How to Prune Deciduous Trees

Dave and Henry Patt talk about the best time to prune deciduous trees and discuss pruning techniques.

(Music Playing) David Epstein: Welcome to Growing Wisdom, this week we are going to be talking about how prune a Deciduous Tree. Depending on the time of year, it depends on really what you are going to prune, so here we are we are talking about end of July, August, and to September; what should be doing for your Deciduous trees. Those are the trees that lose their leaves during the course of the winter, so again our expert Henry Patt is here and Henry we got a Dogwood here. Henry Patt: Right. David Epstein: August is this time frame, what do we want to be doing with this? Henry Patt: We want to encourage the flower buds for next year and by pruning it at this time of the year, it does encourage the flower buds to form. You can see that these look like round balls they are actually the seeds of a Kousa Dogwood and they are going to be a beautiful orange red color in the fall which is very pretty. However, we want to encourage the smaller branches to form some flower buds and by going back here and pruning there where we have some smaller branches. You are cutting it and you not showing the cut too much and this here is going to invigorate the tree more. The amount of food that would be going into this now has to go else where into the plant and therefore you are going to encourage forming more of the flower buds for next year. David Epstein: What about a Maple tree or any of the other trees? Henry Patt: I would leave that towards the end of winter to prune, if you doing a Japanese maple, you can prune always to make them more full and bushy since they are not a very bushy plant. David Epstein: What should I look for in order to know where to prune like if I have never pruned before I am going to be nervous. Henry Patt: By pruning it so a small bird can fly through the branching, you got to have good air drainage. If the branches cross then you will cut off one of those branches that cross. You do not want branches crossing and rubbing on each other. David Epstein: Okay, so you want an open airy look and you do not want branches crossing and that sort of what you are looking to prune for. Henry Patt: Right that is correct. David Epstein: Alright, thanks Henry. Henry Patt: Okay. David Epstein: Alright, so today we have learned about pruning Deciduous trees especially those that flower at the end of July through August, a good time to be pruning. If you have regular Maple trees or oak trees you really do not need to be pruning those right now but you can, you may want to wait until later in March or early April to prune those. Come back every week for all of our tips here at GrowingWisdom.com. (Music Playing)