Why Arborists Trim The Way They Do. The Do's and Don'ts of Tree Trimming

[@Straycurrent]

Just the video I was hoping to find ... really informative. Thanks for sharing your expertise.

[@BinoH]

You are welcome!

[@janjones4224]

Great video on proper tree trimming. It makes me sad to see how many of the trees in my area are mis-trimmed. Thank you for sharing this good information.

[@BinoH]

You're welcome!

[@zlinky1111]

....another brilliant video containing a lot of useful info. Thanks Bino. : )))

[@BinoH]

Glad you liked it!

[@momatomic]

Hi Bino. I sought out your video in hopes of saving the trees at our condo complex. We had a change of management, who brought in a tree and landscaping service that has literally butchered everything they touched. I kid you not. Here is the rundown. Our condo is in Western Washington, a usually rainy climate. Each building is 2 1/2 stories high, with the ground units being split level. The third levels, of which mine is one, especially need the summer shade. We have maple trees at the ends and along the fronts of the condos which normally give shade relief from the hottest parts of the day. New landscapers came in last fall, in the first week of November, while the trees were still green and had barely starting to turn. It was a warm and late fall, as it has been for many years, aside from the warmer climate here. The trees were not out of control and needed only light grooming. To the horror of all the residents, they pollarded all the trees down to nubs. We never saw fall last season. Our fall colors were hauled off in a truck. They pruned the Rhododendrons in the same fashion, removing more than 60% of growth, including nearly all flower buds. Then, the unthinkable happened. Spring came and the landscaping crew came back and again and cut the trees back even more, removing almost all of the initial spring growth, and even more branches, pollarding them twice in one year without a growth cycle in between! This had to be a mistake, but they did it anyway. The trees took forever to even produce leaves. It was then followed by a five month drought. Our building and foliage suffered from this the most as our sprinkler system was ripped out for construction on the end walls of the building and the watering system was not replaced. Except for me dragging a 100 ft hose and hand watering, they received no water at all in this time. The Rhodies first went dormant, then, the ones I couldn't reach began dying. The damage was apparent when they failed to revive in soaking rain this fall of 2021. The trees growth was outward instead of upward. This was bad, since the main goal was to prevent branches from touching or rubbing up against the buildings, and to provide summer shade. The trees spent the entire summer trying to recover and never reached a height that provided any shade for us on the 2nd and 3rd floors. At this date, in the 1st week of Nov., the tops of the maples, normally 5 to 8 feet taller than the roof line, have barely reached our 3rd floor deck. We are still in full sun. I need to stop this new management from having them cut improperly and at the wrong time, again. On the 3rd floor, our temps were hotter than anyone else's, averaging 10 to 12 degrees above the stated temperature because we are surrounded by asphalt, with no cooling from sprinklers at night. I cannot take another week of 110 temperatures, nor months of 90 degree temps. There is no air conditioning that will overcome it, and we are only allowed portables. The attic space is poorly insulated, if at all, and held the heat all night long, radiating it into our unit. Our quality of life, the enjoyment of our home, our health and our electric bill have suffered. I would love your opinion on this, especially the issue of repairing and guiding the growth of these trees upward and when to do it, given what has been done to them so far. Please comment on not cutting green trees in fall before they have let down their sap, and not pruning Rhododendrons before they bloom, so we may enjoy their beauty. Thank you so much for your video, Bino. I am so glad I found it.

[@BinoH]

I do not believe it was pollarding. Pollarding is an ancient specialized technique that usually starts with younger trees. They were cut back yearly and big bulbs were created. It sounds like your condos had mature trees that were topped. Topping trees is the worst thing you can do to trees especially in an urban environment for all of the reasons in this video. I think the best thing you could do is get petition to stop the topping. I would say that you would have to have the majority of your condo community to agree on having stop the topping and hire and arborist and trim them properly. Here is a link to the International Society of Arboriculture. www.isa-arbor.com/For-the-Public Check you can find more information on proper care of tree. www.treesaregood.org/treeowner/pruningyourtrees www.treesaregood.org/Portals/0/TreesAreGood_Why%20Topping%20Hurts_0321.pdf Here you will find helpful information on hiring and arborist - why topping is bad - how to trim mature trees. There is also a search feature to find and arborist in your area. Sorry to here that the trees in you community were ruined but if you hire an arborist it's possible to restructure the trees and bring them back to a more natural form. I hope this helps take care.

[@matthewharvey8755]

Great info Bino, thanks buddy

[@BinoH]

Thank you!

[@stevebrough304]

Thanks for passing your knowledge Bino. I've always wondered about the way tree trimmers (not necessarily real arborists) do what they do.

[@BinoH]

Thank you!

[@stevebrough304]

When you were showing the footage of the pines in the residential area, it reminded of an area in Cerritos that has large pines in the parkways. I'd never seen city signs warning about the likelihood of sap dropping on parked vehicles prior to this. If I remember correctly, there's a neighborhood in east Long Beach that's similar as well.

