Why Fall is a Smart Time to Prune Trees

Introduction

Trees benefit you in many ways. It provides fresh oxygen while reducing carbon emissions, keeps your home cooler when used for shade, and also looks good on your property. However, in an urban environment, they need to be controlled by pruning, and the fall season is a smart time to do it. To hire a professional for pruning your trees, search for “tree service near me”.  Let’s check out why you fall is a smart time to prune trees:

The Details

1. Improve plant health – When you prune trees, you get rid of the dead and decaying parts of the plant. Everything from hollowed diseased branches to dead twigs. Doing this at the end of the fall season allows the tree to save itself from those infected parts.

The dead and diseased parts are easy entryways for insects and pests to invade the tree and deteriorate its health. If you don’t prune those parts of the tree, the diseases can easily spread to the healthy parts. With a proper fall pruning routine, you can get rid of those parts while maintaining the plant in the best shape.

2. Manage pest and insect infestation – Your trees host a lot of activity. Insects, bugs, and critters make it their home. These organisms also feast on the foliage and the sap of the tree. Most of the time the relationship is symbiotic. The tree also benefits and gets to spread the pollen of the flowers and seeds of its fruit.

However, when the fall season arrives, and the temperature slowly starts dipping and food becomes scarce these insects and critters may attack the host for resources. If there are any parts of the plant that are damaged, it’s a point of entry for these critters and insects to invade for food. Those spreads diseases and also makes the plant weaker when it’s dormant. Pruning during the fall season helps to prevent that.

If the tree isn’t pruned these insects and critters can also kill the plant that you’ve raised with love and care. Some of the animals on the tree can also fly and crawl into your home and become uninvited guests.

3. Enhanced plant growth – According to several studies and testimonials from veteran landscapers and gardening companies pruning can help promote plant growth. The research was based on computational modeling with molecular genetics. It shows that various shoot tips of the plant affect each other’s growth.

When you prune dead shoots or those with poor health, the plant can conserve its resources in newer and healthier shoots and grow in the right direction. The plant won’t have to waste precious resources in underperforming sections. Pruning those shoots in the fall season can help the plant grow with all its might and make an amazing comeback in the spring season.

4. Your plants look good – Your plant looks amazing with the red and yellow foliage. It would look even better when you prune them properly into shape. However, most beginners make a mistake timing the pruning. Don’t prune your trees and shrubs into shape during the early fall season.

Delay the pruning till the last few days of the fall season. By that time the plant goes dormant and pruning it won’t make the plant waste its resources on healing. If you prune the plant earlier, you may weaken it before it can go dormant. Pruning at the right time also increases young stems in your shrubs. They grow more colorful flowers and would look fantastic during the spring season.

You can also prune your evergreen shrubs and hedges carefully in the fall season to shape them with perfect proportions. That makes them look even better with the winter snow.

5. Protect life and property – If you’ve delayed pruning for a long time, your trees may have numerous weak spots. Dead branches and weak limbs are no joke. If the tree is large enough, fallen branches can cause severe damage to life and property.

For instance, if a few branches of the tree have grown towards the garage and snap after prolonged neglect, it’s heavy enough to bring down the roof of the garage and the expensive car inside it. They can also destroy landscape features like fountains and patio furniture.

Unpruned trees are also a great threat to everyone around you. You don’t want a fallen branch to injure your family members. A heavy fallen branch can leave permanent injuries and, in some cases, can also be lethal. It can also injure neighbors and strangers and you’ll be left staring at a fat lawsuit. Late fall is a great time to take care of those trees.

6. Prepare the trees for winter – Dead and diseased branches aren’t the only thing you need to look out for. Trees grow unhindered in all directions. If a branch grows too much in one direction the structure is compromised, and it can snap with added weight or strong wind. Similarly, if there are lateral branches growing in opposite directions, they can compromise the strength of the tree and snap.

During the winter season with the added weight of the snow and strong storms, the fragile branches and limbs can snap with ease. Moreover, when the branches snap, they can also damage the healthy trunk and expose the soft plant tissue inside. This attracts animals and insects to chew on the plant tissue during the months of winter when food is scarce. That’s why pruning them during late fall is a wise move. It allows you to take care of the problem before it escalates out of control.

Conclusion

As you see there are plenty of benefits of pruning your trees during the fall season. However, make sure that you prune them in late fall just before the winter frost. Otherwise, you may weaken the trees before they go dormant. It’s best to leave a risky task like pruning to the professionals and to hire them you can search for “tree service near me”.