How to Prune Evergreen Trees
Video Transcript[Instructor] I'm gonna be talking to you about pruning your evergreen trees. So typically when we're talking about pruning trees we want to be doing it in the dormant season when we're dealing with deciduous trees or trees that lose their leaves every winter. And the reason why we do that is because the tree is like I said dormant, it has shed its leaves and has stored starches within its a wood tissues. So we're not removing any live foliage and the tree has its full storage of starches to send out a new flesh of growth in the spring. So you're not doing too much damage. Also, you're better able to see the architecture of the tree and things like pest and disease are a lot less prevalent in the winter. A lot of those are dormant as well. So in the case of evergreen trees, we can prune in the spring 'cause with certain species you are looking for a new flesh of growth to cover up any pruning holes that you might create.
In the case of a whorled species like this Norway spruce, you're not gonna get that new flesh of growth. At any time, you can actually do any kind of what they're called the three D's. Dead, damaged or diseased branches. You actually want to remove those as quickly as possible. You have a storm, vandalism, some kind of a pathogen come in go ahead and remove those branches as quickly as possible. In the case of diseased branches, so you want to cut back to live tissue or healthier tissue as far away from the disease part of the branch, as possible. If it's needing to, cut all the way back to the stem. In the case of whorled species like this Norway spruce we're going be cutting back to the inactive center or the stem. And in this species, you won't have a flush of new growth, as you can see to cover up these pruning wounds. I do not recommend using any kind of pruning paint or a wound paint unless you would just want it for a sick purposes. But a lot of these products are actually petroleum based and can hold moisture against the cut and promote fungal growth and rotten decay. In some cases they might be useful in certain species to deter insects that might be attracted to any kind of stuff, weeping sap and spread any kind of pathogen. So that'd be the only case that something like that would be beneficial. So I would definitely consider the species that you're working with especially deciduous species and just go from there.
Deciding on whether you need to use pruning paint. Now, as you can see, I've done quite a bit of work on this particular tree. What I've done, is I've raised canopy. The work that I've done on this tree was quite extensive. It was pretty much dead from about three and a half feet off the ground. All the way down to the ground was completely dead. So I'm going show you today, me removing another branch since these branches are quite long about eight to 15 feet long we are going to be doing what's called a three-part cut. And a three-part cut is somethings you do to minimize damage to the trunk of the tree, when you're removing a branch at the trunk of the tree.
Now, today I'm going to talk to you also about any pruning tools you might need to use. Here we have loppers, where they bypass pruner mechanism that has more of a scissor-like action. These are great for anything up to three quarters of an inch. So do your little branch lips that might poke your eye out when you're trying to make your way into the center of this tree before I cleaned it up. These are great in that they give you a little bit more leverage a little bit more reach. You also have hand pruners. Again, with the bypass pruner mechanism. These are great. These bypass system or the scissor-like cutting, because it does not crush plant tissue the way that a chopping block or an anvil style pruner might. And so these are a lot more easier to use and also do a lot less damage to your tree. So these are good for up to, I'd say about a half inch after that, you're really going to work at getting the little branch off. Anything above 3/4 of an inch I like to use a handsaw, collapsible handsaw. This particular brand is my favorite. It's called a PocketBoy by Silky. Has alternating blades going in different directions so that you get cutting action going forward and back. It cuts through just like butter.
You want to work with clean and sharpen tools every single time it comes to the tree. You also want to have a plan when you're coming to a tree. You don't want to just start hacking at it and not know what you're doing. So in this case, with this Norway spruce, I'm going to be demonstrating the technique called crown raising. So in order to clean your tools all I usually do is use some blue Dawn, some dish soap, and get all the stickiness off of them, dry them thoroughly. And if I've been working on a tree that I think might have a pathogen or something like that or it's showing any signs of disease or pest problems, I will spray it with isopropyl alcohol, like 70% solution. It's the least corrosive of all the sterilizing solutions out there. You can use bleach, you can use trisodium phosphate that you use to clean your deck, but a lot of those will be corrosive to your pruning tools. So I just spray it on and let it dry. And if I feel like I need more standardization I might do it between cuts on the same tree.
