Introduction
The way you take care of a tree determines its strength, health, and shape. A tree that is cared for properly can easily outlive you and provide you numerous benefits throughout its lifetime. Pruning is one of the ways you can care for your trees and there are plenty of benefits. You can do it yourself or hire professionals to do it by searching for “tree service near me”. Before you check out the advantages of pruning your trees, let’s get familiar with different types of pruning:
The Types
- Different types of pruning – There are different types of tree pruning and they have different purposes:
- Crown pruning- In this type of pruning, you remove weak branches to spread the canopy. This enhances light penetration and air circulation and also reduces the load from large and heavy branches.
- Dead pruning – As the name suggests, you remove dead, decaying, and dying branches from the tree. Apart from improving the appearance of the tree, it also helps you mitigate risks from branches suddenly falling on people or structures.
- Pollarding – You remove the upper branches of the tree during its growing phase and at regular intervals after that. This helps you provide a constant supply of small-diameter poles to the tree and facilitate a dense head of branches and foliage.
- Raising – In this method, you trim a tree’s volume to allow space for power and utility lines. It helps to make your home and neighborhood safer.
Now that you’re familiar with some basic pruning methods, it’s time to check out their advantages:
- Improve the overall health of your trees – As mentioned above, pruning involves cutting off dead, rotting, and infested branches from the tree. When you cut off rotting and decaying branches, you prevent the infestation from spreading to the larger branches and stem and spreading disease to the rest of the tree. It helps you control infection and mitigate the damage so that the whole tree doesn’t die. Apart from that, pruning also helps to make gaps in the foliage and structure of the tree that allows better air and light penetration. This means the lower branches and other parts of the tree get sufficient resources to grow healthy. Both light and air are required for photosynthesis that helps the plant to create its food and get energy.
- Safety concerns – Dead and decaying branches don’t just hurt the tree. They can also hurt you and your family members or any innocent passerby. Dead and decaying branches are weak and can be easily broken due to a storing gust of wind or rain during bad weather conditions. If a broken branch falls on you or your family members you may have to deal with expensive hospital bills and in extreme cases loss of life. Expect to be slapped by a hefty lawsuit if it falls on your neighbor or strangers.
Apart from that, a broken branch can also damage your home or your property. A heavy branch can damage roofs, gutters, walls and can distort the shape of your expensive SUV. Moreover, if you leave trees unpruned, they grow in any direction they want. You don’t want them to grow towards electric cables and utility wires. Apart from damaging the neighborhood’s electric grid, it can also become a fire hazard. Pruning helps you avoid all those hazardous scenarios.
- Better produce – During the winter, trees are dormant and save their energy. When you prune it during that time, you can easily see the dormant buds and prune them so that the tree can distribute its energy optimally to the rest of the buds. This invigorates the remaining buds and helps in fruit production. During summer you don’t have to disturb the tree when it’s busy and reap all the benefits during spring. When the tree has less volume of under-performing buds, it can use its resources more efficiently and channel its energy more optimally for fruit production.
- Increase the value of your home – Potential buyers or renters won’t be too keen on staying in a home that has a yard right out of a horror movie. Loose branches, unkempt foliage, and decayed branches that are barely hanging to the tree are an eyesore and safety risk. No one would be willing to live or invest in a property like that. Even if they want to live there, they get the perfect excuse and the right card to negotiate the prices in their favor. They wouldn’t be willing to pay a premium or the price you expect. Contrary to that, when you keep your yard in top condition and prune your trees, you have the upper hand at the negotiating table. More buyers would be interested in your beautiful property, and it can increase the market value of your home. It’s basic consumer psychology. More people want an attractive thing and are more likely to pay a premium for it.
- More sunlight – Like trees, you also need sunlight for the daily dose of vitamin D. Studies show that well-lit rooms with ample sunlight create a more cheerful and warm environment compared to a dull room with artificial lighting and closed windows. That’s why most traditional office environments look so monotonous and depressing. When you don’t prune trees, they can prevent sunlight from getting into your home through the windows. Moreover, when sunlight isn’t reaching your home, you have to keep the lights on and spend more resources to keep the room warm. You spend more on electricity bills when you don’t prune trees and control their growth. That’s why even if a tree is healthy, you need to prune the branches that deny sunlight to your home.
Conclusion
Now that you know all about the benefits of pruning you may take a look at your yard and decide on the next best step. Pruning isn’t an easy task and requires a lot of experience and professional tools and gear that ensures your safety. That’s why you should search for “tree service near me” and leave the risky task to professionals.
