a frequent attack of sweet, sweet love. You decide.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Domination, Tip Expansion and Hose Comparison: Apical Superiority
Apical Dominance. That's a term you should become familiar with and understand somewhat if you're gonna be doing any pruning. Unfortunately, when it's explained in most texts, it's not explained in easy-to-understand terms, and not even fully understood by science, just like they can't explain why some people intentionally walk around with their pants falling down. This particular phenomenon doesn't blend especially well with pruning, even more especially if you're doing it in a ladder.
What the term "apical dominance" means, as well as I understand and can explain it, is that the terminal bud tip of a trunk or any given parent branch, at least a more vertical branch, tends to have much more vigor than any later/side branches or buds waiting to become branches closer to or further down the trunk. The terminal bud is King. At least until it sprouts and a new one takes over, or it gets knocked off. With all this hereditary monarchy, No wonder the British like trees so much.
The apical bud, otherwise known as the terminal bud, or tip of the tree or tip of the branch, mysteriously maintains superiority over all other branches and buds lower down the line with a hormone called auxin. This is the phenomenon that's not fully understood and it may work by means of several different mechanisms. Terminal buds are like Mr. Potter or some Republicans, who want most of the power and go out of their way to take away the well-being of those below them.
Trees tend to grow tall and have long branches due to this mechanism. They're more likely to reach the sunlight if they're they're tall while being in competition with other trees. You might liken this to how humans became dominant primarily because they became taller and more manipulative of their surroundings.
If you cut the terminal bud or the last few inches off a branch, the remaining buds go nuts, trying to take over, much like when a dictatorship is overthrown. The one closest to the new gmailend tends to take over, but other buds gain some vigor to a lesser degree, at least until the new tip gains momentum.
To maintain the approximate same natural shape as before pruning but in a more compact fashion and with more tapering branches, you want to cut just above a bud that's pointing in the preferred direction, and not at a sharp angle. There is a tendency if you cut above a bud and not above an actual already-existing lateral/substitute branch, that the bud will generally grow fairly straight and follow the footsteps of the tip that was removed, within, say 10 degrees. You usually want this new replacement branch to point outwards, maybe up just a bit, or down a bit in some cases. Some expert may take me to task a bit on this point.
Severe pruning may ruin this natural structure, at least in the short term, and can create more of a bush, lollipop, mushroom, hedge, whatever you want to call it. It's generally not what you want in a natural-looking tree. You should strive for a stronger, but generally the same-shape tree as the Good Lord intended in the best specimens. Of course we manipulate some species to look a certain way while still appearing to be natural. Kinda how Bruce/Kaitlin Jenner does a pretty good job of approximating the look of a natural woman, with the goal that people couldn't tell what the real story is unless they read tabloids.
For a fun little analogy, let's think of it this way. Suppose you have a garden hose hooked up to a spigot. The terminal bud would be like the end of the hose, with a sprayer attached. The rest of the hose would have pin holes every few inches, back to where it meets the spigot. If you open up the sprayer fully, almost all the water would come out the end. If you open up the sprayer about half way but maintain the same pressure from the spigot, most of the water would come out the end, but some would come out of the pin holes. More water would come out of the holes near the end. If you shut the sprayer off altogether, the holes would tend to more evenly distribute the water because the pressure isn't focused at the end. Now, think of removal of the terminal bud as the sprayer you shut off, and poking an even bigger hole in the furthermost remaining pinhole is like the new replacement terminal bud. Most of the pressure will come out of that new dominant hole, but some will be diverted to the remaining holes, though not a lot. If you were to somehow be able to immediately put the sprayer over that new, bigger hole, and turn down the pressure of the sprayer very slightly, you can see where this is going.
