If you ’re the proud proprietor of a maple tree , congrats on have such an awing plant in your landscape painting ! The superb foliage and twilight color ofvariousAcerspeciesmakes them true work of art !
However , what sets a maple tree apart from , say , a statue or painting , is that a growing maple is never quite ruined .
Once you put down the chisel or paintbrush , the art you ’ve create is by and large complete and ready for exhibit . But when anAcergoes into the ground , a gardener ’s work is just set about .
The three-cut method, illustrated. Photo by Joe Butler.
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Besidesproperly cultivating the maple treeand providing preventative care to keep it free of pests and disease , a nurseryman will call for to prune anAceras it rise and develop .
This promotes health and vigor , along with improved aesthetic – all of which keep the plant front and feeling lofty and vibrant !
Even though trimming is a pretty simple procedure , it may prove to be a routine more complex than it looks to beginner .
Anyone who just starts reduce away without the right know - how could impair the health of their beloved tree diagram . Luckily , take the proper proficiency is easy , and we ’re here to help oneself .
In this guide we ’ll ply a simple dislocation of maple pruning practice , without set you to slumber along the way .
Not that what we ’re cover here is n’t a captivating topic – when learning about a subject likeAcertrimming , I ’m leave alone engrave my point , wondering how anyone could nod off . It ’s practically the Adderall of horticulture topics !
Here ’s everything we ’ll overcompensate up in the lead :
What You’ll Learn
Why Prune a Maple Tree?
The chance of on purpose causing injury to a plant life can make any green pollex wince , specially when the works in question is a gorgeous maple tree .
And sinceAcerspecies ooze sap from wounds more profusely than most other flora , pruning one really does experience like you ’re making a living , breathing matter bleed .
So why would we ever do this on purpose ? For a few reasonableness :
Aesthetics
A tree must be free of broken , swag , and otherwise damaged or weird - looking branches to look its best .
Beyond that , the emergence habit of whatever specie you ’re cultivating may dictate when and how you opt to make your cuts .
For maples likeA. rubrumthat benefit from a bit of mold to keep a tidy and manicure appearance , keep a hard key leader with offshoot at around 90 - point slant to the trunk is ornamentally essential .
Other species such asA. palmatumlook better with a more born trunk and outgrowth structure .
Health
Wounded offset and sprig are prime entranceway spots for pathogens and pests to inscribe plants . By address these vulnerable spots , infections and plague are less likely to occur .
Cutting a maple tree back also cut it out a bit , increasing intra - tree airflow and helping to keep them sanitary and free of unwanted visitor like fungal pathogen .
In addition , cutting provide light to reach leaves that might be blocked from the sun ’s ray in a crowded canopy . Plus , it strengthen the branches that you leave alone , which is moderately fresh .
Vigor
As they grow , unsuitable subdivision and twigs take up resources from the maple and the skirt environment that could have otherwise been put to better apply .
When you absent these freeloading plant life structure , nutrients and energy wo n’t go to waste , and will go to other , more suitable shoots and structure instead .
Regular trimming also spurs new growth . The origin and shoots of a plant love to rest in balance , so when you remove shoot by pruning , the resources gather by the now whelm roots go towards shoot hyper - development .
What You’ll Need
There are a match thing you ’ll need before you begin the labor of cut back these plants . If you ’re an avid gardener or inexpert tree surgeon , chances are you have a lot of this stuff already . Beginners may postulate to buy or borrow a few necessary items .
Depending on the size of your specimen , you might need some erect aid such as a ladder to touch the high branches . Be trusted to work out with a pal for safety if this is the case !
or else , it ’s overbold to consider hiring a professional arborist if the pruning indigence of yourAcerare beyond your reach .
Personal Protective Equipment
guard is paramount , especially when sharp objects are involved .
Here ’s a good place to start : safety glasses and oeuvre gloves . guard glasses will keep sawdust , sticks , and sharp , pointy tools out of your eyeballs .
A hard brace of work gloves will protect your hands from cuts and sticky sap .
If you ’re appear for agio safety glasses , NoCry has some usable on Amazon .
Puncture - tolerant Gloves
For a dyad of cloggy - tariff puncture - resistant work gloves made with several layers of cut - resistant textile to protect your hands , visit Garret Wade . These are usable in blue or opprobrious , in three sizes .
Hand Pruners
These hand-held tool are small enough to snip away twigs and little subdivision – everlasting for little edits and finishing touches . Bypass pruners in particular will assure the fair potential cut of meat , while also observe sword sharpness .
To buy a set of carbon blade ringway pruners with a nonslip PVC suitcase , visit Gardener ’s Supply .
Loppers
With their tough , stout blades and leveraging - falsify handles , loppers are idealistic for removing branches too large for hand lopper .
Bypass lopper
A heavy - obligation band of bypass pruner with telescopic handles can bepurchased from Garrett Wade .
