Winter Tree Pruning Can Be A Great Idea!

Proper winter tree pruning is a technique that can improve the aesthetic appeal, health, and vigor of your trees.

Below are some benefits of wintertime pruning:

1. In the wintertime, most trees are dormant and so are the insects and diseases that can invade the pruning cuts.
2. After the leaves have fallen, you can quickly view the tree’s structure and form. Diseased and damaged limbs are more apparent when not hidden with leaves.
3. Pruning in the summer or fall can encourage new growth that might not harden off before the cold weather hits. This doesn’t matter in the winter.
4. Winter pruning is right for your trees, providing them with plenty of energy to rapidly heal wounds and instigate spring growth that will disguise the pruning cuts.
5. Winter pruning is right for your health, providing you a reason to get outside on a warm winter day to take pleasure in your landscape.

Even though the wintertime is a great time to prune, if the tree is a spring flowering one and the blooms are crucial to you, it may be best to wait and prune that tree right after it is finished blooming. Even though pruning spring flowering trees in the winter will not harm their health, it can diminish those blooms. If you don’t know if your tree is a springtime flowering one or not, ask a York arborist for assistance.

Why Prune?
The usual reason that folks prune their trees is to maintain or lessen the size of a tree. Other reasons to prune are:

• Removing damaged, diseased, or dead limbs
• Increase fruits or flowers
• Stimulate growth
• Eliminate branches that are obstructing or interfering with buildings or pedestrians,

Winter is a favorite time to prune trees. Almost all the leaves have fallen, and you can see the tree structure. With a straight sightline to the tree’s interior growth behaviors, it is usually more straightforward for an arborist to detect structural problems and make the right pruning decisions.

Pruning modifies the growth and form of the tree so any questions must be asked before pruning is started.