Prune for Good Heath
By Kay DiVerde
Pruning helps keep your trees and plants lively and shapely. Knowing why good pruning is essential will help you develop important techniques and a sound routine for making healthy cuts that enhance the plant's appearance and growth potential.
Most people think of pruning when they have a tree or bush that is overgrown or in bad health. Don't wait for your plants to become overgrown. Pruning your trees and bushes on a regular basis can avoid damage before it occurs and enhance your tree's appearance and condition in many ways.
Good Reasons to Prune
Maintaining shape
Pruning helps to shape plants. This makes them more attractive. A well-shaped plant or tree tends to be healthier, thus are better able to handle storms and heavy snowfall.
Increasing fruit and flowers
Many flowers only develop on new growth, the current season's growth. Cutting back a bush or plant at the proper time will stimulate new growth and new flowers-and new fruit. For best results, you may need to do a little research to find out the best time to prune various bushes, trees or plants.
Encouraging colorful stems and bark
On many trees, removing the lower branches allows the bark on branches to show off. Pruning also encourages new growth, which is often more colorful than older dry wood.
Directing growth
Pruning allows you to correct branches that rub together, turn inwards, or extend over a walkway or against a building.
Maintaining size
This is the most common purpose of pruning. Trees and bushes seem so small when we plant them, but it doesn't take them long to explode in size and block windows, walkways or doorways. Gradual pruning at the appropriate time for your plant prevents you from having to take care of problems at the wrong time of the year - in the heat of summer or freezing cold of winter.
Enhancing health and vigor
Regular pruning encourages new growth, more flowers and it helps trees and plants develop a strong resistance to insects and diseases. Thinning out plants allows sun and air to reach the inner branches. Good air circulation is essential in disease prevention. Be careful not to prune too much, or you may end up with the growth of suckers.
Preventing and repairing damage
If you remove branches correctly, you can encourage quicker wound closure. Always remove dead, dying and diseased branches as soon as they are recognized. Always cut back to live buds facing outward. Remove crossing branches to prevent wounds from starting. Older wood and branches growing at less than a 45-degree angle to the trunk tend to be weaker and have a greater chance of breaking off.
Protecting your investment
Mature, healthy landscaping is an asset to the value of your home. Care for your investments by pruning to keep your plants healthy and vigorous.
Health is the Goal
Among the many reasons to prune, the most important is to keep your plants healthy. In addition to knowing why you need to prune, you also need to know which tools will work best. At Orchard's EDGE, we care about your plants and that's why we offer only the best razor-sharp blades to provide clean, straight cuts that will heal quickly. Get the quality tools you need to prune on a regular basis to maintain the best of health for the trees and plants in your yard.
Kay DiVerde is a freelance writer, horticultural researcher and consultant for Orchard's Edge. DiVerde also writes for a variety of newsletters and publications in the Midwest.
