I have some small young trees, oaks, elm, pear, and a crepe myrtle. When
should they be pruned and by how much and where?

Thanks!

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 02:36:09 GMT, "JanTGH" wrote:

I have some small young trees, oaks, elm, pear, and a crepe myrtle. When
should they be pruned and by how much and where?

Thanks!


As animaux said, oaks should be pruned in the winter or (as she didn't
say) the hottest part of summer. This is to reduce the risk of having
an insect deposit spores of oak wilt on the fresh wounds. If you are
not familiar with oak wilt, go now to this site (and a google search
will turn up dozens more) and educate yourself:
http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texlab/oakwilt.html
Other trees are also better off if pruned at these times (because they
are dormant/semi-dormant) but as long as you don't go crazy they can
tolerate it most anytime.

General rules of training young trees:
Make sure you are making proper collar cuts, not leaving stubs at the
ends. (http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/pruning_young.asp)

Never remove more than 1/3 of the green branches at one time.

Start by taking out broken, diseased or damaged (missing bark, etc.)
branches. Then look at the overall form and remove any that don't fit
this form (like whips on the crape myrtle that shoot straight up
across the lateral branches).

If two or more branches are competing to become the dominant leader,
choose the best one and cut the other(s) back to a side shoot. The
shoot should be at least 1/3 as big in diameter as the piece you
remove.

If two branches are rubbing, remove one of them.

1/2 of the post-pruning branches should originate from the bottom 2/3
of the tree (though obviously the low branches will come off
eventually on the bigger trees). The longer you leave the low
branches, the more the trunk will taper toward the base, giving more
strength and stability. If you have low branches you want out of your
way, consider reducing them from the ends (still cutting back to a
side branch at least 1/3 the size of its parent branch) and removing
the rest in a year or two.


Try to eliminate tight 'V' shaped crotches by removing one side or the
other (on some nursery trees this is virtually impossible--if you have
such a case, reduce some now and plan to remove them later if
possible).

Good Luck,

Keith Babberney
ISA Certified Arborist

For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/.
For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www.treesaregood.com/

Thanks to both of you!


"Babberney" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 02:36:09 GMT, "JanTGH" wrote:

I have some small young trees, oaks, elm, pear, and a crepe myrtle. When
should they be pruned and by how much and where?

Thanks!


As animaux said, oaks should be pruned in the winter or (as she didn't
say) the hottest part of summer. This is to reduce the risk of having
an insect deposit spores of oak wilt on the fresh wounds. If you are
not familiar with oak wilt, go now to this site (and a google search
will turn up dozens more) and educate yourself:
http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texlab/oakwilt.html
Other trees are also better off if pruned at these times (because they
are dormant/semi-dormant) but as long as you don't go crazy they can
tolerate it most anytime.

General rules of training young trees:
Make sure you are making proper collar cuts, not leaving stubs at the
ends. (http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/pruning_young.asp)

Never remove more than 1/3 of the green branches at one time.

Start by taking out broken, diseased or damaged (missing bark, etc.)
branches. Then look at the overall form and remove any that don't fit
this form (like whips on the crape myrtle that shoot straight up
across the lateral branches).

If two or more branches are competing to become the dominant leader,
choose the best one and cut the other(s) back to a side shoot. The
shoot should be at least 1/3 as big in diameter as the piece you
remove.

If two branches are rubbing, remove one of them.

1/2 of the post-pruning branches should originate from the bottom 2/3
of the tree (though obviously the low branches will come off
eventually on the bigger trees). The longer you leave the low
branches, the more the trunk will taper toward the base, giving more
strength and stability. If you have low branches you want out of your
way, consider reducing them from the ends (still cutting back to a
side branch at least 1/3 the size of its parent branch) and removing
the rest in a year or two.


Try to eliminate tight 'V' shaped crotches by removing one side or the
other (on some nursery trees this is virtually impossible--if you have
such a case, reduce some now and plan to remove them later if
possible).

