Lafayette Tree Service Bringing Sexy Back Into Your Yards

Category: Tree Pruning

Posted on

Can Pruning A Tree Help To Slow Its Growth?

Alamo Tree Removal

Keeping trees and shrubs in good condition involves regular tree care and pruning to maintain their health, and to keep them under control. Tree pruning helps to conserve a tree’s energy, manage its size and change its shape. But can pruning a tree actually change a tree’s growth?

Benefits of Tree Pruning

Tree pruning can help to keep your trees neat and tidy and is an essential service that can be offered by a qualified arborist. Pruning can remove dead or diseased branches, thin canopies, change the shape of tree canopies and improve fruit crop. Having your trees trimmed regularly is essential for optimum tree health.

Pruning Effect on Canopy Growth

Pruning both immediately changes the characteristics of the canopy and impacts growth within the canopy. Because the leaves are the energy and food producing centers of a tree, pruning live tissues will always have an impact on growth. However, pruning dead tissues and branches simply clears them away, without impacting growth.

Skillful pruning by an experienced arborist can help to control the size and shape of your canopy. The more that outer growth and primary branches are pruned back, the more growth will be concentrated on smaller branches close to the tree. This can produce tight dense canopies. For optimal tree health, canopies that allow sunlight and air to filter through can be more beneficial. By pruning marginal branches and leaving active leader branches, your arborist can help you promote trees with healthy growth along the strongest branches, resulting in a large and dispersed canopy.

Pruning Effect on Root Growth

Any pruning of living tissue will affect root growth to some extent. Pruning back active branches diminishes a tree’s ability to produce food, so there will be less root growth. Care should be taken not to ‘top’ trees when pruning to reduce root growth, as this can eliminate any opportunity for the tree to produce food, resulting in tree death.

While pruning may help to slow root growth, it shouldn’t be counted on as a way to control root growth. If you require the trees in your garden to have non-invasive root systems, it’s better to choose tree and shrub varieties that have non-invasive roots naturally.

Pruning Effect on Fruit Growth

Pruning trees skillfully can actually help to produce larger fruit in a greater quantity. Pruning trees in late winter, removing small secondary branches, can help to focus resources and energy on the major branches that will bear fruit. Fruit can grow larger, and in greater amounts, when energy is being diverted directly into fruit production rather than generating new leaves or branches in spring or summer. However, pruning trees to promote fruit growth is a careful process that requires skill to execute correctly. Talk to your local arborist about pruning your fruit tree to yield a bumper crop.

Skillful pruning can change the way your tree grows in many ways, but unskillful pruning can damage or even kill your tree. Call a professional arborist for efficient, safe and beneficial pruning, for your trees best health and optimal growth.

Posted on

Tree Trimming: Who’s Responsible For Trimming That Tree?

Alamo Tree Care

If you have trees in your garden, it is your responsibility to provide tree care and tree trimming. But what about trees from other properties that over hang onto yours? What about trees that are starting to infringe on public property or power lines that no one else seems to trim? Could it be that you’re also responsible for trimming those trees? Here we look at the responsibilities of tree ownership, and when you can (and should) trim trees.

Tree Care and Tree Trimming

Trees growing on a property remain the responsibility of the owner of that property. This means that no matter where the tree branches hang, if the tree trunk is growing is growing on your property, it is your responsibility. Taking care of a tree on your property means checking that it’s free of pests and diseases. This is important as an infected tree can begin to infect the trees around it as well causing widespread problems in an area.

It’s also important to have the branches of the tree you own trimmed regularly. Overgrown branches can infringe onto neighbors properties and public property, and can create a hazard if they grow too large and fall. Taking responsibility for the trees and plants on your property is an essential component of tree care and health.

Trees Overhanging On Your Property

One of the most common complaints that councils receive is that a tree branch is hanging over a fence and into a neighbor’s property. Neglecting to prune and care for a tree means that it’s branches can quickly start growing into other’s properties. These branches pose a problem by taking up extra space, dropping leaves, fruits or seeds, and creating a potential hazard with falling branches.

Fortunately, if you find your neighbor’s branches have overgrown, and they have now grown over the property line, you are entitled to trim them. However you may only trim these branches up to the property line. It is also interesting to note that you are not legally allowed to eat the fruit on branches of a tree that hang on your property. You also must be careful not to affect the tree in any way that could kill or severely damage it. If you cut too many branches or roots and it ends up destroying a tree on a neighbor’s property, you may need to provide compensation for that tree.

Trees And Plants On The Boundary Line

For trees and plants (such as hedges) that sit directly on top of the property boundary lines between you and your neighbor’s home, the question of ownership and responsibility is a bit more complicated. It may be that for trees and plants directly on the boundary line, both owners retain an interest and responsibility for the tree. For any decision involving trees and plants on the property line it’s good to discuss with your neighbor how to best approach their care and how to trim the trees.

Trees Growing Onto Public Property And Power Lines

It’s always best to avoid planting trees in a position that could infringe upon power lines. You may not be able to trim the trees on your property that a growing close to powerlines, as this can be dangerous.  Call a local arborist to trim the trees near your powerline or otherwise you can contact the local electrical company for safe and effective tree trimming.

Ultimately, it’s best to gain as much information as possible, and to talk to your neighbor or local authority before trimming a tree if there is any uncertainty.

