Winter Pruning: Maintain Your Trees During Cold Months

Nick Bates from Davey's Long Island office shares the importance of winter pruning and how to do so correctly and efficiently. 

In this episode we cover:  

• Why is it important to prune trees this time of year? (:41) (15:11)
• How does weather affect pruning? (2:07)
• Is there a correct way to explain pruning? (2:57)
• Why you should let professionals prune your trees (4:29)
• Using the right tools and preventing diseases (6:17) 
• The proper way to prune a branch (7:48)
• Can black knot disease be cut out? (9:28)
• How Nick got to Davey (12:48)
• Are there certain species that are easier to prune? (14:13)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about winter pruning, read our blog, Winter Tree Pruning: Young Trees, Fruit Trees, Spring Flowering Trees.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!

Transcript

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Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer. I'm joined this week by Nick Bates. He's a district manager at the Long Island office of the Davey Tree Expert Company. Nick, today we're talking all about dormant pruning. How are you today? Welcome to the show.

Nick Bates: I'm doing good. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Doug: Why are we pruning at this time of the year?

Nick: Realistically, it's the best time of the year for the tree's health. If you think about it, when you go to get surgery, you want to be asleep for it. It's the same for the trees. They're already dormant, and all their energy's stored away. You're not cutting any of that extra energy. There's no insects or diseases out. It's just the best.

Doug: Let's talk about oaks and elms. What I've learned over the years of doing the podcast, it's especially important to prune those trees while they're dormant. When possible, never get into them when they're in their growing season.

Nick: Yes, that's correct. It's a big thing here on Long Island. Over the last five years, it's showed face, but I know further down south, it's pretty prevalent, the oak wilt. We've been shifting towards making sure anytime we do any oak trees that we're doing it while they're dormant. That's because insects transport that disease relatively quickly in any fresh cuts. If you do it when it's frozen out and the insect's not out, you've got a less chance of spreading it. It's the same with the Dutch elm disease, too, for the elms. As much as you can avoid it, it's well worth just waiting for the dormant season.

Doug: When you're setting up a pruning, how does the weather affect when you're going to go there, when you're not? You don't want to be out there right when it's snowing or anything like that. You want to wait until it's a nice day, or how do you do it?

Nick: Yes, there's definitely a lot of variables. I think what my guys don't like the most is when the branches are icy when they're climbing on it, because that's not fun. Other than that, it's usually not too bad. You don't want it too wet or slippery. Wind is a big variable. You don't want to be rocking around in the canopy of the tree. The better the weather, just the more convenience. It doesn't necessarily always make a big difference on the health of the tree when they're dormant. It does in the growing season, but not so much in the wintertime.

Doug: Is there a way to explain the correct way to prune a tree, or do you have to see someone do it? I've always said that, in my opinion, it's a combination of art and science. Not all arborists agree with me on that.

Nick: Yes, I totally agree. That's why we're called an arborist, an enginist, because it's also partially an art form. It's totally true. In my opinion, I say opinion because we're all different, but if a tree looks like it was pruned, to me, I think it was a bad job. I think everything you do should maintain that natural form of the tree itself, not over-pruning it where it looks like little lion's tails at the end, or just pollarding it, where you just cut off all the branches. It's horrible. You've got to just maintain the natural shape. The trees have been around for millions of years. They know what they're doing best. It's just helping.

Doug: What am I going to hear when I'm driving around in your truck and you look at one of these trees that's completely been either topped or wrongly pruned?

Nick: That's horrible. Not really good things. I don't like it. I definitely always recommend fertilizer or something, especially if the person really loves their tree, they want to keep it alive as long as they can. Take good care of it. They went through a ton of shock, so giving it extra care will definitely prolong its life.

Doug: From a homeowner's standpoint, we don't want them up on a ladder with a chainsaw. Leave it to the professionals. Speak to that a little bit, please.

Nick: Yes. I wouldn't recommend ever cutting anything while you're on a ladder. It's one of the best things. You can watch those videos of guys messing up, knocking the ladder off on one of them. It's very important to be secure. That's why it's very hard, the work that we do. It's dangerous, especially if you're not doing it correctly.