Good Luck,

Keith Babberney
ISA Certified Arborist

For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please
visit http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/.
For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www.treesaregood.com/

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 20:24:20 GMT, animaux wrote:

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 02:36:09 GMT, "JanTGH" opined:

I have some small young trees, oaks, elm, pear, and a crepe myrtle. When
should they be pruned and by how much and where?

Thanks!


I prune live oaks in dead of winter, or August.

I was curious about this a couple of weeks ago: summer or winter?
Surely, I thought, one should be preferable. Came across an article by
the McLennan county agent where he reasons that the ideal time to
prune live oaks is late winter.

First, since August is becoming more and more a time of high drought
stress for trees, and since pruning is itself a stressful event, doing
so in August adds additional stress at just the wrong time. Also,
since live oak may drop some leaves after in response to pruning
stress, late winter allows it to coincide most closely with the
natural spring leaf fall for live oak.

Anyway, reading this thread led me to recall that interesting article.
Passing it on fwiw... :-)

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 01:58:26 GMT, animaux
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 21:55:26 GMT, (Terry Horton) opined:


I was curious about this a couple of weeks ago: summer or winter?
Surely, I thought, one should be preferable. Came across an article by
the McLennan county agent where he reasons that the ideal time to
prune live oaks is late winter.

Yes, the ideal time is in late winter when no possibility of virus vector is
alive and spreading oak wilt on the open wounds. August is another time you can
be sure there are no signs of this insect, either.

First, since August is becoming more and more a time of high drought
stress for trees, and since pruning is itself a stressful event, doing
so in August adds additional stress at just the wrong time. Also,
since live oak may drop some leaves after in response to pruning
stress, late winter allows it to coincide most closely with the
natural spring leaf fall for live oak.

Anyway, reading this thread led me to recall that interesting article.
Passing it on fwiw... :-)

What evidence have you read which says pruning causes stress to a tree which is
in dormancy in summer? Most of the plants go into a dormant period in high
summer, certainly trees are in that group.

Sun scald from lost foliage is always the biggest potential issue with
mid-summer pruning. Lateral buds forced by hormone levels thrown
askew would be another. And I suspect wound closure is far less
efficient under heat and water stress. Maybe one of the arborists
here can tell us more...

It has always been axiomatic that Texas summers are more stressful to
trees than our winters. With global warming and the blazing last
couple of decades, the difference is probably even greater (the nearby
Chihuahuan Desert and Trans-Pecos suggests our trees were already on
the climatic brink). One anecdotal tidbit... an arborist I know who's
been in the business for many years, says that his tree calls used to
be mainly disease related; now the overwhelming majority turn out to
be heat stress.

I am interested to learn, though, so
if you'd pass it along where you read that about pruning stress and trees I'd
appreciate it.

Very sorry, V, I've been unable to backtrack to the original story.
One of those items that seemed to make biological sense, that I
distilled and filed mentally for future use. So, like I said,
fwiw..:-)

One of the largest oak wilt centers in Travis county is right across
the creek from us (the creek probably saved our oaks from root graft
infections). Cutting down and grinding up live oaks is a dark, busy
industry over there. And our own wild oaks, like all unirrigated
central Texas trees, have really suffered from drought stress the last
few years. Each year they're showing more branches in need of pruning
than ever before. I just feel I have to get every advantage and take
every precaution I can for them, large or small.

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 22:46:22 GMT, (Terry Horton) opined:

Sun scald from lost foliage is always the biggest potential issue with
mid-summer pruning. Lateral buds forced by hormone levels thrown
askew would be another. And I suspect wound closure is far less
efficient under heat and water stress. Maybe one of the arborists
here can tell us more...

Ah, yes, this is something I'd not considered. Removing the apical dominance at
the tip would certainly not only stimulate new buds which will be lost, but you
are correct on the sun scald. I had not thought of that.

It has always been axiomatic that Texas summers are more stressful to
trees than our winters. With global warming and the blazing last
couple of decades, the difference is probably even greater (the nearby
Chihuahuan Desert and Trans-Pecos suggests our trees were already on
the climatic brink). One anecdotal tidbit... an arborist I know who's
been in the business for many years, says that his tree calls used to
be mainly disease related; now the overwhelming majority turn out to
be heat stress.

