The Benefits of Pruning

Pruning is the process of selectively removing unwanted or diseased plant parts from shrubs, trees and vines to improve a landscape’s appearance and long-term health. Pruned plants are healthier, more productive, better able to resist damage and pests, and look good all around. Whether your landscape includes ornamental and edible shrubs, shade trees or evergreens, the benefits of pruning are far-reaching.

Trees are a vital part of our landscapes. They can provide beauty, enhance property values, provide privacy, shade and shelter, and even improve air quality. However, over time they may become a safety hazard or block views and vistas. Pruning helps to maintain your landscape goals and reduce the risk of damage or failure from overgrowth, over-vigorous growth or storm damage.

Generally, there are three different types of pruning: maintenance, structural and formative. Regular pruning of shrubs and hedges prevents their growth from getting out of control, and promotes plant health. Pruned trees and plants in the landscape are more resistant to insect damage, disease and environmental stressors such as wind, ice and snow, and salinity.

Formative pruning shapes a tree or plant to meet its desired use, such as training young plants for pollarding or trellising as espaliers and promoting good branch structure on evergreens and deciduous trees. Structural pruning reduces a tree’s height and spread or to correct a structural fault, such as an unbalanced limb or weak branch attachment.

The removal of dead or dying branches from a plant promotes vigor and health, while at the same time protecting the safety of people, pets and vehicles. It also limits the spread of disease to living plant parts, and helps to identify problems such as fungus diseases or insect infestations early on.

A major benefit of pruning is the increase in light penetration through a shrub or tree canopy. This improves the harvest of crops and flowers, and is particularly beneficial for fruit trees. This type of pruning is done on a regular basis in orchards.

When a new branch emerges, it is often competing with an existing branch for water and nutrients. In most cases, a competing branch is removed. In doing so, the growing tip of a young branch is promoted and the overall tree or shrub is made healthier and more attractive.

The proper timing of pruning is critical to the success of a project. This is why it is important to understand the goal of a specific prune job in advance. If a shrub or tree is to be trained, it should be started at a very young age, so that by the time it is mature enough for pruning, it will have a well-established structure and be better suited to its intended purpose. This proactive pruning will save much more time and trouble in the future, and is much less expensive than attempting to train a mature plant.

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