Pruning, Topping & Staking Trees & Shrubs, plus Witch Hazel Appreciation

Every homeowner knows they should prune, but beyond that, there’s a lot of confusion. Making things worse, there are examples all around us of poor pruning: fall snipping, summer shearing, tree topping, the list of pruning transgressions goes on and on. In this episode of Granite State Gardening, UNH Extension’s Emma Erler and Nate Bernitz share proven tips and solutions for approaching the ever intimidating and often-counterintuitive task of pruning. Come for the accessible science, stay for the demystifying banter. Once you learn how to prune, you’ll never see the trees and shrubs all around you the same. 

Featured question: Can trees be topped to reduce their height?

Featured plant segment: Vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis)

Closing gardening tip: Staking trees

Background reading: 

It’s Pruning Season article, with information about upcoming events: https://extension.unh.edu/pruningseason 

March 17 live event with Emma and Nate on Pruning: https://extension.unh.edu/events/pruning-ornamental-trees-and-shrubs-online 

Basics of Pruning Trees and Shrubs fact sheet: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/basics-pruning-trees-and-shrubs-fact-sheet 

Pruning Deciduous Trees fact sheet: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/pruning-deciduous-trees-fact-sheet 

Pruning Hydrangeas fact sheet: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/pruning-hydrangeas-fact-sheet 

Science of Pruning webinar Q&A: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/science-pruning-qa 

Cleaning and Sharpening Pruners: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/how-clean-and-sharpen-your-pruners 

TRANSCRIPT
by Otter.ai

Nate Bernitz  00:00

Welcome to the Granite State gardening podcast from UNH Cooperative Extension. On today's show, we dive into the world of pruning. At the top of the show, I want to put in a plug for a series of online events we're offering on this very topic. The first is on March 9 on pruning fruit trees, then on March 11, on pruning blueberries on March 15, it's burning raspberries, blackberries and grapes. And finally on March 17, ornamental pruning. If this episode leaves you with questions, join us on March 17. To ask me those questions live. These four events will all be streamed for free on our Facebook page, ask UNH extension. And I'll play host and moderator speaking with extension specialists including Emma and Becky Seidman, who you know from our vegetable garden planning episodes. Check the show notes of this podcast for the details. And speaking of the show notes, we have links to several parenting resources Emma has written herself and one of the things I appreciate most about these resources are the hand drawn diagrams Emma has done which really help illustrate these concepts. Greetings Granite State gardeners. I'm Nate bernitz. co host with me earlier of the Granite State gardening podcast a production of UNH extension. Today we're talking about pruning and specifically pruning ornamental trees and shrubs. So not the trees and shrubs that grow edible fruits because we're going to devote a whole other episode to printing those up. Now today we're talking about pruning landscape favorites like hydrangea, lilacs, Rhododendron, and well you get the idea. You may refer to pruning as trimming or cutting, but for today, we'll use the word pruning. Our goal here is for you to feel confident about pruning, and understand just a bit about how plants actually grow and respond to cuts, you're going to find that is really helpful. Inevitably pruning is something that takes practice and experience as well as an understanding of how particular plants grow and what you'd like them to actually look like as the real expert here. So I hope you don't mind if I learn a bit right along with you. Okay, let's get into it.

Emma E  02:29

Can trees be topped to reduce their height. That's this episode's featured question. Topping a tree is the cutting back of large branches and mature trees, cutting them to Stubbs trees are often top because they're perceived as being too tall to be safe. This fear is largely unjustified though, as a healthy tree we'll have a root system that is adequate to support it. Topping has the potential to harm trees and actually make them more prone to breakage. Trees respond to topping by producing a lot of long sprouts below the cut of the large branch that quickly grow to the height the tree was initially. Additionally, these limbs are weakly attached to the parent branch and are very prone to wind, snow and ice damage, which can obviously be hazardous. Another thing to consider is that large pruning wounds from large branch removal often did not seal properly and invite decay and insect invasions into the tree topping can lead to a long slow decline of a tree. So topping trees is hardly ever a good option. If the height of a tree really needs to be reduced for some reason. My advice, work with a certified arborist to have the work done properly. Your trees will thank you.

Nate Bernitz  03:53

Emma I mentioned in the introduction how this is a kind of a separate episode from pruning fruit trees and shrubs. Can you just really briefly explain why this is kind of a different animal?

Emma E  04:07

Well, it's different I think for a few different reasons. First off, when you're pruning or ornamental trees, typically you're most concerned about having the best possible structure to promote the beauty of that plant, as well as the the health of that plant in general. Whereas if you're growing a fruit tree, you're more concerned about production than how that plant looks in the end, right. You just want to be able to get the most fruit you possibly can on a healthy tree. Are those two things different? Well, I mean, they are to a certain extent and it it gets more particular depending on the exact species that you're talking about. But the big thing is that you're you're either looking at promoting the beauty of the plant or you're trying to make it as productive as possible.

Nate Bernitz  04:57

Hence the word ornamental. So That makes sense. Let's start with the really basic question of wiper and what are some of the benefits and reasons why someone might want to look out their backyard window at the trees and shrubs out there. And think, yeah, pruning is worth my time, I should definitely be doing that.

Emma E  05:18

I guess I'll start by saying that pruning isn't something that you necessarily have to do in your landscape, it can be really important. But just because you have a tree or shrub growing in your garden doesn't mean that it needs pruning. But there are some key purposes to pruning. The first thing I think of is to maintain or create good structure within a plant. When when plants are young, in particular,...