So let's get to pruning this tree. All right, so let the record show that I've already done quite a bit of work on this tree but I'm going to be removing this one last branch. And it's pretty hefty, about two and a half inches in diameter at where it reaches the stem, and it's easily swoops up to about 15 feet long. So a lot of pressure, a lot of leaf-load pressure where it meets the trunk. So we don't want this to, we don't want to cut directly down through the branch and have it basically banana peel the bark off of the stem. Just as a demonstration of some of these pruning tools I'm going show you how the loppers work. It's taken off some of these smaller branches here. So when you're using these loppers or hand pruners, or even any blade whatsoever try to make your cut facing away from live tissue or any tissue that you're going to be leaving on the tree. So that way, if there's any cutting, it’s cutting into the wood that you're removing and not anything you're leaving behind that could possibly invite decay or disease.
So, hand pruner. Oh, almost forgot guys, personal protective equipment. I'm wearing leather work gloves. They're awesome. They have even smartphone sensitive pads on the fingers. And even though I'm wearing my reading glasses or my general vision glasses, I'm going to be wearing eye protection as well. So that way, I don't get poked in the eye by any kind of little branch lips because that's no fun and it has happened. And even if you're using these pole pruners or these pruners and you don't think that you're going to do any damage to yourself, I have pinched the fat of my thumb with hand pruners in the actual handle. And I have nicked my finger closing a collapsible handsaw. So it's no joke. You definitely want to be wearing some personal protective equipment. Maybe even a hard hat, if you're working with something above your head with a pole pruner.
All right, let's try this again. Take two, with the loppers. So I have them facing away from anything that I want to keep. Nice clean tools and sharp tools make for easy work. A lot less cursing, if you will. So I'm just basically taking off some of the weight of this branch. Never a bad idea. And I'm not having to be too judicious about it because the whole branch is coming off. Now, some people might think like in a deciduous tree that you can cut back to a side branch lid. You could, in theory. You're kind of not typically not very good at sealing up wounds. So the best bet is just to take the whole branch off back to the stem. And I'm going to show you how to do that and give the tree the best chance of sealing up the wound and having the smallest wound possible. So just a few more. All right, that's about all I can reach. So we'll come back and look at closer to the tree here.
All right, so now we are here where the branch meets the stem of this tree. And I don't know if you can see it. I'll bring you guys in a little closer here. This nice swollen area where the branch meets the stem, you can see where the taper starts to occur right in here. This is called the branch collar. This is the interlocking of years and years of branch wood and stem wood that helps to secure the branch to the stem. It also has an area called the branch protection zone which creates hormones that help to stall the formation of decay and allow decay organisms to make their way into the stem or the core of the tree. You're trying to not allow a pathogen to get into the core system of the tree. So cutting out any kind of tissue that might be leftover that can create decay or invite decay or organisms to get into the main part of the tree. Not a good idea. So we are leaving this nice swollen area intact. So when we make our final cut I will show you, it'll be a nice 45 degree angle to 60 degree angle making as small a wound as possible and not cutting into that. And so when you're finished, your wounds should be nice and circular and clean like that. So let's get to it.
So I just got finished cutting off some smaller branch lips. I've decided that since this branch is so long, and since I'm working by myself out here I am actually going to reduce the weight of it even more. So I'm going to be doing two, three part cuts. So I'll show you guys how to do that twice. Just to kind of hammer it in there, all right? So, our first three-part cut. I'm going to come out easily about six feet from the trunk and just take off this sweeping section. So I'm going to undercut first about halfway through the branch. All right. and then I'm going to come about half an inch out from that undercut and do the top part top cut, but all the way through this time. Probably should have removed this just a little bit more than that. All right, so big part of that branch gone. Now I just have this big step left.
Now I'm going to go about a foot out from the stem and make my next cut. So I've already done undercut here. That's going to keep that branch from peeling off the bark from the stem. Look I'm at about half an inch from the undercut and cutting all the way through. There we go. And now doing this final stub. Like I said, 45 degrees to the tree skin itself to the branch collar there and making a small a window as possible. You don't want to cut at an angle like this. You don't want to cut an angle like that. You want to try to be as flushed to that branch protection zone or that branch collar as you possibly can be without actually cutting into it. And not leaving a stub. Whoa, this is a bit more much of work. There, you have it. Nice round cut. It's not jagged. It's nice and clean so that less tissue is being exposed and a jacket nature to pests and pathogens, to be able to get into it. Now with this particular species, pretty gummy, pretty snappy.
Pruning first thing in the spring is fine for it because your conifers don't go dormant necessarily. So you can prune in the dormant season. You just get a good flesh of growth in the spring and you can also prune first thing in the spring. We'll talk about other species in others videos but another bad time to prune evergreens is in the summer or in the late fall because you're getting new wounds that might not harden off before winter. So that's good rule of thumb is spring or otherwise the dormant season. And yeah, I appreciate your watching and learning and building a little bit about trees with me.