Trees are very beneficial to the environment because they not only purify the air we breathe but also offer shade. To avoid long branches growing from trees to dry and fall on people causing injury or destroying property, it is good that they be pruned regularly. The other important reason for pruning is also to enable the tree to grow without deformity. Trees that are not pruned may have some branches growing bigger and heavier than the others thus the branches are likely to cause the tree to bend or fall. Sun exposure and air circulation below the tree also increases when pruning is done.
There are four types of pruning namely fine pruning, standard pruning, safety or hazard pruning and crown reduction. Fine pruning involves removal of small branches of a tree mainly to improve the appearance while standard pruning involves heavy branch cutting and it is mainly done to improve the branch structure of the tree.
Safety pruning is done mostly to trees that pose danger like if they are hanging too close or low or even above power lines or buildings or even parking lots. The fourth type of pruning is crown reduction and is mostly done to allow air circulation to the inner branches and also remove major branches that may cause danger in case of storms. However it is good to avoid cutting more than a third of the tree’s crown during crown reduction pruning.
The best time when to prune a tree is during the end of either the winter or the fall season because at this time they are mostly dormant. This is because when the tree is dormant the insects and the fungus are unlikely to do more harm to the tree. Another advantage of pruning during these times is because less sap is lost from the tree. Although tree pruning might sound easy work, it is very complicated especially to old trees and it is important to hire an individual expert or company to work for you.
Rather than doing it on your own, it is more beneficial to hire an expert than to prune the trees on your own. An important advantage of using experts as compared to do it yourself is that they tend to have more equipment for the work. Pruning trees which are close to powerlines may require special equipment in order to avoid electrocution. Thus it is very important to outsource tree pruning jobs to experts for the purpose of avoiding any damage to properties or harm to people.
When done in the right way, tree pruning also prevents the trees from pest infestations and keeps the trees healthy.