How To Trim Tree Branches

(Music Playing) David Epstein: Welcome to Growing Wisdom and we are going to talk today about the esthetic to some of our trees and reasons you might want to take some branches up, bring them in, brought Dave Ropes in from tree specialist. We have got a tree behind us here, where one these branches is very low which shading a bunch of my plants. And, I brought you in because some sort of like, I like the tree. I do no want to take the tree down, but I want to make it a little bit better in terms of the way it looks and the light and also, it is very close to the house. Dave Ropes: Right. I mean, that brings up an important point. A lot of the prooding we do, in fact, most of the prooding we do is not really esthetic in nature. It is really more about managing the structure frame work of the plants so that it fits in the landscape. David Epstein: So, I am literally going to let you go up there. You are going to climb the tree. We are going to put you to work (Laughing) and tell us the a little bit about what you are doing as you are up there and as you looking up the tree. Dave Ropes: Sure, let us do it. David Epstein: Okay, alright. Dave Ropes: So while I am up here, I am really looking around the whole canapé for decay, seems, splits, cracks, I am going to drop down and we will focus on that one low lem. The goal and objective is to prune the limb back away from the house. Takes some weight off the limb, get some more air flow around the structure so it do not get mold. And also, get some light to the under story plantings that Dave is trying to cultivate. What do you think, is that going to do or we are going to need to take this right back? David Epstein: Yap, keep going. Just keep cutting. Dave Ropes: Good idea. (Cutting the branch) Dave Ropes: Gives you a lot more light and clearance. Dave Ropes: We got the portion that is off near your house but if you look at the angle of the sun, you also get a lot of benefit by doing some thinning on this side of the tree so that the light moves right through the canapé and down to your yard. I cannot just drop the limb into your neighbor’s garden. So, I am going to tie off the limbs and then you are going to lower them down. Alright, here it goes. (Chainsaw Sound) Dave Ropes: All clear? (Cutting off the branch) Dave Ropes: Now just walk backwards towards the street. Feeding out rope with the other hand, that is right. David Epstein: Alright, so Dave, we have or actually you have for the most part, you have gone up there. We have pruned the tree to allow in more light. We have also look that branches to see some of the dead branches and branches that needed to be remove in, kind of just assess the overall look of the tree as well. Dave Ropes: Right, mostly what we did as far as pruning was to crown raise. And, that is when we took the branches up and away from the roof, the house and the plantings down below. So, it is crown raising. David Epstein: Well, thank you very much and come back, Dave Ropes: It is my pleasure. David Epstein: Come back every week for all of our videos here at GrowingWisdom.com (Music Playing)