Essential Tree Trimming Tips

Why is Tree Trimming Important?

Tree trimming is essential both for the health and appearance of your trees. Trimming is an important safety procedure as well, as it keeps branches from falling in potentially dangerous ways.

Tree Trimming: Dos & Don'ts

  • DO perform major trimming in the fall or winter before spring growth bursts.
  • DON’T trim trees that are actively transmitting diseases like Oak Wilt, as the disease can be spread through trimming wounds.
  • DO educate yourself on the specific trimming needs of individual types of tree and particular trimming situations or hire professional tree trimming services.
  • DON’T trim any branch without good reason.
  • DO trim back young branches in order to reduce the size and height of the tree.
  • DON’T “top” trees, or cut off the branches at the canopy.
Kinnucan Tree Experts & Landscape Company - Tree trimming services in action, man trimming tree.

What Are the Reasons for Tree Trimming?

There are a variety of reasons why a tree may need to be trimmed, both for its own good and for the good of other plants around it or because of the needs of the home or business owner. Here are some of the primary reasons why you may need tree trimming.

Remove Damaged, weak, or sick branches

As a tree grows, some branches are shaded by developing branches and begin to die due to a lack of light and airflow. This is a natural process as trees grow. All trees will have dead or dying branches at some point in their development.

These weakened branches are susceptible to disease and insects. Because disease or insects could potentially spread to the rest of the tree and because these branches will eventually fall, causing damage to whatever is below or potentially injuring somebody walking underneath, it is important that these weakened branches are trimmed.

Thin Branches

It is easy to assume that more branches are a good thing for a tree, but in fact, many trees grow too many branches for them all to do well. Branches can crowd each other out, reducing the light and airflow that each branch gets and making the tree less healthy overall. Branches can be selectively thinned in order to allow the best possible health, light, and airflow for branches that remain.

Raise the Canopy

Sometimes tree trimming is performed in order to make trees more attractive and functional. Trees that have their first branches over head height make it much easier for you to navigate your yard and open up more ground for gardening. The canopy may also need to be raised in order to accommodate a vehicle or something else underneath the tree.

Reduce a Tree's Size or Height

Tree trimming can be performed in order to reduce the overall size or height of a tree. This may be because a tree is getting tall enough to interfere with power lines or grow into a roof or it may be for the purpose of keeping fruiting or flowering trees small enough to harvest easily and be aesthetically pleasing.

Tree Trimming Throughout Your Tree's Life

Your tree will have different trimming needs throughout its life. It's not a bad idea for homeowners to stay with the same tree trimming companies throughout their tree’s life, as professionals learn the particular quirks of your trees and provide personalized care for their needs throughout their lives. Here are some things to keep in mind at each stage.

Trimming Saplings

Many people neglect trimming very young trees, assuming that it is best to wait until the tree is older to perform trims. Unfortunately, this only sets a tree up for failure. Given unlimited light and growth in are well-maintained gardens, young trees soak up the sun and send out lots of branches.

It's certainly a good thing for young trees to grow plenty of branches, but without direction, these branches will compete with one another and make the tree weaker overall. Furthermore, your tree will develop to look more like a big bush than a proper tree. Here's how you should trim your sapling in order to provide it with the best possible growth.

  1. Identify a central branch that is strong, healthy, and doesn't have any damage.
  2. Shorten or remove any stems that compete with the central branch.
  3. Remove no more than about a quarter of the canopy at a time.
  4. Remove any broken, damaged, or diseased branches.
  5. Trim most branches from the lower trunk in order to encourage a high canopy, but leave one or two to draw energy into the trunk.
Kinnucan Tree Experts - up close of a branch cut off on a tree trunk.

Trimming Young Trees

By the time a young tree is around 8 or 10 ft tall, it will have filled out into the structure you created when it was a sapling and likely will be ready for additional trimming. If your tree has never received trimming before, it will probably need several trims as a young tree in order to re-establish a good shape. Here are some tips to providing excellent trimming for your young tree.

  1. Remove or trim branches that are competing with the central branch.
  2. Remove branches that are competing with primary branches, that is, branches that are growing off of or next to a stronger branch.
  3. Remove branches until the space between permanent branches is about 3% of the trees eventual height.
  4. Trim branches that have weak attachments, that is branches that grow at tight angles to one another or the trunk, as they will become weaker as they age.
  5. Make cuts just outside the collar of the branch so as to avoid doing more damage than necessary. The collar is where the branch thickens at the trunk.

TRIMMING MATURE Trees

Most people don't think to trim trees until they are well grown. At this point, it is often best to hire a tree trimming company, since some difficult decisions may need to be made about where trimming should occur and how extensive it should be. If you've been trimming your tree along and along, trimming a mature tree is much easier. Here are some things to keep in mind when trimming a mature tree.

  1. Remove any branches that are weak, diseased, or dying as well as heavily shaded branches that are likely to become weak as the tree’s growth progresses.
  2. Remove or trim young branches growing near the canopy of the tree in order to control upward growth and create a compact form
  3. Remove young branches that are growing from the trunk in competition with more mature branches and those that are growing at angles which will make their attachment weak in time
  4. Remove lower branches in order to raise the canopy

Why It May Be Best to Use Tree Trimming Services

If you're an avid gardener, it can be difficult to entrust your trees to anybody else. This may especially be the case when you have planted a sapling yourself and feel very defensive of its care. It is entirely possible for you to guide a tree’s growth throughout its life, but it is very important that you educate yourself on your particular species of tree as well as the fundamentals of tree trimming. Here are some of the reasons why you may choose to seek out professional tree trimming companies.

Expertise

The primary reason why you may want to use tree trimming services instead of trimming yourself is that there is a lot of knowledge and education that goes into becoming an arborist.  Reputable tree trimming companies with experienced arborist on staff have a vast wealth of knowledge about the needs of particular species, diseases that may be spread by trimming, and the cuts that need to be made in order to create a beautiful, strong, and healthy tree.

Regular Maintenance

You may be very excited to maintain your tree when it is young and it might not be very difficult to meet the tree trimming needs of a sapling or very young tree, but as the years go by, it can become more and more difficult to accomplish the trimming that your tree needs. Tree trimming services know your tree and can continue giving it what it needs year in and year out.

Safety

Tree trimming can be very dangerous. During a period that was studied between 1992 and 2007, a total of 1,285 people died while performing tree care and maintenance. 44% of these people were injured while performing tree trimming. People may be electrocuted, fall from trees, or be struck by limbs. Even if you are very comfortable with the tools necessary for tree trimming, accidents can easily happen. For your own safety, it may be best to stick to lower hazard gardening and leave the tree-trimming to the professionals.

Contact Kinnucan Tree Experts for Tree Trimming Services

After learning about the importance, difficulty, and potential danger of tree trimming you are probably wondering, “Where can I find reputable tree trimming near me?”

Kinnucan Tree Experts & Landscape Company are professional tree trimming services with experienced certified arborists on staff to address all of your tree trimming needs. Get in touch with Kinnucan today and give your trees the trim that they need to be strong, healthy, and beautiful.