[@mikeremski2102]

The tree trimmers that clear the power lines (that'd be the hydro lines for the Canadians here :) ) are "easiest to do to keep the lines safe". Makes the trees look ugly. Landscapers that shear things (boxwoods, forsythia, etc) are lazy because hand pruning takes time. Time and effort is the root cause of trimming anything wrong. Doing it right takes more time and more effort.

[@BinoH]

@@mikeremski2102 True but when it's done properly your tree will last longer between trimms.

[@BinoH]

@@stevebrough304 the sings would more likely be put up when it's hot. Cerritos has about 4,000 Canary Pines. That's going to change though the cities residents approved a reforestation on them so the pines near homes will all be removed.

[@victoriajimenez3621]

So Informative. My friend told me to hire an arborist aka an artist and not a guy with a chainsaw and she’s so right. I thank you and better yet my 3 live oaks thank you.

[@BinoH]

That is awesome, Oaks look so beuatiful when they are trimmed properly or any for that matter. Take care!

[@fabianlopez4200]

Good vid bino. Totally agree with you. A lot of time I can only recommend what I know is right. But at the end of the day I do what the client ask me to do. I don’t sit there and argue. If they leave it up to me I always prune natural style.

[@BinoH]

That is very tough when that happens. It still suprises how many people still want there trees topped. Take care!

[@ccabraal6719]

Thank you. Now I understand why we've been having trouble keeping our smokebush and arbutus under control and looking right.

[@BinoH]

You're welcome.

[@brushlife9426]

Nice video man very nice 👍 A video on trimming tree's with severe die back and trees that have been pruned wrong in the past would be a good video. I find that type of work is challenging at least for me .

[@BinoH]

Thank you, Yes is very difficult to restore a tree because grows rank after topping. Nice to hear from you take care!

[@domingueztreetrimming4108]

This is really good thanks please put more videos like this it helps out a lot

[@BinoH]

Thank you. I will do my best!

[@darrenlewis7001]

Interesting Bhino. Let me ask you because I live in the Northeast, New Jersey. I planted some apple trees that I bought from Home Depot about 3 years ago and they don't flower or produce fruit. I know you say some of those techniques are wrong but would they make the trees flower and fruit or is there something else I should be doing? They are Macintosh and Red Delicious Apple trees.

[@BinoH]

This video and the pruning techniques are more for the urban setting. Fruit trees are dfferent in fruit trees some trees have to be headed back and some fruit grow on old wood or new wood. I am not an expert on fruit trees but I uderstand that most fruit trees need to be at last 5 years old to produce fruit.

[@mikeremski2102]

From what I know, first 3 or 4 yrs are prune for structure (future growth). 5 years is when you may/should start to see something. Some apples need different variety for pollination; you state 2 different ones so I think you should be ok. In general, fruit trees are like grape vines (wine producing): be patient, and treat them like an infant for the first few years. A lot of the information on the internet is actually reasonable if you search "how do I prune apple trees".

[@darrenlewis7001]

Thanks guys

[@georgejungle7509]

@@darrenlewis7001 .... Like it was said above, your trees will take a few years to produce fruit unless they were dwarf trees. Dwarf trees are manufactured with a piece that is grafted from a mature tree. In that case, you'll get fruit in 3 - 5 years. I do not think they do that with most apple trees. More typical with orange, lemon, and lime. The one thing that I'll say about your fruit trees is placement on your property. Obviously with 3 years of growth, your not going to dig up your tree and try to plant it somewhere else. But for future trees take this into consideration. We have a house in Teaneck, NJ that had a Red Delicious Apple for 25 years. Constantly gave fruit after I'd say 6, 7 years. It was purchased with a regular pear tree that was about 10 feet apart. They both grew up to about 16 feet tall. We never trimmed or pruned them. They were planted in the backyard and by no reason in a location shielded by our house and the neighbors house from the most intense winds we get in our location. I say this because the years that we didn't get a lot of fruit were the years where an intense storm blew the buds off the tree in the spring. I thought it was the squirrels eating them, but have learned otherwise. The pear was more easily blown off than the apple. I'm telling you this so if you have more property available you could plant another tree that can be shielded by the house. But don't plant the tree too close to the house or the squirrels will have another access point to the tree from your roof. The squirrels do an excellent job of stealing and eating the fruit. And no, you shouldn't kill them. Transport them somewhere else, I didn't say this but that'd be my choice. I ended up manufacturing a collar from a sheet of aluminum that's shaped like a medical dog collar to prevent the squirrels from going up tree. Both trees had one. The only problems was the neighbors oak tree grew over the trees. So I had to prune the neighbors oak tree to keep any adjoining branches where the squirrels could access the top of the tree. Yes, they can jump pretty far. But the ones that made it couldn't jump back because it was too far and they couldn't jump to the ground because my collar was in the way. They'd do it once and find out they had to jump to the ground which was pretty far. So usually a few apples or pears eaten until they learned not to do that . Hope this info helps. .... Sadly the apple got an infection about 5 years ago and broke in half. Last year, we cut the remainder down to prevent the rest from cracking also. Sadly we cut the pear down too to dress up the house for sale next year. Our new house in Florida has avocados, peaches (with collars), lemons, oranges, and grapefruits. Different techniques to grow in Florida. Much more fertilizer needed because of the longer season and watering much more because of the dry periods in the spring and fall.

