Pruning trees and shrubs

Pruning improves tree and shrub health, appearance, and safety. It as well controls growth, boosts fruit production, and enhances biodiversity, hence attracting wildlife. Proper pruning improves air and water quality, lowers energy costs, and increases property value. 

In west Texas it is generally best to prune trees when temperatures cool off in the fall and before buds begin to grow in the spring. Removal of dead, broken, or damaged limbs can be done anytime. The worst time to trim a tree is in the spring just after it has budded out. At this time, the tree will already have used its energy to start new growth, and will not be able to recover from the trimming so quickly. Trimming trees at the right time is crucial to keeping them healthy. During the fall, the tree’s internal systems begin to slow, as it prepares to go dormant (hibernation). Entering a dormant state helps the tree survive the winter cold, frost, and ice. As the weather cools, the water in tree tissue becomes a starch of which then insulates cellular tissue against freezing damage. In dormancy, trees are able to heal wounds made from pruning before the serious stressors of spring, like disease and insects that come with the warmer temperatures.

Please keep in mind that proper trimming is not just a matter of timing, however, but also of technique. Trimming your trees at the proper time in the fall or winter cannot compensate for the damage done through over-trimming, lion-tailing, or topping. Even though a dormant tree can better withstand these damaging types of trimming, the overall health of the tree can still be debilitated.

●Lion-tailing

Also known as "stripping" or "gutting", this technique involves removing most of a tree's inner branches, leaving only a few leaves at the ends of the larger branches. This can cause the tree to become malnourished, susceptible to sunburn, and more likely to have branches break. The name comes from the resemblance to a lion's tail. 

●Over-trimming

Removing too many leaves from a tree can reduce its overall health and food production. Trees need leaves to produce food through photosynthesis and to protect the bark from sunburn. 

●Topping

This technique involves cutting branches back to points without any lateral branches. Foresters generally discourage to debilitating.

Wester Lawn Care provides professional tree care, assessing each tree's condition and using appropriate pruning techniques.