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Before
You Start Pruning, Read This!
By
Marie McKinsey, CPH
When Susan
and I do Horticultural House Calls, we are asked lots of questions
about pruning. When do we do it?
How? What tools
do we need? Here are some answers to those questions.
When?
People are often surprised to learn that most pruning should
be done during the winter months. It is best to prune deciduous
trees while they are dormant, which means during the months
when their branches are bare. Also, in the Northwest, we prune
roses in February. Some vines and most flowering shrubs that
bloom in summer are pruned in winter, too.
Spring
blooming shrubs, however, should not be pruned in winter.
Wait until after they bloom. This will give them time to recover
from "surgery" and set buds for the next year's
flowering. Pruning them in winter often eliminates most if
not all of the flower buds and you will skip a year of flower
display.
Contrary
to popular myth, fall is not a good time for pruning. The
reason for this is that pruning stimulates growth and interferes
with a plant's natural progression toward dormancy at that
time of year. Cuts made in late summer or early fall may stimulate
a flush of growth before the first frost. This tender growth
is very susceptible to cold damage and a sudden drop in temperature
can set the plant back severely and, in some cases, kill it.
How?
Pruning is both an art and a science. There are the aesthetics
of plant shape to consider. There's also the health of the
plant to be maintained. You need to understand both before
you begin. This is a good deal more complicated than it seems
at first. You will easily find examples of bad pruning in
your neighborhood, but you wonder, how do you do it right?
Rather
than discover this through trial and error, we suggest that
our clients buy a copy of "Pruning
and Training" by Christopher Brickell. This book,
which is well illustrated and covers every major classification
of plants, will save you both time and money. For example,
you'll learn how to prune fruit trees to maximize fruit production,
how to prune your roses correctly, how to renovate older shrubs
and trees and how to start new plant material out right.
What
tools to use?
Hand
pruners
The
tool you will use most is hand pruners, so it makes sense
to buy a good pair that fits your hand well, is highly durable,
can be sharpened easily and repaired if necessary. Your
pruners should be bypass style, in which the blades cross
each other when you cut, not anvil style in which the blade
comes down on a flat piece of metal. The bypass pruners
give a cleaner cut, which is less harmful to the plant;
the anvil style often crushes stems and small branches,
which is harder on the plant.
Using
these criteria, there are several pruners that could fill
the bill, but Susan and I have found Felco pruners to be
our favorites. After many years of heavy use, my pair is
still going strong. Just an occasional sharpening and cleaning
of the blades and that's it. The Felco line features several
sizes and styles that will help you find a good fit. This
is particularly important if you do a lot of pruning. After
a day of repeated use, a cheap pair of pruners will leave
your hand sore or cramping.
This
was a problem for me until I bought my Felco #6 pruners.
I have small hands and having to hyperextend my hands to
accomodate large pruners made me miserable. Susan doesn't
have a problem with standard sized pruners but has problems
with her joints when she does work involving repetitive
motion. For her, the Felco #7, with the rotating handle,
(available in right-handed or left-handed styles) is a godsend.
The unique rotating action reduces strain on her joints
and allows her to work comfortably much longer. Of course,
the classic, standard size Felco #2 pruner is the probably
the most popular.
To keep
your pruners handy, slip a Felco holster onto your belt.
It's much better than jamming pruners into a pocket or wondering
where you left them.
Saws
Sooner
or later, you will encounter a branch big enough that you
can't get your pruner blades around it. When that time comes,
you need a pruning saw. Most of the time, I use a small
Felco folding saw that can be tucked into a holster on my
belt, ready when I am. Be sure you read the section in "Pruning
and Training" on how to use cutting tools properly
so that you get the job done with a minimum of harm to the
plant.
On the
rare occasion when I need a larger saw, the Fiskars 15"
D-Handle Saw will do the job. Be careful when you are cutting
very large, heavy branches. If the branch is not supported,
it may break off while you are sawing and tear into the
bark below the cut. An easy way to reduce the chance of
this happening is to foreshorten the branch by cutting it
off about a foot away from where you want to make the final
cut. This will reduce the size and weight of the branch
and make it easier to support with one hand.
Loppers
and Gloves
Loppers
are particularly useful when you are clearing away lots
of brush, foreshortening branches as mentioned above or
doing any other coarse pruning job. We don't recommend them
for precision pruning because their long handles can make
them a bit unwieldy. So use them to hack away the big stuff
and then come back with your pruners and saw to make clean
cuts. Things to look for in loppers are: bypass style blades
and metal handles (wood handled loppers simply don't hold
up well). The Corona Clipper FL-3460 has these features
plus a clever compound action that essentially boosts the
amount of force applied to the cutting blade. Positively
empowering!
Of course,
gloves are always a good idea to protect your hands while
you are hauling away all that pruning debris. Susan and
I use knit gloves like these from Atlas Gripper that have
rubber-coated palms and fingers. The knit will help keep
your hands warm and the rubber keeps them dry and protected.
If you are pruning roses or clearing blackberries and want
more of a barrier between you and the thorns, look for heavy
rubber "thorn handler" gloves. When flexibility
is not an issue, leather palm gloves will give your hands
additional protection.
Obviously,
there are other tools that you can add to your pruning collection.
But if you have these basics, you will be prepared for almost
any job you decide to tackle.
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