Common pruning mistakes

Pruning is an important part of gardening especially, if you want to maintain a certain shape of trees and bushes, but also if you want to keep your trees healthy. Proper pruning maximizes harvest while warding off various diseases that may occur especially if your trees have too dense crowns. There is no one fits all solution so, you need to learn how to prune individual bushes and trees. Here are the most common pruning mistakes. Avoid these and your trees will thank you.

Cutting done in wrong places

The key is to find out where the tree needs to be pruned. If you cut branches too low, you can damage buds, and if you cut too high, you may encourage spread of diseases. By cutting at the right spot you will create healthy and vital trees that look good.

Photo: Pixabay

Pruning done at the wrong time of year

The right time to prune trees is during the dormant season – which is in winter, and that is true for the vast majority of trees and bushes. But there are exceptions. For example, cherries and plums should be pruned in the summer, because they are at risk of getting the damaging silver leaf spotting – a disease that enters the tree through cuts and wounds. Another exception includes flowering bushes. You should prune those immediately after flowering.

Radical cut

If you prune too much you may be inflicting too much damage, making the tree weak and enable to recover properly. Each unnecessary cut deprives the tree of stems and leaves, through which the tree obtains nutrients. Carbohydrates are stored in wood and leaves produce their own carbohydrates through a photosynthesis. If you cut too much, the roots may die. You may not completely lose the plant but it will take several years to recover.

Pruning below the node

This is another common mistake; plants should be pruned above the node, which is the spot from which leaves, buds and shoots grow. By cutting above a node, you can easily manipulate new stems and shape your tree or bush properly. Be careful not to damage the node and make sure to cut no more than 1 cm above the node.

Contaminated and dirty garden shears

If you use the same shears on all your plants and do not disinfect shears between individual trees, you may transfer infection from one tree to other trees. Keep in mind that a tree may be infected even if it does not shows any signs of disease. Further, make sure that your scissors or shears are sharp enough, because you need to make the cleanest cut possible . A clean cut heals faster and therefore less time to get infection.

Failure to prune at an angle

You should always cut at an angle so that water (rainwater) flows down quickly. The more time rainwater sticks to the wound, the higher the risk of getting fungal infections.

Source: https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/seven-pruning-mistakes-to-avoid/

Preview photo: Pixabay