[@gregbrown9271]

Great advice Bino 👌

[@BinoH]

Thank you!

[@555Pleiades]

Is it possible to salvage a topped jacaranda?

[@BinoH]

It is possible to keep a topped Jacaranda but it will never be as strong or have natural growth. The technique to perform on it is called crown restoration and it requires trimming more often until you have a fair structure. There are some Arborist that do well at this. If you hear we just have to keep topping it, it might be time to find another Arborist.

[@555Pleiades]

@@BinoH Thank you very much for the reply.

[@BinoH]

@@555Pleiades you're welcome

[@rainjersforest768]

thanks for sharing, it would be great to have a such playlist on your channel (about tree care). I have a question - is it ok to prune beech tree in summer?

[@BinoH]

I haven't had many opportunities to work on beech but I understand it's better to trim in the cooler season.

[@rainjersforest768]

@@BinoH Thanks, so I'll cut off only the dead branches then

[@treaddown]

Nice job Bino.I find that most people change their view with a little education.Let's put the hacks out of business,or better yet educate them.

[@BinoH]

Sounds good to me!

[@frannol]

Thank you for the video! Can we prune a columnar swedish aspen tree to keep it on the shorter side? I don't want the tree to get too tall and keep it skinny. Thank you!!! :)

[@BinoH]

The Sedish Aspen can grow to 130 feet tall. When a tree can grow that tall you really cannot keep it short it's goal is to be tall. If you were hoping to have a shorter tree it's better to pick a tree that is a shorter tree.

[@frannol]

@@BinoH ok, thank you! I thought they would grow about 40 feet.

[@BinoH]

@@frannol You might check the sunset climate zone or usda hariness zone and see what height it will grow in your area. Sometimes trees that can grow very tall may not grow tall in area that are not suited for them.

[@andrewspain9276]

Great content, thank you.

[@BinoH]

You're welcome and thank you!

[@uprootedtreeworks2369]

I’m just going to link this video to the next customer I have that wants their tree topped🤦‍♂️

[@BinoH]

Hopefully they chooe to have them trimmed properly. Take care!

[@colsinclair7793]

It's better than Coppicing I suppose. I would do both rather than taking the tree away altogether if possible. Good vid as always m8👍🏻

[@BinoH]

Thank you! and thanks for the new word!

[@colsinclair7793]

Bino H new word?

[@BinoH]

@@colsinclair7793 Yes coppiocong, I never heard it before. Now I have it in my vocabulary.

[@colsinclair7793]

Bino H think it originates form Farmers who cut trees at the stump to let new shoots sprout out. Used for fencing and weaving! Animals started eating the shoots so they cut 10foot above. Now we call that pollarding!

[@colsinclair7793]

Lol Iv Learned a few things from you're channel. It's good a can give a little back.

[@JonathanGarcia-fj3gg]

I’m a little late but I wanted to comment that sometimes we work for companies that they themselves know it’s not proper cuts but they still direct us to do so if the client is asking for “special tops or prunes” and people really don’t care about tress unfortunately

[@BinoH]

That is the tuff part.

[@mikeremski2102]

Bino, thanks. If anyone is interested, pick up a copy of "Modern Arboriculture" by Alex Shigo. Good stuff.

[@BinoH]

True very good book. Now it's up to the forth edition with the authors Richard Harris, James Clark and Nelda Matheny. Thank you!

[@Sethhaun78]

Folks want me to ask yall to climb some regular x current trees instead of those park trees.for several reasons would likevto see it as well..with spikes and without ..be good for ya.chamnel

[@Sethhaun78]

Volumes turned off on low

[@Sethhaun78]

You must be in thar place called California..

[@BinoH]

Yes

[@franzjosephaque2066]

Trees should be sided cut on the branches 🌳🌳🌳

[@Sethhaun78]

Agreed however customers want trees topped even after several plees,not to ..in east coast its always silvermaples ,pear trees bradfords,crap murder or murdles,😂. Even Holly's, and more .ot causes regrowth,wich is dangerous and weak then turning tree into a bush.but that s what customers want alot of times. I try to get them to let me remove it and plant new tree but .in reality it's someone's property so it's treated as such ..sadly ...truth is we don't own anything GOD DOES..and this,saveing the planet nonsense is utter nonsense to get people to force them to comply with what ever agenda pushed.controlong resources, soon the world will be destroyed and not by man..where people are going they can't bring trees or materials..very sad the state the world is currently in..