Did you know that over-pruning can be as bad or even worse than not pruning them at all? Pruning helps to regulate the shape and size of a tree, promotes growth, or improves the quality of flowers or fruit. However, doing it right requires proper training and expertise.
That’s why you need to hire a certified arborist for professional pruning lest you end up with an over-pruned tree. Since the average homeowner doesn’t have a concrete understanding of tree health, they often over-prune their trees. Contact us for top-rated tree care in Bedford, NY, before you try to prune your own trees.
Over pruning can damage your tree in several ways. Below are six reasons why over-pruned trees are problematic.
1. Sunscald
An over-pruned tree can get sunscald from too much exposure to the sun. Sunscald can affect any part of the tree. If the damage reaches the tree’s inner tissue, fungi, insects, bacteria, and other organisms can attack the tree and cause irreversible damage.
2. Wind Damage
A healthy tree flexes and bends naturally. Proper pruning ensures that the tree can uniformly handle stress from forces of nature, such as winds. Over pruning dependency trees so that they have fewer lower limbs, for example, increases the stress load on the trunk and roots.
In such cases, high winds can cause the tree to experience structural failure.
3. Decay
Cutting a tree wounds it. Like any other type of wound, it will need time to heal. As a result, keeping cuts to the bare minimum is best for the tree.
You should make small cuts over a tree’s lifespan rather than larger ones. Too many cuts or one large one can destroy a tree. Although over-pruning may not kill your tree instantly, an over-pruned tree can die from long-term stress.
Hiring a certified and experienced arborist helps ensure your tree doesn’t undergo needless decay or disease.
4. Decreased Photosynthesis
Trees produce food through the leaves via photosynthesis. When you make one of the most common mistakes and remove excess foliage, it significantly reduces the tree’s ability to produce food for itself. Incorrect cuts can also allow pests and diseases to access the tree.
Pruning decreases the food’s storage, and you need to ensure the tree has enough foliage to stay strong and healthy.
5. Reduced Limb Strength
Trees need even amounts of foliage distribution and outward growth to balance the stress load rather than concentrate it at particular points. When you remove too much lateral growth or foliage, the tree undergoes more stress, potentially leading to limb breakage or weak tree branches that struggle to tolerate winds or ice loads. Sometimes, the plant may exhaust itself trying to replenish its canopy.
6. Interior Sprouting
An over-pruned tree reacts by growing internally rather than at the tip. Whenever you suddenly expose your tree to too much sun, it tries to protect its bark by producing interior growth or water sprouts.
Experience is crucial when it comes to pruning young or mature trees. If you give your tree a bad prune, don’t lose hope. Contact us to inspect your tree and fix it if possible so you can avoid harming or killing it.
Tree species differ and have varying reactions to pruning. As a result, there’s no one size fits all solution to handling over-pruned trees.
Do you need help with an over-pruned tree? Give North Eastern Tree, Shrub, & Lawn Care a call today at (888) 439-8733. Contact us for more information about our services and learn more about the tree insects you can find in New York.
