October 14, 2024 • 26 mins
In this episode of the Sunshine Gardening podcast, host Kristin Hildabrand speaks with Jared Weaver, Bowling Green's City Arborist. They discuss the importance of tree pruning during "Tree Week," covering best practices, timing, techniques, safety precautions, and resources for homeowners. The episode emphasizes maintaining tree health and landscape aesthetics.
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(00:00):
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening podcast
where we explore all things gardening from urban
green spaces to thriving home landscapes.
I'm your host, Kristen Hildebrand.
And today we're diving into a topic that
every gardener and homeowner should know, how to
prune landscape trees correctly.
This is not just a skill but a
(00:22):
responsibility
that comes with maintaining a healthy
and beautiful yard. We'll delve into the why,
when, and how of tree pruning with our
guest, Bowling Green City Arborist Jared Weaver.
His wealth of knowledge will cover everything from
timing your cuts to choosing the right tools.
Plus, we'll share some critical tips for avoiding
(00:44):
common mistakes that could harm your trees.
So grab your pruners, and let's get pruning.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening podcast.
This gardening show will equip and inspire avid
gardeners with tips and tricks to help them
navigate the gardening world. The show will also
highlight specific growing requirements for seasonal plants so
(01:05):
the sun will shine brighter over their Kentucky
garden.
And now, here's that ray of sunshine,
garden enthusiast and horticulture extension agent, Kristin Hildebrand,
with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
Welcome back to the sunshine gardening podcast. And
joining with us today is Jared Weaver. He
(01:26):
is the city arborist for Bowling Green. How
are you, Jared? I'm good. How are you
today, Kristin?
I am doing good, and I am so
glad that you were able to come on
the podcast with us today because we are
in a very special week here in Bowling
Green. We're celebrating
tree week 2024.
(01:47):
And I know that you've had a lot
of responsibilities
with tree week, and so we're gonna get
into a little bit here about tree pruning.
But just to get the conversation going, can
you tell us specifically
maybe explain more about your role as the
city arborist and what your day to day
responsibilities
look like?
Sure. Absolutely.
(02:07):
So I work within the parks department of
the city of Bowling Green. I'm my official
job title is the city parks arborist slash
forester.
As broad picture, that means I take care
of all the trees in our city parks,
which involves everything from the planning phase, deciding,
you know, which trees go where, when to
prune trees, all that big picture stuff down
to the the little details of actually physically
(02:29):
planting the trees,
monitoring for pests and insects and fungal diseases,
that sort of thing, pruning and working with
contractors,
and actually removing trees when they become at
the end of their life cycle.
Yes. So it seems like there's a lot
involved with being our city arborist, and you
do such a good job. And I know
I've been able to work with you on
(02:51):
the tree board from time to time, and
you do a great job with the Arbor
Day celebration. And and that usually is held
in the month of April. Is that correct?
Yes. It's in the month of April every
year. I think it might be this 3rd
Saturday this year. I don't remember the exact
date. But thank you for the compliment. I
really enjoy taking care of trees. I've been
doing it with the city for a little
(03:12):
over 19 years now, so it's a great
joy to me to be out there among
the trees on a daily basis and taking
care of them
and helping improve our urban forest for the
residents of Bowling Green.
Yes. I know that you're a big tree
lover if I could call it that. And,
you know, to be a certified arborist, there's
a lot of certifications
that you've had to do.
(03:33):
And I think that you also had to
take a big test and you also keep
your certifications
and that does allow you to have that
tree knowledge.
Is that something that you're glad that you've
done?
Absolutely. To take the ISA, that's the International
Society of Arboriculture,
to be a certified arborist and take that
test requires a knowledge of, the biology of
a tree, everything from the soils through photosynthesis,
(03:56):
how everything works in the tree,
and to understand all of those processes that
happen
within that tree really gives you a better
knowledge base to help take care of that
tree. So I do a lot more than
just pruning a tree or digging a hole
and planting into the ground, and understanding the
biology of that tree really helps me understand
(04:16):
how that tree will react to pruning at
different times of the year, why why it's
a better time of the year to plant
the tree at a certain time than another
time. So that basis is really important.
