Pruning trees on a regular basis promotes good health and prevents some of the problems that can occur when trees are allowed to grow wildly, such as getting tangled up in power lines and blocking the view. However, it is important to prune trees at the right time of the year and specifically when they are dormant. Here are two reasons why you want to adhere to this piece of advice:

Healthier for the Tree

Pruning trees when they're dormant is actually healthier for them in a couple of ways. First, most trees go dormant around wintertime, when it tends to be cooler outside. This is also the time of year when insects and other organisms aren't as active, so the fresh cuts are less likely to attract bugs, bacteria, and fungi that could hurt the tree. For instance, cutting a tree when it's active will typically cause sap to bubble to the surface and attract bugs. You don't have to deal with this issue when the tree is dormant.

Additionally, certain diseases (e.g. oak wilt) are more likely to spread during the tree's active stage, so pruning them when they're dormant reduces the risk of diseases jumping from tree to tree.

Second, cutting trees in their dormant stage reduces the amount of stress on them, since the plant doesn't have to split its attention between growing, flowering, and healing trimmed off limbs. Instead, the tree can focus the majority of its attention on closing the wound left behind after pruning, which means it will heal faster.

More Precise Pruning

Most trees lose their foliage when they go dormant, which makes it easier to see which branches need to be removed and which ones just need to be trimmed back a little. This reduces the likelihood of making mistakes that could permanently damage the tree. If you cut off a perfectly healthy branch rather than a dead one, for instance, the replacement branch the tree grows tends to be weaker and more susceptible to problems.

Along those same lines, it'll be much easier to access the damaged limbs when you don't have to fight with the foliage to get to the branches. This means the job will be done quicker and with more precision than it would in the spring time when the tree is in full bloom.

There are many other reasons pruning a tree when it's dormant is the best option. For more information about this issue or help trimming your trees, contact a local Arbor company like http://www.edmondstree.com for assistance.

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