Hey everybody Seth Hawkins Georgia Forestry Commission here. Welcome to another episode
of our Ask the Arborist Tree Care video series. Today we're going to talk about proper tree
pruning. So we're going to demonstrate a little pruning and talk about the reasons
you would want to prune your trees. The first reason you prune a tree is for tree health and
vigor. And. the second reason would be you know tree structure and overall safety of those trees
especially once they start to get larger. And, the third reason would be aesthetics, flowering,
overall form, and just look of your backyard. So with that we'll go check out some trees see what
pruning we can do and kind of demonstrate some of that stuff. Hey guys say this is Alex Ballard and
Matt Peterson both also Community Foresters with the Georgia Forestry Commission and ISA
Certified Arborists. They're going to be our pruning crew for today and we're going
to do a little bit of pruning on this tree we planted about two planting seasons back. So
it's in need of just a little basic structural pruning to make sure it gets off on the right foot
to have really good safe structure down the road. So we talked about those three reasons for pruning
either for the tree health and vigor. So we'll remove things like these sucker branches and all
this just to help make sure resources get up the tree. sucker growth is the term used for those
little water sprouts that come out at the base of the tree and up the stem of the tree and it's
just good practice to go ahead and remove those. Then we'll talk about you know we'll prune for
structure and safety so we'll get some of these branches taken out of these crowded whirls here
getting any interior rubbing or crossing branches pruned out and things like that.
And, then that third reason to prune we talked about aesthetics. We'll just kind of shape this
crown a little bit bring it back into itself and make sure it has a nice symmetrical-looking crown.
Hey thanks, Alex. And, remember. Whenever you're doing any tree pruning safety gloves hard hat are
always a good idea especially when branches are up over your head you're trying to cut.
So as you can see matt's going to cut this sucker growth off the stem of the tree.
And you can see where he's making that cut right outside the branch collar of that little branch.
And, you'll notice that little bit of bulge coming off the stem that means he didn't get
into the branch collar and make it a flush cut. So that was a really good pruning cut.
But, we'll make sure to get all these suckers off just so we can make sure
we're getting all the water and resources going up to the foliage and up to the crown.
So now Alex is going to do a little bit more of structural pruning. What we were doing before was
kind of for the tree health; but, this is going to be for the long-term structure of the tree.
So again you notice all these same branches coming out of that one confluence so he's going to
take out some of those branches so they have a little more room to grow.
A branch confluence is a spot on the tree where multiple branches come out of the main stem at
one spot up the tree. Another thing you'll notice is we use the hand pruners for that sucker growth.
But, you notice the diameter on these branches get a little larger up here so it's really best
to use your hand loppers when you can. And right here, Alex is going to take this branch back to
its parent branch because you can see how this was kind of growing back into the center of the tree.
And, you'll see where he's taken it back to a crotch or a union on that branch.
You don't want to make an internodal cut and just cut it wherever. You make sure to cut it back to a union or a crotch or back to the main stem.
An internodal cut refers to a pruning cut that's either not at the branch collar or not at a node which is a spot at which a new branch would form.
And here's where Alex is just going to do some final cleanup you know making sure he gets any
small suckers that are coming off the main stem and just
cleaning up little twigs that maybe even shaded out in the interior of the canopy.
Quick Fact: Regular tree inspections and maintenance can help your trees weather storms, lower your energy bills and increase your home's value by as much as 15 percent.
so Matt and Alex are off assessing some other trees for their pruning needs.
I was going to take this time to show you all some maybe
not so great pruning from the past and how we can fix that and talk about some
larger branches how we can remove those without harming the tree further. So let's go check it out.
So this right here is an example of a past pruning cut that maybe isn't the
best pruning practices, right. You can see it's just an internodal cut leaving this big stub,
and if you look real closely, there's some fungal decay setting up in this
in this stub. And that fungal decay can use this stub to run right back into the parent stem
or into the parent branch that it's attached to. But, we can fix this
by making our cut at the proper place. It'll trigger the compartmentalization process and
seal off that wound rather than just having this rotting stub sticking out like this.
So I was talking about making the cut at the right place to trigger the compartmentalization process.
You know we want to cut back to either a crotch or a union or the main stem. We don't want to just
leave this stub on here allowing fungal decay to get back into the rest of the tree. So the
big thing here is you're going to be making sure you make this cut right outside that branch collar.
But, the big thing with a branch this size is using something arborist called the three cut method to
alleviate some of this weight when we take the final cut off because we don't want this to peel
bark down the side of the tree. The tree can't seal a wound on the side of its stem like that. So I'm
going to demonstrate the three cut method. I use this for pretty much anything bigger than my thumb.
Sometimes, it seems like overkill but I've seen some really small branches peel down a tree before.
So the big thing with the three cut method , it's not just a clever name, you make three cuts.
Again, the whole point is to alleviate weight before we make that third and final cut.
Your first cut is going to be an undercut about six inches out from that branch collar where you
want to make your final cut. So you make your undercut about halfway maybe a third to a half
way up from the underside of that branch. Your second cut will be starting from the top side
maybe about an inch inch and a half outside of that first undercut. And you're going to come
all the way down with that. Sometimes, it'll pop off and you'll get this nice little upside down
stair step-looking thing. Sometimes, if there's not enough weight on the branch, it'll just saw
all the way down through and you'll just have that stub again. So then your third and final cut, once
you've alleviated all that weight off that branch, we'll be coming back to your branch collar to make
your final cut in the right spot to trigger that compartmentalization process to seal that wound.
Hey thanks, y'all. So you see they got us all cleaned up and you can see we've got some pretty
good structure established in this tree now just from a little bit of basic pruning. You know basic
young tree structural pruning is something that most of us can do in our backyard
that will really improve the health and structure of our trees long term.
It can also save us a lot of time effort and money down the road. The earlier we intervene
and get good structure into a tree, the easier and more affordable it is to keep that tree with
good structure especially once it starts to get large. If you ever have any further
questions or want to learn more about pruning, our website, gatrese.org, has a lot of great resources
and pruning diagrams and other tree care topics. I also, invite you to visit our Ask the Arborist web
page where you can submit questions and pictures and our team of arborists will uh help answer your
tree care questions. So thanks for viewing today and I will see y'all in the next tree care video.