And there's other things as well in the
the ISA exam like, basic climbing techniques, how
to how to do the practical work as
well as the theory of that. So it
covers everything. It's really pretty comprehensive
(04:39):
certification.
Yes. I would say it's a a deep
dive into tree care and like you said,
knowing more about the the tree processes. And
I know that we get a lot of
questions here at the extension office about this
particular topic that I have you on the
podcast about today, and it's specifically about pruning.
And I know a lot of times people
thinks that, you know you can just go
(05:00):
get your pruning shears and go to town
but it's really important to know more about
the tree and the best time of year
for the tree pruning. So Jared just to
kind of ask you when is the best
time of year for tree pruning and does
that really vary for different tree species?
The best time of the year for tree
(05:20):
pruning
as a as a big picture is when
the tree is under the least amount of
stress.
So when the when most trees are under
the least amount of stress is when they're
dormant in the wintertime. So for deciduous trees
when they've dropped all of their leaves off,
they're kind of gone to sleep for the
winter. They're not biologically
as active as they are in the summertime.
(05:41):
Same thing with evergreens. They're still doing a
little bit in the winter, not nearly as
much as they would in the summer though.
So they're kind of in a dormant stage,
so pruning in the that dormant season is
the optimum time. We do prune
throughout the year depending on our scheduling and
the needs. We can't do everything at the
best time
possible, unfortunately. We just don't have that much
(06:02):
time. So in the summer, if you do
need to prune a tree, we try to
limit it
to pruning broken branches, you know, for for
storm damage or that sort of thing. But
if you do have to prune at other
times of the year, try to do it
when the tree is not under stress from
extreme heat or extreme drought stress, that sort
of thing. We try to avoid those times.
(06:23):
We also try to avoid right when the
buds are swelling and emerging, when the leaves
are emerging in the spring. That's a a
very transformative time for the tree in the
spring. Also, right in the fall when the
leaves are dropping, that's a lot of biological
activity happening in the tree when they're reallocating
resources to prepare for that winter
dormancy.
So try to avoid those times when the
(06:44):
tree is undergoing major changes or it's under
a lot of stress, but the dormant season
is the best time, generally speaking, for most
tree work. What about for evergreen
type of landscape trees? Is that the same
for the dormant sea? Yes. They'll still be
semi dormant in the winter. They'll still have
their needles or leaves on them even if
(07:04):
the evergreen trees, but they'll still be having
a lot less biological activity happening in that
winter season.
And there's a lot less pests active in
the winter also. So it's the optimum time
when
after the leaves fall off of the deciduous
trees but before the buds start to swell
in the spring.
So you've been able to tell us, you
know, best time of year for both deciduous
(07:26):
and evergreen trees. Can you next walk us
through the basic steps of proper tree pruning?
Sure. So when we go out to prune
a tree in the parks, I like to
teach my employees that we prune we call
pruning by prescription.
So we don't just arbitrarily
say, oh, these trees all have to be
pruned in the park. We wanna know and
(07:46):
understand exactly why we're pruning that tree. That'll
help us do a better job of it.
So the first thing we do with any
tree we're pruning is we do a crown
cleaning,
And that means we're gonna prune out anything
that's dead,
broken, or has generally poor structure. The branches
are crossing and rubbing on each other, which
can create an injury to the tree. We
(08:06):
wanna remove the potential problems for the tree.
Anything that's, dead or broken has to come
out for safety reasons. But then if you
got rubbing branches, if you have a branch
with
a a fungal infection, we wanna remove those
for the health of the tree to make
it a more long term process for the
tree. After that, we wanna start looking at
what that tree is doing in our landscape,
(08:28):
what function it is it performing,
and is it meeting that function. So if
we have a tree that we planted as
a screen in between 2 separate uses, We
wanna make sure we keep that canopy of
that tree as thick and full as possible
to create that screen.
Conversely, if a tree is near a sidewalk
or a street or for homeowners, if it's
near your front walkway or close to your
(08:49):
house, you may need to prune that tree
for clearance.
May need to limit up above the sidewalk
to a certain height or prune it so
it's not gonna grow into your front room
window or or that sort of thing. So
consider what the function is of that tree
and prune with that in mind.
