How Much is Too Much?

How much is too much when it comes to thinning out live growth in the crown of your trees? At Donegan’s Tree Service, we are committed to maintaining the health of every tree and we recommend that no more than 1/3 of the live growth should ever be removed in one growing season. Trimming more than this can compromise the health of young and mature trees. With that in mind, we firmly believe that less thinning is better. Although lightly thinning an entire tree can be useful for increasing air and light flow, the process should still not exceed removing more than 1/3 of the live growth in one season.

We believe that structural pruning should be considered before the entire crown is thinned and find that focusing on the structural approach is the best process. We take the practical approach of structurally pruning in order to reduce defects and then we thin out the crown to shape and balance the tree in order to be aesthetically pleasing — but only if the maximum pruning allotment has not been met or exceeded.

Unfortunately, many inexperienced tree companies will prune when it is not necessary and subscribe to the practice of only removing branches from the interior of the crown. Over pruning a tree by removing a large number of inner branches is often referred to as lion’s tailing. Incorrectly thinning a tree can also mean that little or nothing is removed from the ends of the limbs, and this is a mistake as lion's tailing can cause structural weakness since all of the foliage is left on the ends of the branches. This can cause them to be heavy and unbalanced, putting too much pressure on the area where the limbs are growing out from the trunk, which sometimes results in splitting branches and other safety hazards. Not only is it an every day hazard, it also makes the tree more susceptible to storm damage from high winds or the additional weight of ice. These things all can lead to the decline or even death of older, mature trees, as you can see in this video.

While clearly a bad practice, we find that unprofessional tree services also tend to overcharge when making these incorrect cuts because of the enormous amount of brush on the ground that they will have to carry away.

The bottom line: when it comes to tree pruning, less is more. Need to schedule maintenance for your trees? Reach out for a free estimate today!