The side branching tends to be longer further back coming out of a parent branch, because it's had more time to grow. But as the parent branch lengthens, the vigor of these side branches lessens, and eventually will cease growing or even die, leaving the outermost side branches with the most vigor. Cutting the patent branch back closer to the lateral branches increases their vigor. Any side branching contributes to the bulk of the patent branch, increasing diameter and increasing tapering as long as there's some side branching nearest the base of the parent branch. Concentrating all the growth near the very tip of a parent branch will create a weak branch with little tapering. Most conifers don't ready tolerate pruning into a parent branch unless there's still fresh foliage behind it. If all the energy is concentrated at the end and you cut it off, say bye bye to the whole branch.
When people do pollarding, liontailing, topping, etc., they tend to reduce or completely remove branches closer to the trunk and concentrate the energy into the very tips of the branches, and cut the end off too. This is not a good idea and it's just busy work that will lead to repetitive, unproductive annual pruning and in some species, a whole lot of mess coming out the end of a branch and an ugly knuckle. In fact, people sometimes top their trees in an effort to make the tree more compact, but the effect may be exactly the opposite in time. This is exactly what people compulsively do with Mulberry trees, which look absolutely terrible for half the year, especially winter, and Crape myrtles, hence the term "Crape Murder".
Pruning that's too severe will frequently cause vertical water spouts/sprouts to form, as the tree reacts to pruning, trying to replace what it lost, sometimes with more vigor than before. In actuality, there's the same amount of roots as before pruning with energy that has to go somewhere. During summer pruning, it's more of a two-wayvstreet as the leaves are providing the roots with energy, and removing some of the foliage slows down the tree's growth. Water spouts/sprouts never look good, and my take on it is that you might leave them for a short time lower down the branch to increase tapering, remove the ones nearest the tip right away, but remove all or at least redirect into a pleasant direction before they become thicker than a pencil and would leave scarring that wouldn't seal (not heal, exactly) over relatively quickly. Water spouts/sprouts tend to occur a lot more on certain trees than others. If you look around, you're likely to see some vertical branches in a lot of trees that don't look right, especially if the tree has a more horizontal branching pattern. Water spouts/sprouts are much more likely to exist with infrequent, severe pruning, than frequent, minor pruning. It would be like eating well and taking care of your skin over a long period of time, where you can be healthy and look good, instead of going on a crash diet and getting botox, where things just aren't the same. Interestingly, apical dominance is less pronounced on more horizontal branches than on more vertical branches since gravity helps the auxin move down and stores growth in lower lateral buds and branches As a result, horizontal branches tend to have more sprouts along the length without pruning, and when pruning is carried out, especially excessively, more water spouts/sprouts. It may also explain why more vertical branches tend to have less taper and grow faster in length, and aren't as strong for those reasons, along with the fact that the low angle of departure from the trunk makes for a better chance of splitting like firewood with an axe and ruining your day.
I hope this explains things a bit, and gives you a better understanding of why pruning should be done properly, and what the results will be. Please try to understand the consequences of every cut you make. And stay away from the botox.
What the term "apical dominance" means, as well as I understand and can explain it, is that the terminal bud tip of a trunk or any given parent branch, at least a more vertical branch, tends to have much more vigor than any later/side branches or buds waiting to become branches closer to or further down the trunk. The terminal bud is King. At least until it sprouts and a new one takes over, or it gets knocked off. With all this hereditary monarchy, No wonder the British like trees so much.
The apical bud, otherwise known as the terminal bud, or tip of the tree or tip of the branch, mysteriously maintains superiority over all other branches and buds lower down the line with a hormone called auxin. This is the phenomenon that's not fully understood and it may work by means of several different mechanisms. Terminal buds are like Mr. Potter or some Republicans, who want most of the power and go out of their way to take away the well-being of those below them.
Trees tend to grow tall and have long branches due to this mechanism. They're more likely to reach the sunlight if they're they're tall while being in competition with other trees. You might liken this to how humans became dominant primarily because they became taller and more manipulative of their surroundings.
If you cut the terminal bud or the last few inches off a branch, the remaining buds go nuts, trying to take over, much like when a dictatorship is overthrown. The one closest to the new gmailend tends to take over, but other buds gain some vigor to a lesser degree, at least until the new tip gains momentum.