And we also work with the electrical utility
companies and we talk about something called
(09:09):
directional pruning,
and they're pruning to make trees grow away
from the power lines. Any branch that's growing
towards the power lines, they wanna prune it
so it grows the opposite direction. And in
order to accomplish that, you have to look
at the angle of the branches where that
how that species of tree tends to naturally
grow what its habit is. And homeowners can
apply that as well. If they've got a
(09:31):
tree planted close to their home, they might
wanna do some directional pruning so it grows
away from their home, away from their house,
away from the gutters, that sort of thing
to make it grow the right direction. You
can still plant a tree
relatively close to other things, but prune it
while it's young with that future growth in
mind.
Exactly. And I appreciate you kinda telling us
(09:53):
the basic steps of proper tree pruning and
sometimes you just have to like you said,
I know directional is one of the things
and also, you know, for the size for
the space but just looking at the shape
of the tree can kinda give you an
indication on how to prune it because I
know there's a lot of different shapes
that are available for a lot of different
trees too.
(10:14):
Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. You've got a crab apple tree.
You would prune a lot differently than you
would an oak tree because of their mature
size. You wanna consider that mature size. A
lot of this goes back, especially if you're
a homeowner to planting the right tree in
the right place initially.
I always like to get that in there
because, you know, you can minimize
your pruning needs by planting the right tree
in the right place at the very start
(10:35):
of that tree's life.
So right tree in the right place, you'll
have to do a lot less pruning overall.
We often do have to do some corrective
pruning when we get a tree from the
nursery. If the listeners ever have a chance
to go out and look at trees in
nature and observe them from the time they're
a seedling through their growth as a sapling
into a mature tree, Trees in nature are
usually a lot more sparsely branched than the
(10:58):
trees we find in a nursery. Nursery grown
trees, they tend to prune them so they
look very full when they're young. But, a
naturally grown tree is gonna be a lot
thinner, a lot more sparsely branched. And we
wanna try to mimic nature while we're doing
our pruning to get that long term structure.
We wanna look 15, 20, 30 years down
the road and consider how that tree is
(11:18):
supposed to look
naturally
according to its natural branch habit and it
its natural growth.
Absolutely. And it's a lot of fun, especially
for this particular month that we're in, the
month of October to be able to get
in and around the area. I know, you
know, Lost River Cave is a good spot.
I know there's several parks that you all
have worked on to be able to see
(11:40):
some of these mature trees because, you know,
like you said, right spot, you know, right
tree for that right location
does make a huge difference.
Now I do have a question, and this
kinda relates back to improper pruning techniques, but
how can those
those improper techniques affect the health and lifespan
of a tree if you were to maybe,
(12:02):
like you said, not consider the natural habitat
of the tree? Good question. The worst pruning
that we see, we usually call it topping.
Where they where somebody comes in and they
arbitrarily cut that tree, they just say, I
want that tree to be 25 feet tall
and they cut off every branch. That leaves
leads to an a lot of problems with
the tree if you don't consider the natural
(12:22):
growth patterns of that tree. That leaves large
wounds where decay can come back into that
tree. When you do something that severe, you're
removing all of those buds and foliage that
that tree has put all of its resources
into growing.
Leaves are what provide food to the tree.
They gather the energy from the sunlight and
they photosynthesize
and create the food for the tree. So
(12:43):
without those leaves and buds that it stored
all that energy in, you're really starving that
tree and it causes it to
use all of its stored energy
and to create new growth. When it uses
all of its stored energy, it doesn't have
that energy to fend off insect and disease
attacks or compartmentalize
wounds. So it's really hard for that tree
(13:04):
to recover if you've basically taken all of
its capability to make food away from it.
Yes. And I know that we we do
try to educate here at the extension office
about, you know, we don't want you to
top the tree, but we we want you
to prune it as natural
as possible, and you kinda hit on those
basic steps for proper tree pruning.
(13:25):
But, yeah, those topping can really, like you
said, make it more pest attractant for diseases
and insects.
Now whenever we go about pruning our trees,
what tools do you carry or what do
you recommend for homeowners who do want to
prune their trees?
For your average homeowner, I wouldn't recommend climbing
(13:47):
up in the tree and doing that sort
of work. It can become very dangerous if
you if you get up into the tree
with a chainsaw.
