Reasons for Pruning Trees

In the Brazos Valley, most trees can be pruned year-round, but if you had to pick the best time to prune trees, it would be during the time of year when trees are most dormant from late fall to early spring.  Pruning is the removal of plant parts for safety reasons and to improve the health and appearance of the tree.  Pruning permanently alters a tree’s direction of growth.  Before making the first cut, have a clear reason to prune the tree.

Trees can sometimes become a safety hazard and require corrective pruning.  Dead, split, and broken branches that are a potential hazard to people and property should be removed.  Sometimes exceptionally long or heavy branches need to be pruned to reduce the potential for limb breakage.  Limbs that hamper visibility, especially near traffic intersections, should be pruned to improve visibility.  The overall size of a tree that has overgrown other plants, walkways, and buildings may need to be reduced with proper pruning.  Branches that interfere with electrical wires should also be removed, however, only professionals should remove these limbs.

Pruning can even be used to improve tree health.  Removing disease or insect infested branches, such as pear trees with fire blight or oaks with hypoxylon, can be beneficial to the tree.  Thinning a tree’s canopy allows greater penetration of light and air to inhibit diseases, like powdery mildew on crape myrtles, which develops in low light and high humidity.  In some situations, pruning can invigorate a tree and stimulate new growth; however, pruning live tissue from severely stressed trees can have a negative impact on tree health.

The most common reason that trees are pruned is to improve the tree’s appearance.  Pruning a tree can reveal the architectural structure of the scaffold limbs.  Pruning can direct future growth and improve the shape of out-of-proportion trees.  Vista pruning or raising low limbs can enhance a tree’s appearance as well as protect property from rubbing limbs.  Sometimes trees are even pruned to develop functional structures like hedges or screens.  Regardless of the reason for pruning, once your objectives have been determined and a few basic principles understood, the benefits of pruning can be well worth the effort.

For more information about pruning mature trees, go to:

https://www.treesaregood.org/Portals/0/TreesAreGood_Pruning%20Mature%20Trees_0721_1.pdf