#76 - March 2024 - Garden Stuff -© Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz PRUNING TREESApril/May: Mid-late autumn. Tidying time. You’ve a too-big, too-shady tree? Pruning big trees is risky - high ladders, heavy logs, sharp saws. If in doubt don’t. Call an arborist. But for those with smaller trees or life assurance. Tree size, shape: A too-big or misshapen tree can be made smaller or more beautiful by careful pruning. •If you cut out the highest branch, it will be shorter. •If you cut out an asymmetrical branch, it will be better shaped. •If you cut out an overcrowded branch it will be more uniform. •If you cut out a diseased branch, it will be healthier. So, take a photo. Print it. Use a pen to mark the cuts to remove selected branches. Change your mind and nothing’s lost – it takes 5 min to cut off a branch but 5 years to regrow one. When you’ve decided the cuts on paper, use house paint to mark them on the tree. Good/bad cuts: •Don’t make ‘heading cuts’ (partway along a branch) to leave an ugly stump, and the tree grows an ugly ‘lollipop’ of shoots on the stump end. •Instead make ‘thinning cuts’ (take out whole branches at the base). Do it right and you hardly see a cut has been made. •Remove big branches stepwise. Start at the tip. Cut off short bits till you get near the base. •Make a penultimate cut 10 cm out from the final cut. Then the final cut removes only a short bit - less chance of it ripping bark as it falls. •Trees have a ‘collar’ (bark ridges) at the base of each branch. A collar is a filter. Stops disease entry. Make the final cut about 2 cm out from the collar. Response: If you remove a branch, growth is more vigorous next year. Make some cuts this year, some next. Tools: Use hand tools not power (safer). (1) Secateurs, (2) loppers, (3) pruning saw, (4) bow saw. Don’t strain (RSI/OOS). If (1) is difficult, use (2), or (3), or (4) etc. A tool’s sharp edges are thin edges, so rust fast. So, oil tools after use to keep them sharp (pottle of sticky chainsaw oil, a brush). Pruning is surgery. Don’t spread disease. Sanitise tools between trees (meths kills germs). Don’t prune in wet weather (quick drying kills germs). Seal off larger cuts (house paint). ___________________________________