That's left to the professionals. There's a good
place to find a certified arborist called trees
are good.com.
That's all spelled out words, trees are good.com,
and you can search for an arborist to
do those more advanced techniques.
But for your average homeowner,
(14:07):
pair of good hand pruners and a a
good hand saw will accomplish a lot of
your pruning needs. Everything that's that you can
reach from this from standing on the ground,
you can accomplish with a good pair of
pruners and a good hand saw. If you
wanna reach a little bit higher, get a
manual a stick pruner,
something that's got a lopper on the end
where you can reach a little higher into
the canopy of the tree. I would avoid
(14:28):
chainsaw the pole saw chainsaws
for most homeowners because that can become dangerous
as well. You can start to get a
little tricky when you start pruning larger limbs.
But if you've got a a hand pruners
or a pull pruner, you can accomplish a
lot of work with that. The important things
for that is to make sure you keep
your pruner sharp, make sure they're well maintained
so they function properly, and they don't tear
(14:48):
the bark on the tree. Yes. I'm glad
that you, mentioned the trees are good
website because I know that is where we
oftentimes
will send,
you know, clients that come into the office
that, do need some professional services
through a certified arborist.
And sometimes they you know, if you don't
feel comfortable getting in a tree and doing
(15:10):
those type of things, then it's always good
to call the professionals, and they'd be certainly
glad to help. Now as far as
can you tell us kind of some safety
precautions
that individuals take when they're pruning trees to
avoid injury? I know you kinda mentioned that
about the chainsaw, but are there any others?
Absolutely. Here at the city, we always we
(15:32):
have a list of safety rules that we
have to follow, of course, and for good
reason. We want everyone to be safe and
go home just the same at the end
of the day as the one they came
to work that morning. So we wear safety
glasses to protect our eyes from poking branches
and sawdust.
Particularly if you're proving anything above your head
height. If you're if you're cutting with a
saw, that sawdust can get in your eye
and that can cause a severe injury to
(15:53):
your eyes and everyone wants to see to
enjoy these beautiful trees. A good pair of
sturdy gloves. If you're doing anything above head
height using pole pruners, hard hats are recommended.
But, good sturdy work boots are always nice
to wear. Something that's gonna provide you a
little ankle support so you don't twist your
ankles. But, of course, good work clothes. You
want something that's gonna resist some abrasions, a
(16:15):
good pair of pants and a a work
shirt or a jacket depending on the season.
Eyeglasses are one of the most important. It's
it's too easy to get poked in the
eyes with with a branch or to get
sawdust in your eye and that can be
really really irritating in your eyes and cause
severe injuries.
Yes and we we do want people to
feel safe and protected when they are doing
(16:35):
some of these pruning techniques that we've talked
about.
Now as far as the tree removal,
what do you generally advise people if they're
doing that on their own rather than using
a certified arborist?
If you're getting into tree removal, you might
be getting the into chainsaw territory.
And I would highly recommend
you wearing the full protective gear if you're
(16:57):
using a chainsaw. Chainsaw chaps, the full helmet
with the face shield and all that in
addition to the gloves and the eyeglasses. So
safety is, of number one importance there. But
there's a lot of information online,
both good and bad about how to use
a chainsaw and remove a tree. There's whole
classes we teach on this to get down
into the details, but if it's if you're
(17:17):
not comfortable using a chainsaw,
don't take the risk of felling a tree
if you're not comfortable cutting up something that's
already on the ground. If you've got storm
damage, make sure you're paying attention to power
lines or even if it's not storm damage.
If you're felling a tree, make sure you're
paying very close attention to where the overhead
power lines are. Make sure you look at
the way that tree is leaning, if it's
(17:38):
gonna fall one way or another. Gravity is
a very powerful force. If the tree is
leaning, the tree is most likely to go
that way already. But if you have the
opportunity, take a chainsaw class
and understand the reactive forces of that chain
and kick back and understand how to cut
a proper notch in a tree to make
it fall the right direction and have the
(17:58):
best control over that tree so that you're
minimizing the chances of anything going wrong.
