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Traute Klein, biogardener
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More Articles on Trees

Pruning Fruit Trees, Introduction
The why, when, and wherefore of pruning fruit trees of the rose family, including apples, cherries, plums, apricots, peaches.

Pruning Fruit Trees, Instructions
Simple directions learned from experts, designed to give maximum harvest. For rose family fruit.

Fruit for Frigid Climates
It can be done, if you pick the right varieties.

Healing Trees
The last section of this article discusses the properties of my favorite tree, the basswood tree, AKA Linde in German or Lime in English.

Trees Free for the Taking
Where to find trees to plant if you cannot afford to pay for them.

Propagating Water-guzzling Hardwoods
Here is the easiest way to propagate trees, provided that your land is swampy or at least under water in the spring.

Email from Heaven
The last section of this article discusses the properties of my favorite tree, the basswood tree, AKA Linde in German or Lime in English.

Amazon Pruning Books

More Tree Books at Amazon

Principles of Tree Pruning

by Traute Klein, biogardener

To help a tree to grow to its maximum potential, it may be necessary to prune it. To prune a tree properly, we need to observe its growth pattern. There is proper season for the pruning of every type of tree.

A Right Time for Every Tree

Trees are my favorite plants. I observe them like people, learning their habits and preferences. I treat them as individuals. They thank me by growing to their optimum purpose in life while in my care. In my early days of tree growing, I took advantage of any source of information which was available to me, but my most valuable knowledge has come from personal observation. I am naming some of my sources of information here to encourage you to find your own:

• a friend who owns the largest tree nursery in Manitoba
• a forester of the City of Winnipeg whose office doors are always open
• the agricultural representative of an Agriculture Canada Office
• library books

And here are some sources of help which I cannot recommend:

• neighboring gardeners. Most of them have little understanding of the needs of trees.
• municipal tree pruning crews. Their main concern is to keep branches away from power lines, street lighting, and street signs. The preferences of the tree are not on their to-do list.

The Basic Seasons of Tree and Shrub Pruning

Here are some rules of thumb for pruning trees and shrubs (excluding fruit trees which are covered in a special article which is linked below).

1. Deciduous trees which flower before the end of May are pruned as soon as blooming is over.
2. Deciduous trees which flower after May are pruned between January and March.
And now, let's look at the topic in more detail. Since I am sharing my own experience with trees, I can only talk about those which grow in the cold Canadian prairies.

Flowering Shrubs

These are mainly lilacs, forsythia, and mock orange. They are pruned immediately after blooming. Missing one timely pruning of lilacs can severely handicap the flower production for years to come. Right after blooming, I break or cut off all branches which carried flowers. By preventing seed production, strength is preserved for next year's blooms.

Some flowering shrubs are grown mainly for their seeds or berries. Those do not get pruned except when they are threatening to take over the neighborhood. In my garden, those are elderberries and wild roses. I try to eliminate the branches which have no berries on them, and the timing does not seem to make much difference. The branches are dry year round and pruning does not produce bleeding nor does it seem to stimulate an excess of new shoots.

Shade Trees

In zones 2 and 3, those are mainly Manitoba maple, green ash, North American elm, and basswood.

Because of its slow growth, a basswood tree does not require pruning except for the removal of damaged branches which are cut off at the joint where they start. Since the tree does not bleed, this can be done at any time.

North American elm is susceptible to Dutch elm disease. Many municipalities regulate the timing of pruning and wood removal, and you need to ascertain your local rules before you touch a tree. In Manitoba, we are not allowed to prune elm until August. The storage of the wood is forbidden at any time. For safe storage, the bark would have to be stripped immediately after cutting, because the beetles burrow between the bark and the wood. When the cuttings are fresh, the bark can be peeled off easily. Once it dries, it gets extremely leathery and can barely be cut or sawed.

Winnipeg boulevards are among the few in Canadian cities which still has a large stand of North American elm. They spread their arches across the streets like the graceful supports inside Gothic cathedrals. We have an intensive program of Dutch elm disease prevention. The pruning of the trees is done in the winter, because at that time, all beetles are inactive in our climate, and forestry work crews have fewer duties elsewhere.

Manitoba maple is the worst bleeder of any tree around here, and it needs to be pruned in the heat of summer, July and August, when the water supply is too sparse to facilitate bleeding. Pruning at any other time may cause months of bleeding which exhausts the tree.

Green elm follows the same rules are Manitoba maple.

Evergreens

Evergreens are pruned for effect and to slow growth. Christmas tree stands of Scotch pine get annual haircuts to produce a compact shape. Don't look at those trees too closely, because the branches get an unnatural appearance which bothers me. I seem to feel the tree's pain at having its limbs shortened indiscriminately. I might also compare it to cutting off fingers instead of fingernails. I would much prefer the Charlie Brown Christmas tree look.

I prune needle trees without impeding their growth or damaging their graceful appearance. The timing, however, is crucial. I catch them when the lime-green new shoots first burst out of their coverings. Here that happens to be in May, but in most of the country, if would be earlier. I simply snap off half of each shoot with my fingernails, but ordinary scissors also work well. Early Canadian settlers learned from the natives that those shoots are a rich source of vitamin C. They have a lovely, slightly acidic taste, and all of the pinchings get popped into my mouth.

Never, never saw off the bottom branches of needle trees. They keep the soil cool. The roots of needle trees lie barely an inch under the soil. Without the protection of those branches, the soil soon dries out, and the tree dies, at least it does in our hot and dry prairie summers. In their natural habitat, needle trees start life in the shade of mature trees, either deciduous or evergreen. Without coolness and shade they cannot prosper. Also remember that their roots need to be interlocked with those of other needle trees to give them stability in a storm. Don't try to grow one lonesome needle tree, no matter what a nursery salesman tries to tell you. Many of those show trees have fallen right through the roofs of houses. Whoever thought that the cute little foot-high tree of 40 years ago would take its ultimate revenge in such a dramatic manner!

Arbor vitae or cedars actually thrive with annual haircuts. Their growth gets denser and the look is not impaired. The timing does not appear to make much difference, because those trees do not bleed. I have heard, however, that the autumn is a good time.

Fruit Trees

Fruit tree pruning takes up a lot of time, but at least it is done in the winter, when gardeners have more time. My two articles on fruit tree pruning are linked in the left column.

© Traute Klein, biogardener