Pruning Saw
A pruning saw is best used on branches that are too bombastic for loppers , as well as on any competing trunks or leaders that you require to saw off . It combines ponderous - responsibility sawing capability with the compactness necessary for fitting into nasty spaces .
A handheld pruning saw with a 12 - column inch blade and wooden holster sheath can bepurchased from Garrett Wade .
Pole Saw
A pole saw is simply a saw blade on a long handle , which really extend your orbit .
The grip of the longer models either collapse or disassemble into two or more sections , which make the pole go through both lighter in weight unit and more convenient to store than perch saws with fixed - length handgrip .
Find a celestial pole get word with a 15 - inch curved shortcut blade , 25 base of total reach , and a handle that breaks down into three disjoined piecesat Garrett Wade .
Isopropyl Alcohol
When cutting various shoot off of dissimilar plant life , it ’s really important to sterilize your tools in between excision so any pathogen present do n’t hitch a drive to new hosts .
A solution of piddle and isopropyl inebriant will get the job done – just check that the alcohol is at least 70 percent of the mixture , with weewee making up the sleep .
A fringe benefit of isopropyl alcoholic beverage is that it ’ll aid to de - sap your sword . Anyone who ’s essay to open and shut a pair of gummed - up pruning hook or lopper knows how helpful this is !
A bottle of 99 percentage isopropyl alcohol isavailable from Solimo via Amazon .
When to Trim a Maple Tree
Diseased , broken , or decompose branches can be cut back whenever you materialise to notice them . But keep the more involved session of mould or thin healthy green growth to once a twelvemonth .
For the most part , deciding when to schedule your primary pruning sessions is a lay-up .
dress before that first flush of growth appears in springiness will lead in the most vigorous growing for most type of trees , so design to do your work in late winter or former springiness is a pretty proficient prescription … most of the fourth dimension .
Maples , on the other hand , may require some more careful thoughtfulness .
Since they leech so much sap from wound , maple trees are a pretty notable exclusion . Because sap is so alimental and lifespan - giving to anAcer , cut at standard pruning time could make the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree to lose a mountain of sap .
This sap loss may or may not be harmful , depending on the size of it and eld of the tree . Sometimes sap release is no big mass , while it can affect a maple ’s wellness and vitality at other times .
Here ’s a good rule of ovolo to decide how to continue : the greater a maple ’s size and old age , the better it can handle sap red , and frailty versa .
If your specimen is magnanimous and honest-to-god , then you ’re belike safe to trim during the traditional timeframe . But if your tree is small , untried , or may be prostrate to excessive sap going for some other reason , then hold off on pruning until summertime .
At this dot in the class , growth has slow down and wounds wo n’t ooze as much sap , but it ’s still early enough to void the fuddled , cold , and disease - raise atmospheric condition of fall and wintertime .
How to Prune
We ’ve laid out the motivations , the tools , and the timing behind this process . allow ’s cover the factual pruning part now .
Here ’s a helpful checklist to understand what you should rationalize , in order from greatest to least grandness :
Pruning cutting should be made parallel to the trunk , and the cut stumps should just scarcely protrude from beyond the branch collar without cutting into it to avoid damage .
Non - parallel cut slant countenance for piddle to collect on the injury , which could result in disease .
If any ramification that you like to abbreviate back are rather heavy , utilize the three - cut method acting by first making a cut one to two feet out from the trunk halfway up into the branch .
Next , make a complete undercut a brace in further out from the luggage compartment . Finally , make the last cut slightly beyond the branch collar .
The three - deletion method is corking because the rationalise branch wo n’t take a flight strip of barque or “ heel ” with it when it precipitate . If you postulate a bright analogy , this is like when you aggressively pick at a agnail and pull away aLOTmore skin than you mean to .
Other than one - off pruning Roger Huntington Sessions of sick , dead , or damage branch , all of the branches and twigs absent from the tree in one go should make up no more than a third of the works ’s total aboveground growth .
Any more , and the strong-arm stress may test inordinate .
Prune from the top down , so you could step yourself and annul removing the maximal recommended growth prematurely .
This is basically a trick that forces you to on a regular basis take a step back from the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and expect over your piece of work to see if you ’re rationing out your “ pruning bucks ” correctly .
Pruning from the bottom up , on the other mitt , makes it all too loose to remove a third of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ’s growth before you ’ve even made it midway up the trunk .
Aaaaaand Cut!
That ’s a wrapper on this pathfinder , and it ’s also a call to activeness : go clip your maple Tree , people ! As long as it ’s the proper time , that is .
Pruning anAceris quite empowering , especially if you ’re used to leaving your landscape trees be and letting them do their own thing .
By maintain a maple in this way , you take an active role in manage for and improving the tree ’s appearance and well - being , which is middling neat .
And for more data about grow maple Tree in your landscape , check out these guides next :
Photo by Joe Butler © demand the Experts , LLC . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.See our TOSfor more details . Product photo via Gardener ’s Supply Company , Garrett Wade , NoCry , and Solimo . Uncredited photos : Shutterstock .
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Joe Butler
