Getting your trees pruned is an important part of maintaining your trees. When trees are pruned, it positively affects their overall health. When the small branches of a tree are cut, the wound stimulated the rest of the tree to either strengthen, or to produce new, stronger branches.

     Pruning a tree should never be used in order to contort the tree into odd shapes, or to fit it into a space it should not be in. Pruning should be done mainly to help the health of the tree. However, small amounts of pruning can be done to keep the tree branches from interfering with things such as traffic lights, telephone poles, and electricity wires. 

     It’s important when trimming a tree to do it properly. Trees should never be “topped”, which is the process of cutting all of the tips of the branches off of a tree. When a tree experiences a trimming, it’s very traumatic for the tree. The tree must be able to properly heal from getting its branches cut. Normally, trees are able to recover from normal pruning by creating a seal on the wounds inflicted by the pruning. This sealing process takes lots of time and energy for the tree to do. When a tree is topped, most of its branches are drastically cut, leaving the tree to use too much energy and resources attempting to fix it. This leads to the tree developing weak new growth. These new branches will commonly grow to a certain height and then break off, which poses a massive threat for pedestrians, cars, and other nearby things that may be affected by the branches falling.

     If chopping all of the branches off a tree is the wrong way to prune, what is the right way to trim a tree? To properly trim a tree, contact a professional who will be able to discern which portions of your tree need to be trimmed, and which portions would harm your tree.