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Read on to find out why winter is the best season to prune trees
Winter is the dormant season for trees and plants. Pruning trees at this time, before the active spring growth occurs, is best for your tree’s health and all-around safety. In addition, dormant tree pruning helps avoid infections, parasitic attacks, and other inconveniences. Here are five reasons that make winter the best season to prune your trees.
What Is Dormant Pruning?
- The trees surrounding a house are not actively growing during the late fall and winter. The process of conducting pruning when the trees are resting is called dormant tree pruning. The dormancy cycle of a tree depends on its type, size, age, and overall health. Trees are cold and hardy during this phase.
Reasons To Prune Your Trees In Winter
- Establishing a schedule to prune your trees when they are dormant has several benefits, including:
Steady Growth Cycles
- Trees become dormant in the winter and do most of their growing and healing during the warmer months. Warmer seasons, like late spring and early summer, play a crucial role in the tree’s life cycle.
By pruning trees in winter, you avoid disrupting the vital growth phase of the trees and allow them to grow freely. However, when you prune your trees in the warmer season, they have to divert their resources to closing wounds and will not be able to grow correctly.
Improves Visibility
- Another reason to prune your trees in winter is the visibility and access to the branches. Since the foliage is not in the way during winter, you can see the structure of the trees. This allows you to choose where to prune. In addition, it helps detect deadwood, rotten, and diseased spots more clearly. It is significantly easier to prune large trees in the winter. It allows you to securely tie off the limbs, climb easily, and have maximum visibility.
Thus, enabling you to do a good job. Moreover, potential hazards are eliminated by removing densely crossed branches and weak limbs during the winter. This allows the sunlight to reach the lower vegetation without impedance, thereby ensuring the health of your entire landscape.
Reduced Risk Of Infestations
- There are fewer bugs, insects, fungi, and bacteria during winter. The spread of pest diseases is significantly reduced during colder months. This makes winter a perfect time to prune large trees since these parasites cannot take advantage of the wounds.
On the other hand, insects and other predators are highly active during the warmer months. The fresh pruning wounds give them an ideal environment to thrive and damage trees. These invasive species are dormant during the winter, thus alleviating your tree’s vulnerability to a possible infestation.
Promotes Faster Healing
Winter is the resting period for your trees. Tree pruning during this time will result in minimal sap loss, which puts less stress on the trees. In addition, this downtime provides your trees more time to heal from wounds. Moreover, the damaged or dead trees are dangerous in winter, particularly during windstorms, as they increase safety concerns.
However, DIY pruning is not advisable since you have to climb trees up to a certain height to do it successfully. This increases the risk of injury. Hiring a qualified arborist eliminates risks and prepares your yard to receive all the sunshine.
If you are looking for the best pruning and tree removal services for your trees, then get in touch with American Tree Experts Inc today. We are a group of tree experts working in Montclair, New Jersey. Call us today at 973-744-6091 with your pruning and other queries, and we will give you a fantastic quote for free.