Professional Tree Trimming
Serving The Greater St. Louis & Metro East Areas
Tree trimming is often a required element in keeping a healthy and prosperous collection of trees that compliment your overall landscape design. Not only will having healthy trees improve the overall look and feel of your property, but mature trees, along with a manicured lawn, will often times increase property value.
At the very least, trimming trees can help ensure that you will have the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful, scenic view from your window.
Trees need to be trimmed for a variety of reasons:
- To remove dangerous, diseased or dead limbs
- Thin the crown to allow sunlight and air circulation
- Raise the crown to remove obstructive branches
- To reduce the height of the tree
Contacting a reputable tree trimming company such as Rite-A-Way Tree Service in the event any of the above is inflicted upon your trees is critical. Often times trimming a tree as soon as possible following an adverse event is crucial in determining whether or not the tree will survive.
Trimming flowering trees: “Timing, timing, timing!”
Most flowering trees set their blossoms the year before they bloom. Therefore, they won’t bloom if these flower buds are trimmed off the tree. The best rule is to always trim flowering trees within 3 weeks of when they finish blooming. That should prevent you from inadvertently removing buds containing next year’s flower show.
A few other trees that shouldn’t be trimmed at certain times of the year are listed below:
MAPLES – Maples trimmed at certain times of the year will “bleed” or drip from the pruning cuts. Bleeding is most likely to occur when Maples are pruned in the seasons just before and right after winter. Studies indicate that “bleeding” doesn’t hurt the tree, so it becomes more of a cosmetic issue. If you want to prune Maples without bleeding, it must be pruned when it is fully dormant in the middle of winter, or during late spring or summer when it’s in full leaf.
DOGWOODS – If you trim Dogwoods in April or May, it will make them more susceptible to the dogwood borer. This insect severely damages the vascular system of the tree after boring into the trunk.
OAKS – Oaks should be not be trimmed from April thru October, due to the prevalence of Oak Wilt disease pathogens during that time frame.
Trimming trees in the right place
One of the biggest pruning mistakes is cutting off branches in the wrong place. Amateurs tend to leave too much of a stub when removing branches. Once the stub dies off, it creates an entry point for disease pathogens and destructive insects.
Unlike human beings, trees don’t regenerate tissue. While our skin replaces itself, trees grow new tissue around wounds and compartmentalizes them. Once a a tree compartmentalizes an old wound, it has a much better chance of survival.
Efforts should also be made not to wound tree trunks with lawnmowers, tractors and other machines. Trunk wounds create opportunities for destructive fungi.
A natural defense system is built into trees, in the swollen area at the base of branches, known as the “collar” — right where the trunk intersects the branch. Flush cuts are important to make, provided you don’t remove the collar. Proper pruning cuts should be made just beyond the collar, without leaving a stub, but still leaving the swollen area.