To maintain the approximate same natural shape as before pruning but in a more compact fashion and with more tapering branches, you want to cut just above a bud that's pointing in the preferred direction, and not at a sharp angle. There is a tendency if you cut above a bud and not above an actual already-existing lateral/substitute branch, that the bud will generally grow fairly straight and follow the footsteps of the tip that was removed, within, say 10 degrees. You usually want this new replacement branch to point outwards, maybe up just a bit, or down a bit in some cases. Some expert may take me to task a bit on this point.
Severe pruning may ruin this natural structure, at least in the short term, and can create more of a bush, lollipop, mushroom, hedge, whatever you want to call it. It's generally not what you want in a natural-looking tree. You should strive for a stronger, but generally the same-shape tree as the Good Lord intended in the best specimens. Of course we manipulate some species to look a certain way while still appearing to be natural. Kinda how Bruce/Kaitlin Jenner does a pretty good job of approximating the look of a natural woman, with the goal that people couldn't tell what the real story is unless they read tabloids.
For a fun little analogy, let's think of it this way. Suppose you have a garden hose hooked up to a spigot. The terminal bud would be like the end of the hose, with a sprayer attached. The rest of the hose would have pin holes every few inches, back to where it meets the spigot. If you open up the sprayer fully, almost all the water would come out the end. If you open up the sprayer about half way but maintain the same pressure from the spigot, most of the water would come out the end, but some would come out of the pin holes. More water would come out of the holes near the end. If you shut the sprayer off altogether, the holes would tend to more evenly distribute the water because the pressure isn't focused at the end. Now, think of removal of the terminal bud as the sprayer you shut off, and poking an even bigger hole in the furthermost remaining pinhole is like the new replacement terminal bud. Most of the pressure will come out of that new dominant hole, but some will be diverted to the remaining holes, though not a lot. If you were to somehow be able to immediately put the sprayer over that new, bigger hole, and turn down the pressure of the sprayer very slightly, you can see where this is going.
The side branching tends to be longer further back coming out of a parent branch, because it's had more time to grow. But as the parent branch lengthens, the vigor of these side branches lessens, and eventually will cease growing or even die, leaving the outermost side branches with the most vigor. Cutting the patent branch back closer to the lateral branches increases their vigor. Any side branching contributes to the bulk of the patent branch, increasing diameter and increasing tapering as long as there's some side branching nearest the base of the parent branch. Concentrating all the growth near the very tip of a parent branch will create a weak branch with little tapering. Most conifers don't ready tolerate pruning into a parent branch unless there's still fresh foliage behind it. If all the energy is concentrated at the end and you cut it off, say bye bye to the whole branch.
When people do pollarding, liontailing, topping, etc., they tend to reduce or completely remove branches closer to the trunk and concentrate the energy into the very tips of the branches, and cut the end off too. This is not a good idea and it's just busy work that will lead to repetitive, unproductive annual pruning and in some species, a whole lot of mess coming out the end of a branch and an ugly knuckle. In fact, people sometimes top their trees in an effort to make the tree more compact, but the effect may be exactly the opposite in time. This is exactly what people compulsively do with Mulberry trees, which look absolutely terrible for half the year, especially winter, and Crape myrtles, hence the term "Crape Murder".
