Lafayette Tree Service Bringing Sexy Back Into Your Yards

Tag: walnut creek tree pruning

Posted on

How Often Should I Prune My Trees?

Tree Service Alamo

 

Most people in the East Bay should be pruning their trees between November and March. But how often should I prune my trees? Is it an annual tradition? What is best for my tree to ensure it grows and isn’t damaged? While it’s always best to speak to our certified arborist, the following are some basic guidelines that individuals should follow when determining pruning schedules:

Type of Tree

One of the key factors is the type of tree involved. Each tree type will react differently. For instance, fruit trees are generally pruned annually. On the other hand, oak trees should be trimmed every 2-3 years. Additionally, the tree type can also determine the ideal time to prune your tree. Thus, knowing your tree type is essential in determining the pruning schedule.

Age of the Tree

In addition to the tree type, the age of the tree also impacts how often you should prune it. Younger trees are usually pruned more often than older trees. If you had to find an average, most younger trees should be pruned every 2-3 years while older trees are trimmed every 3-5 years. This allows younger trees to flourish while helping to maintain established structures.

Tree Condition

The condition of a tree can dramatically affect the pruning timeframe as well. If a tree has a broken branch or loose/unstable areas, the tree may require trimming, even if it’s not “time”. Alternatively, if a younger tree is having trouble establishing its roots, it maybe recommended that the tree not be pruned as frequently for now.

Thus, if you are wanting to get your trees pruned or evaluated for trimming in the Bay Area, contact us. Sexy Trees has a certified arborist with years of experience.

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

Walnut Creek Tree Removal

Danville Tree Service

Posted on

How To Care For Your Christmas Tree (And Your Trees At Christmas!)

Tree Service Walnut Creek

Are you planning on bringing home a real Christmas tree this year for an exciting addition to your holiday celebrations? Providing proper care for your fresh cut Christmas tree ensures that it lasts throughout the holiday season and continues to bring joy to your friends, family and guests. When you cut and pick up your tree, more than half of it’s weight is water, so with special tree care and management you can promote the longevity and beauty of your tree. At the same time, as we come into winter, it’s important to also keep in mind the trees in your own backyard, and how they should be best cared for during the holiday season.

At The Tree Lot or Farm
If you want to ensure your tree lasts right through the holiday, it’s important to begin with careful selection when you are buying your tree. Give you tree a quick shake to check that the tree doesn’t drop too many needles, and inspect the tree for brown areas and dryness. Wrap your tree in plastic or a net for the drive home to preserve and protect the branches.

Setting Up Your Tree
Of course, everyone wants to decorate the tree as soon as you bring it home, but it’s important to prepare and set up your tree so it stays fresh and healthy. If your tree was freshly cut when you bought it, you can bring it home and place it immediately in a bucket of water. If your tree was bought pre-cut, it’s necessary to cut an additional inch off the bottom of the trunk before placing in water. Cutting your tree trunk flat is more effective for water absorption than drilling holes.

Water, Water, Water
Arborists and tree experts agree that the most important part of Christmas tree care is ensuring your tree has enough water. You should provide one quart of water for every inch of tree trunk diameter and check the water level everyday. It’s quite normal for a tree to absorb a large amount of water one day and just a little the next. Keeping your tree adequately watered is key to preventing it drying out and dropping needles by the end of December. The temperature of the water is not important and nothing needs to be added to the water either to maintain tree health.

Tree Care at Christmas
It’s also important to care for the other trees in your garden in the cooler holiday season. Call your local arborist for some expert help or advice for the trees and shrubs in your yard, to ensure they stay in perfect health throughout December. Having your local arbborist deliver fresh mulch can help to protect the roots and keep your trees healthy through winter. If there doesn’t seem to be a lot of rainfall during winter, make sure you water your trees and shrubs deeply a few times a week to prevent them drying out.

Taking good care of your Christmas tree during the holiday season helps to ensure the festive cheer this special addition brings can last even longer. It’s also ideal to use this opportunity to take care of the trees in your yard as well, and with professional advice from a qualified arborist you can support and nourish your garden to thrive in the new year.

Posted on

Alamo Tree Pruning

Berkeley Tree Service


Posted on

Summer Stressed Out Your Trees? Regenerate Your Trees in Fall

Walnut Creek Tree Service

Hot weather and ongoing drought has left California trees drained, dehydrated and in need of a little TLC. Thankfully, with fall here and winter around the corner, now is the perfect time to regenerate and reinvigorate your trees and bring them back to full health. If some of your trees didn’t survive the summer, or you’re looking for a change, fall is also the perfect time to plant new trees and get your garden back in shape before winter.

Prune Leaves and Branches of Existing Trees

A harsh summer may have left dead and dying branches on your trees that should be trimmed during fall and certainly before winter. If your tree added a lot of growth during summer but is still relatively healthy, tree trimming may still be necessary to remove some of the excess leaves and foliage that the tree may not be able to support during winter. Fall is the best time for tree trimming, as you can correct summer growth while also prepare for winter.

Of course, any overgrown trees or trees growing over property or power lines require advanced tree care and should be trimmed by a local arborist. Because winter can mean storms and strong winds that cause branches to drop, make sure a professional tree company inspects your trees for weak branches and applies cabling and bracing as necessary.

Plant New Trees

If you want to plant new saplings, fall is the ideal time, with milder temperatures and moderate rainfall to help encourage new tree growth. If you want to increase the number of outdoor trees in your yard, adding new saplings in fall provides them the ideal conditions to create strong, healthy root systems before the chill of winter.

Regenerate Soil

Dry, hot conditions can deplete the nutrients and moisture content of soil, causing soil to become dry, hard and compacted. Aerating your soil helps to break up compacted ground, and mulching is the ideal way to add essential nutrients and moisture back to your soil. Mulch also helps to protect your soil from the heat of the sun and the chill of cooler weather as winter comes closer. Your local tree care company can deliver mulch to your garden to protect your tree roots and reinvigorate your soil.

Water Deeply

As you regenerate your trees and replace lost water in the soil, it’s a good idea to use deep watering techniques to ensure water reaches the deep root systems and soaks into the soil for longer lasting hydration. It’s better to water deeply just once or twice a week, rather than watering superficially more often. Be sure to pay close attention to watering saplings and decaying trees, as these will need the most TLC.

While hot dry summers can take a toll on your trees and leave your garden looking worse for wear, some expert help with arboriculture from your local tree company and some focused attention on planting, pruning and regenerating the soil, can bring life back to your garden during fall.

Posted on

Sunol Tree Pruning

Danville Tree Pruning

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