Mhmm. I appreciate you sharing some of those
safety precautions with us because pruning, I know
there's a lot of different equipment that you
can be utilizing, and I think you've covered
that basis really well. I wanna do circle
back and revisit something, and maybe you can
use specific
(18:19):
examples with this one too, Jared, if it
comes to mind. But
can you share any tips on identifying
when, like, say, certain tree species do need
pruning? Is there just, like, a obvious,
you know, sign that says, oh, this needs
to be pruned?
A lot of it depends on, the natural
growth habit of that tree. Now if it's
(18:41):
a nursery
grown tree when it's young, it's probably gonna
need some corrective pruning
to help it live its best life and
grow to be a large mature tree that
has good structure and good form.
When it comes to flowering, if you've got
a flowering tree, trees like, crepe myrtles that
flower in the summer, you can prune the
prune those in the fall and they'll form
(19:03):
their buds in the spring. If you've got
a spring flowering tree like cherry trees or
dogwoods,
you wanna prune those for optimum flowering effect.
You wanna prune those after the flowers in
the spring because they're gonna spend that summer
growing new flower buds and if you prune
the the dogwood or cherry in the winter,
you're pruning out the flower buds for that
(19:24):
coming spring.
So you want to consider your tree health
as well as flowering time for those. I
mean, sometimes it's a trade off. If the
tree is very healthy,
you can prune it after they flower in
the spring.
If a tree might not be the healthiest,
you might consider pruning that in the winter
to take care of those issues and you
might have a few flowers that next spring,
(19:45):
but the long term tree health might be
a bit more important than 1 year's flower
growth.
Very much so. And, I'm glad that you
did mention that about the flowering trees because
a lot of times we we do as
homeowners
come in contact with those that like that
seasonal color, so it does make a difference
when you're having some of those blooms for
(20:05):
the season.
Now, Jared, I know that we've covered, you
know, basic steps
for pruning trees and then the best time
of year. You've also covered
pruning techniques that maybe are not the best
as well as tools and, you know, some
safety precautions.
Is there anything else you wanna mention that
homeowners may need to know about pruning trees
(20:27):
that we haven't covered so far? Yeah. It's,
we came back around to this. We talked
about some of the bigger picture things about
overall structure of the tree and everything, But
the mechanics of the individual pruning cut are
very important also. If you get a chance,
go out and spend time looking at mature
trees, and there's terms we use called branch
collar and branch bark ridge that you wanna
(20:48):
become familiar with. So when you prune a
branch off of a tree, you wanna mimic
the way nature would naturally shed that branch.
If a tree has is it getting large,
the lower branches will get shaded out and
they'll naturally die off. Look at that on
mature trees and see exactly how nature sheds
those branches, and that's what we try to
try to wanna recreate.
(21:09):
We have a lot of good information on
our city website about this. That's bgky.org/tree,
or you can look up tree compartmentalization,
And that'll give you a lot of information
about how trees grow, how the tree
tissues overlap,
and why you want to leave that branch
collar on a tree when you prune it,
why you wanna make a good 3 step
(21:30):
pruning cut to avoid tearing bark down the
the trunk of the tree. Make as small
of a wound as possible because every pruning
cut
is essentially a wound to that tree. And
the better pruning cuts that you do, the
smaller injury that to that tree that you
make, the easier that tree is gonna have
a time of compartmentalizing
and sealing over that wound
(21:51):
and minimizing the chance for fungal organisms to
get in that tree and decay it. I'm
really glad that you mentioned that. That's a
very important step that we have when we
go about pruning, and we definitely don't wanna
damage the main trunk of the tree, and
that's really good material to know.
I know that we've covered a lot on
the podcast today, but, you know, saying if
somebody
(22:11):
needs some visuals or they need more information,
Jared, do you have a good spot to,
send them to get that information?
Sure. Bgky.org/tree
is a great website as well as trees
are good.com.
Or if you just Google
natural target pruning,
you should come up with a lot of
(22:31):
information on there. The Arbor Day Foundation also
has some good information on their website about
the mechanics of pruning and how to do
that.
So there's a lot of good websites out
there, but most of those good websites, they're
they're all looking at the way a tree
naturally sheds branches and trying to recreate that.
So spend some time in nature, look at
trees and the way they naturally grow, and
(22:52):
that'll give you a good head start on
how you should be pruning a tree.
Yes. Thank you, Jared, for all that information.