Pruning that's too severe will frequently cause vertical water spouts/sprouts to form, as the tree reacts to pruning, trying to replace what it lost, sometimes with more vigor than before. In actuality, there's the same amount of roots as before pruning with energy that has to go somewhere. During summer pruning, it's more of a two-wayvstreet as the leaves are providing the roots with energy, and removing some of the foliage slows down the tree's growth. Water spouts/sprouts never look good, and my take on it is that you might leave them for a short time lower down the branch to increase tapering, remove the ones nearest the tip right away, but remove all or at least redirect into a pleasant direction before they become thicker than a pencil and would leave scarring that wouldn't seal (not heal, exactly) over relatively quickly. Water spouts/sprouts tend to occur a lot more on certain trees than others. If you look around, you're likely to see some vertical branches in a lot of trees that don't look right, especially if the tree has a more horizontal branching pattern. Water spouts/sprouts are much more likely to exist with infrequent, severe pruning, than frequent, minor pruning. It would be like eating well and taking care of your skin over a long period of time, where you can be healthy and look good, instead of going on a crash diet and getting botox, where things just aren't the same. Interestingly, apical dominance is less pronounced on more horizontal branches than on more vertical branches since gravity helps the auxin move down and stores growth in lower lateral buds and branches As a result, horizontal branches tend to have more sprouts along the length without pruning, and when pruning is carried out, especially excessively, more water spouts/sprouts. It may also explain why more vertical branches tend to have less taper and grow faster in length, and aren't as strong for those reasons, along with the fact that the low angle of departure from the trunk makes for a better chance of splitting like firewood with an axe and ruining your day.
I hope this explains things a bit, and gives you a better understanding of why pruning should be done properly, and what the results will be. Please try to understand the consequences of every cut you make. And stay away from the botox.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Pruning: Goldilocks Style and Father Time
The best pruning takes place when you prune JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT. Not too much or too little.
I've had awkward situations with customers and also with friends while helping them prune their trees. They say either "better stop there", thinking that proper, meticulous, methodical winter pruning is wreaking havoc, or "take more off" so that it's immediately smaller or thinner, or assumed that taking more off now saves effort in future seasons.
The fact is, almost nobody has managed their trees properly, regardless of how much they've learned or how many trees they look at or who they hired to do the work. I would estimate that well over 95% of people doing tree trimming, either as a job, a career, or as a DIY or hobby project, are doing it completely wrong. And once a tree is mismanaged, it only tends to get worse every season. It's heartbreaking if you really love trees. And I hate to say it, but the vast majority of people are clueless about what constitutes great pruning other than the most basic rules that don't include the finer points . Don't look to arborists or tree surgeons or guys that just drive around with a truck, a chain saw and a ladder. These guys hardly ever get it right.
Think of it this way. If you get a bad cut on your finger, likely to get infected, leaving it alone would be like not pruning a tree at all. Cleaning it or putting a Band-Aid on it would be like pruning just a little bit, but not enough. It needs more. Cutting off your hand would be like over-pruning. A bit drastic. Well, your hand isn't gonna grow back. A tree, on the other hand, has the potential to grow back to what it should be provided there's proper management forever after, and if you let Father Time do his thing. However, in many cases, things will never be right, so you either compromise or cut the tree down.
There are certainly cases where taking more off than you might like is needed.. I'll have a posting about Crape Murder and how to solve it, but to make a point here, if your trees have ugly knobs, knuckles, knots, whatever you want to call them, the solution is to remove them and get them started in the right direction, and provided the branches are less than about 2" in diameter, in a few years the tree may actually look normal. BUT ONLY IF NEARLY PERFECT MANAGEMENT TAKES PLACE. The actual process may appear drastic, but it's the only way, just like surgery is drastic but can save your life.
If you really want to do it right, have a meeting with the tree trimmer and ask what they're gonna do, exactly why they're gonna do it, and what the results will be now and in future seasons. Ask them what's the problem to begin with that needs correcting. They should be able to justify EVERY SINGLE CUT. Don't let them fool you with keywords and jargon you don't understand. You should be clear on what's happening. If they don't make sense, don't hire them.
One really hard thing to understand is that pruning properly one year will mean less pruning in future seasons. If you spend 3 hours on a tree in a critical year, you only have to spend a fraction of that in each future year. Once again with Crape Myrtles, you could spend 2 or 3 hours cutting off all the little branches every year and have a really ugly tree for most of the year, or spend about 3 hours in a critical season, maybe another hour or two in the subsequent months, and then each year after that should be much less work, and the tree will look good even during the winter . Especially if you let the tree grow to its natural height. If you want to keep it down just a bit, that's gonna take some extra time each year, and not really possible forever unless you want it to be a lollipop. Of course, if the tree needs a lot of work, the major repairs will need to be done incrementally over a few years Making an abused or neglected tree look great may take up to 10 years or more, and you may have to live with a "pretty good" tree, not a great one. But at least not a terrible one.