We go through tons of training to get our guys climbing and doing everything appropriately. You can't learn that stuff in schools either. It's something you really have to do and spend a lot of time around it and constantly keep up on it. You'll always be learning a ton of different knots, ropes, tools. It's always evolving, too. It's endless.

Doug: I know safety is the number one concern, just from doing the podcast. When the guys from Davey are on my property, it is an amazing thing to watch. Making sure those things are not dropping on something that they would hit, making sure that the climber is safe, I think it's an amazing thing to watch.

Nick: We have a lot of clients. I've even seen guys across the street just put out a lawn chair and just watch us work in the tree. It's a good show for the day. I always recommend homeowners be there to see, so they understand the amount of time it really takes to set it up and do things correctly. That's important, too. It's a lot of training, knowing what the weight of something is you're going to cut, so you can properly control it, so everything's controlled and done safely. Safety is everything.

Doug: Let's go back to our homeowners again. Let's say their feet are on the ground. Discuss the importance of the right tools, sharp tools, and not spreading diseases from one plant to the next.

Nick: That's a great question, one that should be asked more. When you're talking about really bad diseases, like the Dutch elm disease or the oak wilt, or even black knots of the cherries, you can spread those very easily by using the same tools. If you go from one property, and you'd say you're pruning all the black knots out of a plum tree, and you go to the next, you could just give it right to that healthy new plum tree.

Sanitizing tools in between is definitely important. Usually, we just use a spray Lysol. It's perfect. That'll kill off a lot of the fungal spores sitting on any tools. Sharpening is also a major key of safety as well. The better your saw cuts, the more efficient it is. It's easier on your body mechanically. A lot of times, if you're going to cut yourself, it's because you're not using a sharp tool. You're pulling on it really hard, using excessive force than what's really needed. That's where usually the mistakes happen.

Doug: Using the right kind of saw, a pruning saw, don't go out there with something else. It's crazy.

Nick: Correct. You don't want to be using a lumber saw on a big branch. That would not be a good time.

Doug: Again, feet on the ground. We've got a smaller branch, but it's big enough and long enough that if I did that in one cut, it's going to tear the bark off. Discuss a little bit about the proper way to prune a branch. Again, feet on the ground, not too big, not taking on more than you should.

Nick: Yes, that's a good one. I would say if it's too big to do with a hand pruner, then I would say the next option is to go use your pruning handsaw designed for live branches. The trick, especially if it's a semi-longer branch and there's a lot of weight on the ends, you cut the bottom side a little bit first and outside from where the branch collar is. Then you cut down so it doesn't tear all the way down through the trunk. Then you just finish off that little stub just back to the branch collar so it can properly heel over at the end there because that's the major thing.

Doug: About how much do we leave when we're done pruning there? When we make that final third cut, about how much should be sticking out? I'm sure it depends on trees and branches and such, but in general.

Nick: Yes, exactly. The species of trees vary a lot. It all basically goes off of what we call the branch collar. You can see it when you look closely at the branch. It's almost like a donut coming off the trunk of the tree, coming out of the branch. You want to cut it just outside of that as close as you can, but without cutting into it. That'll get it so it can close off.

Doug: I want to go a little bit off topic and go back to black knot because I ran a little fishing place, and they've got fruit trees there, and they have black knot. If it's really bad, is it the end of the tree, or can that all be cut out, or does it depend on how severe it is?

Nick: Depends how severe it is. Generally, almost with all things, the unhealthier the tree, the worse the disease usually is because it's really a secondary. It's going to take advantage of the trees that are in a lot of stress already. If they're in good health, a lot of the times they can compartmentalize as it slows them down and keeps them under control on their own. When they're stressed, it'll spread like crazy and get everywhere, to the point where if you're cutting it all out, you're cutting every live branch of the tree out. You have to figure out what's best. You don't want to cut too much of the plant where you're going to kill it, but you also want to get out as much of it as you can.

Doug: I thought it was interesting when you said, when you look at a tree after you're done pruning, that you shouldn't be able to tell it was pruned. That's pretty interesting. That takes planning, right?

