Home Maintenance tips

Winter a Good Time to Prune

Deciduous trees and shrubs shed their leaves and go dormant during the winter — making it a perfect time to prune them without fear of shocking them. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Remove any growth from below the graft (where the top of the plant was originally joined to rootstock). Cut the growth as close to the main body of the plant as possible.
2. Remove any dead, diseased or injured wood. Branches that are different in color from the main body of the plant could be a problem. Injuries may look like splits or blisters and diseases often show up as black patches along the branch.
3. Cut into the tip of a suspect branch to see if it’s alive. If it’s green inside, it is still alive; if it’s brown, it’s probably dead. Keep cutting back from the tip until you reach green wood.
4. Remove the branches that cross through the center of the plant to improve air circulation and discourage disease.
5. Cut out any competing leaders — the upright growing limbs that will eventually turn into the main trunk. Most trees should have only one main branch headed in the “up” direction. Multiple trunks sap the energy from a tree and weaken it.
6. Prune for shape and size. Keep the branches low on fruit trees so that you can reach the fruit. Most maples look best with a rounded crown, and most roses should be pruned in a low vase shape. Learn the basic shape of the plant you are going to prune.
7. Remove any water sprouts from fruit trees. Nonproductive water sprouts are light in color and grow straight up, as opposed to fruiting wood, which is crooked and dark.
8. Rake up and remove all pruning’s and fallen leaves to discourage insects.

* Also:
* Sharpen and oil your pruning tools before you start cutting.
* Spray with a dormant oil or lime/sulfur after you have finished pruning to kill over wintering insect pests.
* Tools you will need are garden shears, lopping shears, a pruning saw and a pole pruner.
* Once the plants begin to grow leaves, sap is flowing through the branches. If you prune then, you take the chance of causing excessive bleeding or loss of vital fluids.