Once someone who really knows their stuff gives you an education, you'll never see trees the same way again, and you'll start noticing how badly managed most are. Have them point out in any given tree how it could be better.
Opinions, however, can be bizarre. Some people think that clunky, choppy trees with big, swollen, disproportionate sections, vertical shoots and floppy flowers look good. But then some people thought striped polyester disco jump suits, avocado green refrigerators and first-generation microwave cardboard pizzas were just terrific.
So, Goldilocks, though she was transient and breaking into homes, had it right with the goal of balance.
You too can be a TreeDawg Knight.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Keep Your Hands Off: What NOT to do When Pruning Trees
Every article you read about pruning tells you the same things, like 3-step cuts, leaving branch collars, cutting out crossing branches, removing co-dominant leaders, don't cut more than 1/4 or 1/3, don't cut power lines, your finger or your little brother's finger, don't poke your eye out, etc. I aim to tell you about things they DON'T tell you.
The ultimate goal with pruning just about any tree is to make it look like it was NEVER pruned, but rather magically grew with proper balance, branching, shape and taper, all without human intervention, all the while looking informal and not like a lollipop or a mushroom. This achievement of a tree following the rules actually is quite rare in nature, and very, very few people have the skills to make this happen. Almost every tree you'll ever see has issues, no matter who pruned it or how frequently or infrequently. Bonsai experts are great at getting this look, ironically with the challenges of keeping the tree less than two feet tall. Very few tree surgeons, arborists, "expert" pruners or guys that advertise on Craigslist get it just right, usually not even remotely right. The best situation I come across is when I get a tree that's only a few years old that's been almost untouched, granted the growers usually already start it off on the wrong foot. They earlier I get my hands on it, the easier I can train it to look great and stay healthy. Any other condition usually means repairing botched earlier jobs, and a great-looking tree may take years of diligent pruning, but likely will never be close to perfect.
So here are the things almost nobody tells you about good pruning. You should NOT do these:
1. ATTAIN WHORLS & KNOBS. A whorl is a situation when there are more than two branches in one union, or more than one branch coming directly out of the trunk at one point. With a few exceptions where trees have a natural branching pattern of 3 branches that's hard to overcome, like some conifers, Chinese Pistache, Japanese Maples to a degree, etc., you should strive to have no more than 2 tree members in one spot. Each joint should look like a peace sign you make with your fingers, more or less. Plus you look really groovy. A far worse scenario involves leaving knobs or knuckles at the end of a branch. This is the result of repeatedly pruning the tip in the same spot, which led to these ugly monstrosities. They always look terrible and can only be corrected by cutting lower down the branch, which is problematic except in the most vigorous trees. People have commonly, peculiarly, and horribly mistakenly, decided to do this most frequently with Mulberry trees and Crape Myrtles, and it's a real crime. Unfortunately, once a whorl is mature, it's usually better to leave it than remove it, since removal will probably be a permanent, obvious blemish, especially if over 2" in diameter. Sometimes, the decision to remove one or more of the branches is obvious, but often takes great thought. If there's one of several branches on the inside, it's usually the best one to take out, so the scar will be hidden and it will open up the canopy. Liontailing is also to be avoided, where all smaller branches are removed from a larger branch except at the very tip. Not at all sensible. Also, take a look at almost every tree you pass by. You'll see almost without exception, one or more branches coming out of the trunk about 6' off the ground. This is usually done so that people can walk under them, and that's ok, though not always necessary. Problem is, there's almost always more than one branch coming out in the same spot.
This is a clear no-no, and it creates a giant bulge. The opposing branches should be staggered and separated by a discernable distance which varies by the size of the tree, thus avoiding various whorls or a huge swollen lump in that section of the tree. And branches on the same side of the tree should be spaced appropriately, which will also vary. It takes a keen eye to determine the right distance apart. Nature determines much of that by node spacing.
