When I first bought a new house, I realized that the front trees were a little overgrown. I was worried about a branch breaking in the wind and smashing into a window or the roof, and so I decided to invest in professional tree service. When the arborist came, he had more concerns than just a few overgrown branches. Apparently, a few of my trees had also developed serious pest infestations, and I was worried about what it might mean for their health. He carefully trimmed each tree to ward off disease, and within a few weeks, they were looking a lot better. This blog explains how a professional tree trimmer could help you, so that you aren't left with dying trees.
Keeping Your Trees Healthy
Minimizing Sap Loss When You Trim Trees
Joshua Mercier
Do trees bleed? They do not have blood in the traditional sense, but they do have sap, which is a liquid used to carry water and nutrients to their leaves. Sap is a lot like blood in several ways. For one, if a tree loses too much sap, it can have a hard time recovering and making enough new sap to feed its tissues. Sap runs out whenever a living tree branch is cut. For this reason, it is a good idea to try to minimize sap loss when you trim a tree. Here are some key ways to achieve that.
Trim trees when the sap is not flowing as rapidly.
There are seasons when sap is running more actively through the tree. For most trees, the sap runs a lot slower and at lower volumes in the late fall, winter, and early spring. So, these are the times when you want to trim the trees. An exception is maple trees. Their sap tends to start flowing in late winter, which is why maple farms tap their trees for syrup around this time. If you're trimming a maple tree, try to do so in the fall or summer. For all other trees, any time between late fall and early spring is fine.
Remove dead branches first.
If a branch is truly dead, the vascular tissue running to that branch may already be shriveled up and dead, which means cutting through it won't result in any sap loss. As such, when trimming trees, you should always remove the dead branches first. This approach may reduce the number of living branches you end up removing, which will reduce the amount of collective sap loss the tree experiences.
Make swift cuts using sharp shears.
The shears you use when trimming a tree do matter. If your shears leave jagged, sawed-off cuts, then those cuts will "weep" a lot and lose a lot of sap. On the other hand, if the cuts are straight and smooth, they will weep less. Always have your shears sharpened before you use them to trim a tree. Many hardware stores and knife stores offer sharpening services, and it typically only costs a few dollars to have shears sharpened.
If you follow the tips above, your trees should lose less sap when they are trimmed. This will result in better overall health for your trees in the long run.
For help with your trees, contact a professional tree trimming service in your area.
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