Many people tend to forget about opportunity about pruning trees and shrubs during the winter season. Some even think that since the plants are dormant during the winter season that they don't need much attention, however this isn't true. If you have a skilled/certified arborist on staff with you or the company that is taking care of your property can help you understand what the benefits of dormant pruning can be! Here are a few items that are good to know on dormant pruning.
Increased Growth Response
When a portion of a tree's canopy (the area of the tree with leaves) is removed during the dormant season, we often notice an increase in new growth from the remaining branches. The reason why this occurs is because the energy that is stored in the roots and branched is then channeled to fewer growth points. Because the same amount of energy is spread among fewer growth points, each new shoot grows a little more than it would have if the tree/shurb had not been pruned.
Improved Equipment Access
Have you ever thought about how much it cost to bring a piece of equipment across the grass and possibly ruin the grass if the crew members weren't careful enough? Or how it couldn't get really close to the tree because the branches were full of leaves and were in the way? During the winter season many of these things aren't a concern. The ground is solid and can take the weight of the equipment and the leaves have fallen off. What does this mean? Well, it means that your grass isn't getting ruined and the equipment is able to get closer and get the branches that are more in the tree. Now the tree is able to be thinned out throughout all of the tree and not just on the outside where you hope it will be enough and not look ugly!
Pest Management
Because the pruning is being done during the winter season pests aren't active and pruning can be done without any worry about pests infesting your tree or shrub. This is also a great way to avoid spreading disease that insects and other pests have on them.