2. LEAVING STRAIGHT, UNTAPERED BRANCHES. Branches in most trees naturally tend to taper noticeably, and usually don't keep going straight, but either curve or branch off in a slight direction, or divide into two or more smaller branches.. A lack of taper doesn't look right, but it also means the branch is probably too heavy at the end, and probaby too big in relation to the scale of the trunk or the overall tree. This is common where someone either removed most of the secondary branches from the larger branch, or just let it grow too long, possibly while cutting some of the upper trunk. Since growth is more vigorous at the tip, it lets girth accumulate faster toward the tip. There's no exact formula, but a guideline is to avoid a branch being more than half the diameter of the trunk at the point of attachment. Taking care of all this takes good diligence and ability to figure out how the tree is likely to grow. Pay attention to oak trees in the wild. They have curving, tapering branches and usually no whorls, and look fantastic. They would l look even better if they were meticulously pruned all their lives.
3. INFREQUENT PRUNING
The best scenario is to do more minor pruning more often, several times per year at crucial points, rather than once every year or every few years. It shouldn't end up being a lot more work in the end, because every cut you make should help avoid multiple problems later. More later....
4. PRUNING THE WRONG TIME OF YEAR
You'll find all sorts of opinions on when to prune this or that. It's seemingly quite complicated, and opinions on all sides are somewhat valid, even at opposite points of view . After extensive research, I determined the only way to figure it out is to look at each specie separately, use a bunch of logic and experience, and determine the actual objective for each pruning session. I'll have another post dedicated to all the specifics, which should clear all the confusion. In any case, probably the worst times to prune are between September and late November/early December, but this can vary with climate, specie, and the objective at hand. More later.....
The ultimate goal with pruning just about any tree is to make it look like it was NEVER pruned, but rather magically grew with proper balance, branching, shape and taper, all without human intervention, all the while looking informal and not like a lollipop or a mushroom. This achievement of a tree following the rules actually is quite rare in nature, and very, very few people have the skills to make this happen. Almost every tree you'll ever see has issues, no matter who pruned it or how frequently or infrequently. Bonsai experts are great at getting this look, ironically with the challenges of keeping the tree less than two feet tall. Very few tree surgeons, arborists, "expert" pruners or guys that advertise on Craigslist get it just right, usually not even remotely right. The best situation I come across is when I get a tree that's only a few years old that's been almost untouched, granted the growers usually already start it off on the wrong foot. They earlier I get my hands on it, the easier I can train it to look great and stay healthy. Any other condition usually means repairing botched earlier jobs, and a great-looking tree may take years of diligent pruning, but likely will never be close to perfect.
So here are the things almost nobody tells you about good pruning. You should NOT do these:
1. ATTAIN WHORLS & KNOBS. A whorl is a situation when there are more than two branches in one union, or more than one branch coming directly out of the trunk at one point. With a few exceptions where trees have a natural branching pattern of 3 branches that's hard to overcome, like some conifers, Chinese Pistache, Japanese Maples to a degree, etc., you should strive to have no more than 2 tree members in one spot. Each joint should look like a peace sign you make with your fingers, more or less. Plus you look really groovy. A far worse scenario involves leaving knobs or knuckles at the end of a branch. This is the result of repeatedly pruning the tip in the same spot, which led to these ugly monstrosities. They always look terrible and can only be corrected by cutting lower down the branch, which is problematic except in the most vigorous trees. People have commonly, peculiarly, and horribly mistakenly, decided to do this most frequently with Mulberry trees and Crape Myrtles, and it's a real crime. Unfortunately, once a whorl is mature, it's usually better to leave it than remove it, since removal will probably be a permanent, obvious blemish, especially if over 2" in diameter. Sometimes, the decision to remove one or more of the branches is obvious, but often takes great thought. If there's one of several branches on the inside, it's usually the best one to take out, so the scar will be hidden and it will open up the canopy. Liontailing is also to be avoided, where all smaller branches are removed from a larger branch except at the very tip. Not at all sensible. Also, take a look at almost every tree you pass by. You'll see almost without exception, one or more branches coming out of the trunk about 6' off the ground. This is usually done so that people can walk under them, and that's ok, though not always necessary. Problem is, there's almost always more than one branch coming out in the same spot.
