Pruning trees

Photo: The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest needs to be supported by steel poles to stop nature taking its course.

MAJOR TREE PRUNING

Our driveway is disappearing very quickly under a thick layer of leaves. We have a few trees that give a glorious show of colour…nature’s fireworks, with their bright foliage. Other trees, like the array of conifers we have as a windbreak, like most evergreens drop their dead needles onto the driveway all year round as soon as the wind blows.

Just because deciduous trees are becoming dormant, that doesn’t mean that we should ignore them though, there are certain things we can be doing to ensure they stay healthy. Trees such as hazel and willows have their life expectancy shortened if they are not coppiced and most trees need their overgrown branches or dead bits cutting out.

Don’t go too far with this though. The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is trussed up with steel poles, nature would have let bits drop off of the tree, but for the tourists sake they are being preserved. You used to be able to walk into the hollow trunk of the tree and hide, like Robin Hood was supposed to have done when the Sheriff of Nottingham was looking for him. You can’t go anywhere near the tourist attraction now for fear of damaging the roots, I wonder what it would be saying if it could talk…maybe that Robin Hood is a fictional character and if he was around it would have been 100 years before the acorn sprouted the famous tree…. We don’t have to be so precious with our trees though and need to get up close to see what needs doing.

PRUNING THE TREES


· Most deciduous trees are best pruned when dormant, in late autumn or winter. Pruning in early spring could cause trees to bleed sap as it is rising from the base.
Exceptions
· The exceptions to the 'deciduous tree' rule are maple, horse chestnut, birch, walnut and cherry trees which all bleed extensively, even towards the end of their dormant season, so prune these in mid-summer after new growth has matured, this slows down the bleeding and there is less chance of infection from the wound.

Conifers
· Conifers require little or no regular pruning except the removal of dead or diseased branches in late summer. Ours need cutting back purely because they are starting to block the view from the house


Caution
If you have trees that need chainsaw work or you need to get up high on a ladder, get a qualified and registered tree surgeon in, for your own safety and also for the long-term health of your tree.


PRUNING TIPS

Shaping young trees

· A feathered tree such as a sorbus has an upright trunk and a balanced pattern of horizontal branches running from top to bottom.
· Each year, check for shoots growing at odd angles, extra shoots growing from the top of the main trunk, or basal shoots (strong shoots coming from the base which deprive the tree of nutrients).
· All of these shoots need to be removed.
· Young standards like cherry trees are trained in the same way, but the lowest branches are cut off until a clear trunk has formed.
· In the first year remove the lowest third of the tree's branches, and shorten those in the middle third by half. Remove these latter branches in the following year.
· By the fifth year the trunk should be developed, so prune branches out from the tree's crown to produce an open pattern of branches.
· Some trees, especially those grafted onto special rootstocks, produce suckers, which are secondary shoots growing from the roots. As these may exhaust the tree, pull each one up while it's still small, after first exposing the point where it joins the root.

Ornamental trees

· Pollarding and coppicing are traditional techniques that are used for timber production, but they're also useful when pruning ornamentals which are grown for decorative bark or leaves. It can also be used for keeping trees trimmed to a fixed height.
· Coppicing involves pruning growth back to, or near, ground level in winter and is used for coloured willow and hazel varieties.
· The same trees respond to pollarding, which is a taller version of coppicing with growth cut back to a short trunk.
· Eucalyptus and lime are often pollarded every two to three years to maintain a compact size or smaller foliage. Remember to feed your tree after pruning to encourage plenty of new young growth.

Conifers

· Most standard conifers develop without the need for pruning, but you may need to prune out any damaged or distorted growth.
· This is best undertaken in autumn or winter. If a tree forms two stems, select the strongest, most upright shoot and cut out the competitor at its base.
· You should remove any plain green shoots that appear on variegated conifers, and any abnormally-shaped shoots on dwarf and prostrate conifers.
· Patches of dead or brown foliage need to be taken out and any gaps can be disguised by tying nearby shoots together so they grow across the pruned area.

Tree Preservation Orders

I am always shocked to learn that there are NO tree preservation orders given out in Inishowen. Never the less, if you are talking a big job on a mature tree, check with the council before commencing work.