Nick: Oh, yes. Definitely. And experience. There's a lot of different types of trees out there. They all have different forms, and you got to know the general consensus of what they really should look like naturally. You want to mimic that. When you're up in the canopy, one of the good tricks is to go all the way to the top first and then look down, and you can see everything better. It's a totally different perspective when you're in the top of the tree.

Then you'll see where all the dead branches are because usually the buds of the tree are aiming up, so you can see what's dead and what's not, what really shouldn't be there, the way that they're growing. Try not to look for any branches growing towards the main structural branches that'll be crossing or anything.

Doug: There are some things that flower in the spring that if you were to prune a branch, you might be removing those buds, right?

Nick: Yes, correct. Correct. Yes, there's a few species of plants. For example, like rhododendrons and dogwoods as well, where they already have their buds set for the year. Hydrangeas, as well. If you cut those buds off, then there goes the flowers for the next year. For a good example, a lot of people see this, at least in Long Island here, where the landscapers just hedge trim the hydrangeas straight across, and then it just looks like the next year, just like big leaves that come up, and you don't see any flowers.

Rhododendrons will be the same. You want to try to minimally cut those buds as much as you can. It's a good time of the year to cut out all the dead wood, and you can cut them down up to where the buds are for the hydrangeas, but the rhododendrons, the buds are right on the end. You can thin them out a bit, but you're not really going to reduce their size. If you want to do that, you really got to do it right after they finish flowering.

Doug: The number one garden question is, why doesn't my hydrangea bloom? Often, the answer is improper pruning.

Nick: Yes, exactly. That's a big part, especially here. They're always hedge-trimmed across. [laughs]

Doug: Nick, I wanted to talk a little bit about your job, how you got into it, and what you get out of it.

Nick: That's a good question. Yes, it's been a weird journey for me. I grew up splitting wood for my father for the mechanic shop since I was young. It taught me to really appreciate trees. From there, I went to school for traditional forestry. I thought I'd get out of the urban life and just go hiking around in the woods forever. Then I ended up coming back. Now, I'm here working for Urban Forestry. I worked before Davey.

It was great helping municipalities build up their urban forestry practices. Now, I'm working with homeowners, basically doing the same thing, but just their landscapes, helping them preserve what they can. I love it. There's nothing more that I really like than just talking about trees. You get to meet a broad spectrum of people here, all different cultures and everything.

You can just talk about them from many different perspectives. Some people love them. Some people hate them. Yes, it's finding the balance. It's solving a lot of issues, too. It's great. Every property you go to, they have endless issues that you get to figure out and help them solve.

Doug: Are there certain species that are easier to prune than others, or is it the same?

Nick: I would say there's some that are easy. Like foxwoods and privets, for example, or forsythia. You can almost do whatever you want to forsythia, and it's just unkillable. Things like rhododendrons or andromedas, they're just not as forgiving. They grow so slow. One mistake, you'll be looking at it for years.

Doug: Forsythia is a weed.

Nick: Yes, basically.

Doug: One-trick pony, but it's quite a trick in the spring. If you could, speak to that because you often see forsythia just pruned into a meatball as opposed to letting it grow in its natural form.

Nick: Yes, you can do whatever you want. If you're ever unhappy with it, you can literally just cut it right to the ground, at least here, and it'll come right back by the end of the year.

Doug: Why is this time of the year for pruning so important?

Nick: I would say when the leaves are off in the tree, for us, we can see the entire structure of the tree without any obstructions. It's the perfect time for us to get in the tree and see exactly what's going on, and we can fix it. If there's any cavities, cracks, anything, or one part of the tree is too thick versus the others, when the leaves are off, you get a great view of the tree itself.

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Doug: All right, Nick, I'm going to leave it right there. Good stuff. Appreciate it. Thanks, Nick.

Nick: Yes, thank you for having me.

Doug: Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I am your host, Doug Oster, and I'd like you to do me a little bit of a favor. Subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss a show. If you've got an idea for an episode, maybe a comment, there's a couple different ways to reach us.

You can send us an email at podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com, or you can click the link at the end of our show notes to text us a fan mail message. Your ideas might be on a future podcast, and we would love to hear from you. As always, we like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

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