This is a clear no-no, and it creates a giant bulge. The opposing branches should be staggered and separated by a discernable distance which varies by the size of the tree, thus avoiding various whorls or a huge swollen lump in that section of the tree. And branches on the same side of the tree should be spaced appropriately, which will also vary. It takes a keen eye to determine the right distance apart. Nature determines much of that by node spacing.
2. LEAVING STRAIGHT, UNTAPERED BRANCHES. Branches in most trees naturally tend to taper noticeably, and usually don't keep going straight, but either curve or branch off in a slight direction, or divide into two or more smaller branches.. A lack of taper doesn't look right, but it also means the branch is probably too heavy at the end, and probaby too big in relation to the scale of the trunk or the overall tree. This is common where someone either removed most of the secondary branches from the larger branch, or just let it grow too long, possibly while cutting some of the upper trunk. Since growth is more vigorous at the tip, it lets girth accumulate faster toward the tip. There's no exact formula, but a guideline is to avoid a branch being more than half the diameter of the trunk at the point of attachment. Taking care of all this takes good diligence and ability to figure out how the tree is likely to grow. Pay attention to oak trees in the wild. They have curving, tapering branches and usually no whorls, and look fantastic. They would l look even better if they were meticulously pruned all their lives.
3. INFREQUENT PRUNING
The best scenario is to do more minor pruning more often, several times per year at crucial points, rather than once every year or every few years. It shouldn't end up being a lot more work in the end, because every cut you make should help avoid multiple problems later. More later....
4. PRUNING THE WRONG TIME OF YEAR
You'll find all sorts of opinions on when to prune this or that. It's seemingly quite complicated, and opinions on all sides are somewhat valid, even at opposite points of view . After extensive research, I determined the only way to figure it out is to look at each specie separately, use a bunch of logic and experience, and determine the actual objective for each pruning session. I'll have another post dedicated to all the specifics, which should clear all the confusion. In any case, probably the worst times to prune are between September and late November/early December, but this can vary with climate, specie, and the objective at hand. More later.....
Friday, August 14, 2015
Therapist, Not THE RAPIST, for Your Trees
Therapist, not The Rapist. Sometimes having auto spell correction go awry can get people all panicky. Isn't it funny that the two terms are complete opposites? Your trees all need therapy. Think of me as a tree therapist. If something isn't right, I'll just cut it off and that will be the end of that problem. If you want drugs for your trees, call someone else. I only deal with surgery and moral support. Most people actually do kinda rape your trees, albeit unwittingly, and you don't want that.
Most people really don't know what it takes to help trees be their best. They usually don't pick the right trees for the ongoing relationship. Then, they neglect them or completely mismanage them until they see things aren't right. Imagine if their family members were so abused.
At that point, they usually hack at the tree themselves with little education or proper equipment or get someone equally or even more unqualified and less attached to hack it up for them. This usually makes things worse. It can take several to many years to overcome a single hacking festival. I figure for every poor pruning job, there's at least 2 years needed to recover once the trauma ends. 3 or 4 years of mistreatment means once it gets on the right track, it might be 5 to 10 years before it can look good again. And maybe never if it was really screwed up.
Some people think trees can take perfect care of themselves, but this isn't true and I'll explain why in a future post. On the other hand, bad pruning is worse than no pruning at all. Even worse, some people hire arborists to do the needed work. Most arborists are good at diagnosing problems and fixing them to an extent. But they usually aren't very good at making trees look great. They're more like a mechanic working on your transmission, when what you need is someone who has the visual skills and finesse of someone who paints the car. Or like a proctologist when mostly what you need is a plastic surgeon.
