Just realized I was pruning maples all wrong

A guy on a job site last week told me I was leaving stubs that were just inviting disease, so I watched him do a proper drop cut on a silver maple and it clicked. He said 'you're making that tree fight a wound it didn't need to have,' and honestly I'd never thought about it that way - has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from early on?

3 comments

3 Comments

hunt.quinn8d ago

Oh man, I feel this hard. My first few seasons I was basically just hacking at branches like a toddler with a butter knife (lots of stubs left behind, it was ugly). One old-timer watched me mutilate an oak and just laughed, said I was giving the tree 'little stumpy band-aids that don't work.' It took a few proper cuts with a sharp saw on a Norway maple before the lightbulb went off for me too.

ray_hernandez8d ago

You ever look back at those early pruning jobs and just cringe at the damage you did? I still feel bad about a couple trees I butchered before I knew any better.

tara_jones945d ago

And that lightbulb moment... man, I still replay some of my old cuts and wince every time.