I'd imagine that, and the incorrect way people water. Five minutes a day is
horrible. It is much better to water for a few hours once a week and put down
at least half inch to inch of water so it can percolate a minimum of eight
inches.

Very sorry, V, I've been unable to backtrack to the original story.
One of those items that seemed to make biological sense, that I
distilled and filed mentally for future use. So, like I said,
fwiw..:-)

Yes. Your explanation makes perfect sense. I'm not thinking on all cylinders!

One of the largest oak wilt centers in Travis county is right across
the creek from us (the creek probably saved our oaks from root graft
infections). Cutting down and grinding up live oaks is a dark, busy
industry over there. And our own wild oaks, like all unirrigated
central Texas trees, have really suffered from drought stress the last
few years. Each year they're showing more branches in need of pruning
than ever before. I just feel I have to get every advantage and take
every precaution I can for them, large or small.

Absolutely. I agree fully. I find the best way to water the older and younger
trees is by using the cheap yellow circle sprinkler. It doesn't move, it has
many holes in concentric circles (2) on the top and the water goes up and drops
down in large droplets. It evaporates much less than the blazing mists put out
by high pressure sprinkler heads. I am always curious why people install
irrigation and don't use impact heads. They are so much more efficient because
they can be set to almost run parallel with the turf, larger drops, not much air
to ground evaporation.

Water deeply once a week. It usually takes me an entire day to water my whole
property. I have been using soaker hoses on the lawn and for the trees, lately.
I know it's a lot of lugging, but it has been very, very effective. Nothing
lost to air evap.

Have a peaceful night and a positive week,
Victoria

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 01:55:14 GMT, animaux
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:26:17 GMT, (Babberney) opined:

As animaux said, oaks should be pruned in the winter or (as she didn't
say) the hottest part of summer.

HEY, I did say that. Only I said I also prune them in August. I don't know of
a hotter month! Well, of course it's hot every month June till October. But
REAL hot in August.

Okay, sorry. brain blip.

Keith
For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www.isa-arbor.com/home.asp.
For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www.treesaregood.com/

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 01:55:14 GMT, animaux
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:26:17 GMT, (Babberney) opined:

As animaux said, oaks should be pruned in the winter or (as she didn't
say) the hottest part of summer.

HEY, I did say that. Only I said I also prune them in August. I don't know of
a hotter month! Well, of course it's hot every month June till October. But
REAL hot in August.

Okay, sorry. brain blip.

Keith
For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www.isa-arbor.com/home.asp.
For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www.treesaregood.com/

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 01:55:14 GMT, animaux
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:26:17 GMT, (Babberney) opined:

As animaux said, oaks should be pruned in the winter or (as she didn't
say) the hottest part of summer.

HEY, I did say that. Only I said I also prune them in August. I don't know of
a hotter month! Well, of course it's hot every month June till October. But
REAL hot in August.

Okay, sorry. brain blip.

Keith
For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www.isa-arbor.com/home.asp.
For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www.treesaregood.com/

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 01:55:14 GMT, animaux
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:26:17 GMT, (Babberney) opined:

As animaux said, oaks should be pruned in the winter or (as she didn't
say) the hottest part of summer.

HEY, I did say that. Only I said I also prune them in August. I don't know of
a hotter month! Well, of course it's hot every month June till October. But
REAL hot in August.

Okay, sorry. brain blip.

Keith
For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www.isa-arbor.com/home.asp.
For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www.treesaregood.com/

On Tue, 09 Sep 2003 02:33:55 GMT, (Babberney) opined:

On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 01:55:14 GMT, animaux
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:26:17 GMT, (Babberney) opined:

As animaux said, oaks should be pruned in the winter or (as she didn't
say) the hottest part of summer.

HEY, I did say that. Only I said I also prune them in August. I don't know of
a hotter month! Well, of course it's hot every month June till October. But
REAL hot in August.

Okay, sorry. brain blip.

Keith
F

No problem. I'm on brain blip continuously :_
V