That's where I come in. I do what they call aesthetic pruning. This is what you apply to pretty much every tree for which the purpose is to look good and be healthy, not to make juice or sweet, crunchy nuts for you.
You don't just prune a tree every few years and expect it to look great. The best trees are maintained throughout most of the year. Ultimately this doesn't take much longer, and can save time in the long run. Trees that are maintained properly will avoid losing branches or toppling in a big storm. And managing a tree while it's 20 feet tall rather than waiting until it's 50 makes everything much better and safer.
Most people really don't know what it takes to help trees be their best. They usually don't pick the right trees for the ongoing relationship. Then, they neglect them or completely mismanage them until they see things aren't right. Imagine if their family members were so abused.
At that point, they usually hack at the tree themselves with little education or proper equipment or get someone equally or even more unqualified and less attached to hack it up for them. This usually makes things worse. It can take several to many years to overcome a single hacking festival. I figure for every poor pruning job, there's at least 2 years needed to recover once the trauma ends. 3 or 4 years of mistreatment means once it gets on the right track, it might be 5 to 10 years before it can look good again. And maybe never if it was really screwed up.
Some people think trees can take perfect care of themselves, but this isn't true and I'll explain why in a future post. On the other hand, bad pruning is worse than no pruning at all. Even worse, some people hire arborists to do the needed work. Most arborists are good at diagnosing problems and fixing them to an extent. But they usually aren't very good at making trees look great. They're more like a mechanic working on your transmission, when what you need is someone who has the visual skills and finesse of someone who paints the car. Or like a proctologist when mostly what you need is a plastic surgeon.
That's where I come in. I do what they call aesthetic pruning. This is what you apply to pretty much every tree for which the purpose is to look good and be healthy, not to make juice or sweet, crunchy nuts for you.
You don't just prune a tree every few years and expect it to look great. The best trees are maintained throughout most of the year. Ultimately this doesn't take much longer, and can save time in the long run. Trees that are maintained properly will avoid losing branches or toppling in a big storm. And managing a tree while it's 20 feet tall rather than waiting until it's 50 makes everything much better and safer.
Spreading the TreeDawg Seed
Spreading my seed is something I've always wanted to do. Fun. However, I spend a lot more time dealing with the established seeds of others.
Trees are one of my biggest passions. Collecting, pruning, studying and hugging. I have some definite goals with my own growing collection of trees, and some are yet to be determined.
In addition, I manage and repair and improve trees for others but avoid hugging them. It pains me to see how the vast majority of trees are badly managed even when most people think things are fine or they're just unaware. I aim to make everyone's trees as spectacular as even a mundane tree can be. Even if they look bad now, there's a good chance they can be greatly improved.
My plan for this blog is to discuss all things about trees as they come about, with a big focus on learning about tree species and properly managing what we have. If you hang in there with me, you can learn to appreciate trees much more than you do now. If you don't appreciate trees now, well, then, life holds little hope for you. Trees are your best friends and you don't even realize it.
Please forgive my punnery and use of unorthadox saucy language for my tree lovin' articles. I assure you it's really harmless. Just bear with me and you won't feel a thing.
Trees are one of my biggest passions. Collecting, pruning, studying and hugging. I have some definite goals with my own growing collection of trees, and some are yet to be determined.
In addition, I manage and repair and improve trees for others but avoid hugging them. It pains me to see how the vast majority of trees are badly managed even when most people think things are fine or they're just unaware. I aim to make everyone's trees as spectacular as even a mundane tree can be. Even if they look bad now, there's a good chance they can be greatly improved.
My plan for this blog is to discuss all things about trees as they come about, with a big focus on learning about tree species and properly managing what we have. If you hang in there with me, you can learn to appreciate trees much more than you do now. If you don't appreciate trees now, well, then, life holds little hope for you. Trees are your best friends and you don't even realize it.
Please forgive my punnery and use of unorthadox saucy language for my tree lovin' articles. I assure you it's really harmless. Just bear with me and you won't feel a thing.
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