Unhappy With Your Trees' Appearance? Plan Now For Next Year's Trim
For most trees, late winter and early spring are prime pruning and trimming season. Some very sappy trees do better with pruning later in spring, but in general, you shouldn't prune or trim trees in any other season except for safety and health reasons. So, if it's past trimming season and you're not pleased with how the trees are looking, you may feel like it's too late to help them. That's not quite true. You can take note of what's going on now so that next winter and spring, you can have the trees trimmed in a way that's much more pleasing.
New Growth Direction and Flower Location
Trees start to show new growth once the weather begins to warm. Sometimes this growth is subtle, or it takes the form of new buds that gradually unfurl into leaves. Other times, you start to see new stems and twigs grow up, up, and away from the older branches. This can make the tree look rather messy, and depending on how the tree is distributing its nutritional resources, you could find flowers and fruit forming in uneven ways. No tree is really going to bloom symmetrically, but if you have flowers on the lowest branches and nothing at the top, for example, that's going to make the tree look lopsided.
It may be possible to trim off some new growth now. However, if you waited too long, then trimming could result in injury to the tree, or at least an increase in the risk of pathogens infecting the trimming wound. If you find yourself in that situation, don't trim now, but look at the areas you'd want to be trimmed before new growth appears next year.
One Thing You Can Call About Any Time
You likely know that you can prune off diseased and dead wood at any point in the year. There's one other time when you can contact a tree service about pruning outside spring, and that's when you notice the canopy of the tree looking very crowded. Trimming the interior of the canopy to open it up to better airflow is essential for the tree's health, and it gives you an opportunity to set the tree up for more success next year. Take note of the branches that are removed (or if you can't see the individual branches, take before and after pictures of the canopy so that you have an idea of what sections were trimmed) so that next winter or spring, you can have the tree service come back and trim those areas again to ensure new growth doesn't gum up the canopy.
Living with trees on your property is a lesson in long-term planning. You can use everything you learn this year to make next year even better for those trees. For more information, contact a tree service near you.