Preparing Your Trees for the Season Ahead

After what seems to be a never-ending summer, fall is right around the corner. Did you know that most of all the trees in our area can have their limbs pruned at any time of the year? It’s true, but most people like to have their trees pruned during the fall season. What does that mean for us in the tree care industry and for you? It means we will have a lot of phone calls and evaluations to make for our clients and our scheduling gets full, so if you are needing tree care services, it’s best to plan ahead.

We encourage you to call, send an email, or fill out our online form so that we can schedule your tree evaluation and get your pruning done efficiently. We want to make sure that we have your trees covered, so reach out to us so we can hold a spot for you.

Another thing to remember this month is we are also approaching the best season to fertilize your trees. If you have not had your trees fertilized during the past 2 to 5 years, it’s time to plan on getting them their much-needed treatment this November or December. Fertilizing at that point in the year is the prime time to provide your trees with nourishment treatments in this region. Our ISA Certified Arborists and crews are here to help you with your needs.

One last thing to point out this month — there is a big differences between having your trees pruned or having your trees topped. Please note that at Donegan’s we do not encourage topping! Topping is bad! Topping is where too many branches are removed from a tree, either to making branches shorter or in order to shape the tree. In some instances, topping can be as dramatic as removing all the branches down to the stub (trunk) as seen in this photo taken from a Trees are Good brochure.

So, what happens to a tree when you take off too much of it? It causes the tree to experience extreme stress and that causes the open wounds of a tree to be more vulnerable to pests and diseases. It also triggers a hormonal reaction where a tree will produce a lot of offshoots that are weak and can cause damage later on. Plus, these offshoots are not pleasing to the eye. Topping can lead to rot and decay by reducing the amount of leaves on the tree. Leaves are important to a tree because they bring in nutrients and food for the rest of the tree. Topping can cause trees to go into something like shock and, before you know it, you’ll have a tree that is in decline and in most cases, the tree will never rebound and will eventually die. Because of all the things that can go wrong, we never advocate or practice tree topping. And if all these reasons were not enough to stop you from topping your tree, doing so is also simply really ugly which could lead to lowering the value of your property.

Curious to learn more? This link will provide you in-depth information about why you should not top a tree.

Information and research links:

1.     file:///C:/Users/doneg/Downloads/p0193-0199.pdf

2.     https://www.treesaregood.org/Portals/0/TreesAreGood_Benefits%20of%20Trees_0321_1.pdf

3.     https://www.treesaregood.org/Portals/0/TreesAreGood_Why%20Topping%20Hurts_0321.pdf

4.     https://tcia.org/TCIA/Blog_Items/2016/Tree_Pruning_to_ANSI_Standards.aspx

5.     https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/conservation/Forestry/UrbanForestry/Documents/Tree%20Topping.pdf

6.     https://www.oregon.gov/odf/Documents/forestbenefits/WhyToppingHurts.pdf

7.     https://www.johnson.k-state.edu/lawn-garden/agent-articles/trees-shrubs/tree-topping.html