The Dangers of Pruning Too Soon

With the crisp fall air, vibrant foliage, and perfect tree planting conditions, now seems like the time for all things lawn care. Autumn combines warm, breezy working days with the knowledge that tending your trees now will save you a lot of stress come spring. But if the emphasis on landscape maintenance has your green thumb reaching for the pruning shears, you might want to take a step back. Pruning is one type of plant care you should save for another season.

Pruning 101

tree pruning heartPruning is a crucial aspect of tree revitalization. Pruning branches allows you to shape and trim your tree, tailoring growth aesthetically to fit the design of your landscape. Trimming also benefits the health of your tree, allowing you to removing dead or diseased limbs that allow decay to seep into the main trunk, damaging its overall health. Pruning stimulates new growth by increasing air circulation and encouraging sap production, making your tree thrive. Begin to prune trees while they’re young. Rather than hindering growth, early pruning develops the tree into a healthy, well-shaped plant and limits the amount of pruning that will be necessary as it matures.

Don’t Prune Trees in the Fall

While pruning is necessary to encouraging full and healthy trees, pruning is not a task to undertake in the fall. Even in the warmth of our Alabama plant hardiness zone, trees are going dormant in autumn. Trimming your trees stimulates sap production and increases growth: a bad combination when your plants are hunkering down for cold winter weather. The ideal time to prune your trees is late winter to early spring; trees are already dormant, and the lack of leaves highlights the areas that need the most care.

For information on planting fall trees and fall tree maintenance, call 3am Growers, your premiere nursery for Alabama, DelMarVa, and the coastal Northeast.