Posted on

Professional Tree Trimming or DIY: Which Is Best?

Tree Service Danville

Pruning and trimming trees may seem like the ideal DIY gardening job for the weekend, but is tree pruning really that easy to do yourself? Many homeowners fail to realize that tree pruning can actually be a very dangerous and risky job. Professional arborists are not only expertly trained in safely trimming trees, removing trees and grinding tree stumps, but they are also able to recognize tree disease and pests as well as dead or dying trees and branches. Here we look at whether DIY tree trimming is safe and worthwhile, and when it’s time to call your local arborist.

The Size and Shape of Your Trees

Determining whether DIY tree trimming is feasible depends upon the size and shape of the trees you want to prune. Maneuvering power tools at a height when inexperienced or alone can quickly become a recipe for disaster. Trimming large trees is always difficult, and may require the removal of large and heavy branches. Furthermore, it can be difficult to determine which branches to remove from a large tree to accomplish the goals of pruning, while also protecting the health and strength of the tree. While DIY pruning might be suitable for small trees and shrubs, large tree pruning should be left to professional arborists for the sake of tree health and personal safety.

Tools

Sharp edges, power tools and high ladders are all part of trimming trees effectively and efficiently. However, these tools can be dangerous unless handled by a skilled and experienced professional. Hand saws, chainsaws and tall ladders can cause injuries and even death with careless or unskilled operation. Professional arborists are trained in effective and safe operation of power tools and specialist tools for tree trimming. While pruning your trees yourself might seem easy, the tools involved can be dangerous and should only be used by trained professionals.

Tree Knowledge

Professional arborists are not only trained in using tools and pruning techniques, they also know to best promote your trees healthy and safe growth. Arborists are skilled at knowing how to recognize tree pests and diseases as well as knowing how to carefully prune trees to promote their growth while guiding their size and shape. While it might be simple enough to cut your trees yourself, only years of professional arborist training and experience can promote the best health and wellbeing for your trees.

Safety

Ultimately, the question of whether you should prune your trees yourself or hire a professional arborist comes down to safety. Both your personal safety and the safety of your trees is at stake with DIY tree trimming. Professional arborists are trained to handle the heights, the tools, and the pruning techniques required to both safely and effectively prune your trees and maintain the health and beauty of your yard.

While DIY tree trimming can be useful for shrubs or small trees, taller or larger trees should be trimmed by a professional arborist. If ladders, power tools, tree removal or specialized pruning techniques are involved, call your local arborist for expert advice and professional service.

Posted on

Walnut Creek Tree Removal

Danville Tree Service

Posted on

Alamo Tree Pruning

Berkeley Tree Service


Posted on

Berkeley Tree Pruning – Lafayette Tree Care

Tree Removal Lafayette

Berkeley Tree Pruning company, Llamas Tree Service, showcases this Cedar tree that looks sexy even two years after the last pruning.

Posted on

When Is The Right Time To Plant A Tree?

Mistletoe Removal

 

Trees add beauty, shade and structure to your yard, being both functional and ornamental. But when is the best time to add new trees to your yard? Many professional arborists say that spring and offers the ideal, mild conditions for new tree planting, but others say fall is the better option for planting new trees. Here we look at what makes the right time to plant a tree and how you can get the best results for new trees in your yard.

Trees are an Investment

The trees in your yard are not just an investment in the appearance of your yard, they can also add to the value of your home. By some estimates, a healthy, mature tree can add up to $10,000 to the value of a property. So, it’s important to make the right choice about when to plant your tree and how to nurture it to optimum health. Your local arborist is an expert on which trees are best suited to your climate and environment, and which choices will add the most value to your home in terms of beauty and quality.

Spring or Fall?

In warmer climates like California where it doesn’t usually get cold enough for the ground to freeze in winter, the timing of planting a tree isn’t so critical as long as you can provide the tree with sufficient water. Usually the best time for planting a new tree is late summer and early fall, where the weather is starting to cool down and rainfall increasing, but while the temperatures are still not so cool as to discourage tree growth and development.

In the initial stages after a tree has been planted, the tree needs to immediately lay down new root systems to support itself. This tends to happen better in the cooler weather of fall and winter as root growth is increased in cooler soil. Trees planted in spring expend more energy putting forth new leaf and flower growth and often don’t have the resources to lay down a root structure as well, and this actually disadvantages trees in the long run.

However, some types of trees tend to survive better when planted in spring, including magnolia, dogwood, tuliptree, sweet gum, red maple, birch, hawthorn, poplars, cherries, plum and many of the oaks. If you are thinking of planting one of these trees, consult with your local professional arborist about when you should plant these trees in your specific location and climate.

Tips for New Tree Success

In order to give your new trees the best chance for survival, make sure they receive plenty of water in the months after they are first planted. It’s often helpful to water less often, but water deeper, so that moisture reaches the deepest roots. Avoid pruning the tree while it is still newly developing by Berkeley Tree Pruning professionals or anyone else. Don’t fertilize under the second growing system, but you can use mulch on the planting area, about 12 inches away from the young trunks.

If you’re thinking of planting new trees in your yard in California, consult with your local arborist for more specific guidance on determining the best time to plant trees for your yard and local conditions.

Posted on

Sunol Tree Pruning

Danville Tree Pruning

Sunol CA large sycamore tree reducing weight from target areas and pruning away from home.