And I know when we opened up the
podcast
that we talked about this is tree week.
And
where can people find all the different tree
week activities
that are going on just for say, Bowling
Green?
On our city web city tree board website,
(23:14):
bgky.org/tree,
we've got a list of activities there as
well as the link to the state tree
week website. The urban forest initiative, I believe,
is who's doing that. They've got activities all
around the state in addition to Bowling Green
about all kinds of great ways you can
get out and join nature and be among
the trees and celebrate all the great benefits
that trees provide us.
(23:34):
Yes. Well, Jared, thank you so much for
being on the podcast with us today. I
know that I'm definitely a lot better at
knowing all the advice and, you know, recommendations
that you shared for tree pruning, and we
invite people to check out some of that
information in the show notes, and we'll get
that posted
up on the Warren County Agriculture blog. But,
(23:56):
Jared, thank you so much for all that
you've talked to us about today, and we
hope that you all have a great tree
week, and we'll be talking to you again
in the future. Thank you. I love talking
trees with you, Kristen. Thank you.
That's a wrap on this episode of the
Sunshine Gardening podcast.
We hope you've learned valuable tips on correctly
pruning trees in Kentucky's landscape.
(24:18):
The key is to plan carefully,
prune with care
and prioritize
the health of your trees.
Thank you again to our guest, Jared Weaver,
for sharing his expertise.
To see the show notes for episode 39,
make sure to visit us over on the
blog
at warrencountyagriculture.com.
Now if you enjoyed this episode,
(24:40):
please consider leaving us a review on your
preferred podcast platform.
Your reviews help us connect with more people
and provide valuable feedback for improvement.
We also encourage you to share your biggest
gardening success or takeaway with us.
Please let us know if you have any
questions or topics you'd like to see covered
(25:00):
in future episodes.
Until next time. Remember,
a little pruning today means more vital healthier
trees tomorrow. We're here to support you on
your gardening journey. So
happy gardening.
Thanks for listening to the sunshine gardening podcast
with Kristen Hildebrand.
If you enjoy today's content, make sure to
(25:21):
hit the subscribe button wherever you get your
podcast to catch future segments of the sunshine
gardening podcast.
Gardeners, keep on digging and learning more about
gardening so the sun shines brighter over your
Kentucky garden.
The Sunshine Gardening podcast with Kristen Hildebrand is
a production of the University of Kentucky Cooperative
Extension Service.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening podcast
where we explore all things gardening from urban
green spaces to thriving home landscapes.
I'm your host, Kristen Hildebrand.
And today we're diving into a topic that
every gardener and homeowner should know, how to
prune landscape trees correctly.
This is not just a skill but a
(00:22):
responsibility
that comes with maintaining a healthy
and beautiful yard. We'll delve into the why,
when, and how of tree pruning with our
guest, Bowling Green City Arborist Jared Weaver.
His wealth of knowledge will cover everything from
timing your cuts to choosing the right tools.
Plus, we'll share some critical tips for avoiding
(00:44):
common mistakes that could harm your trees.
So grab your pruners, and let's get pruning.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening podcast.
This gardening show will equip and inspire avid
gardeners with tips and tricks to help them
navigate the gardening world. The show will also
highlight specific growing requirements for seasonal plants so
(01:05):
the sun will shine brighter over their Kentucky
garden.
And now, here's that ray of sunshine,
garden enthusiast and horticulture extension agent, Kristin Hildebrand,
with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
Welcome back to the sunshine gardening podcast. And
joining with us today is Jared Weaver. He
(01:26):
is the city arborist for Bowling Green. How
are you, Jared? I'm good. How are you
today, Kristin?
I am doing good, and I am so
glad that you were able to come on
the podcast with us today because we are
in a very special week here in Bowling
Green. We're celebrating
tree week 2024.
(01:47):
And I know that you've had a lot
of responsibilities
with tree week, and so we're gonna get
into a little bit here about tree pruning.
But just to get the conversation going, can
you tell us specifically
maybe explain more about your role as the
city arborist and what your day to day
responsibilities
look like?
Sure. Absolutely.
(02:07):
So I work within the parks department of
the city of Bowling Green. I'm my official
job title is the city parks arborist slash
forester.
As broad picture, that means I take care
of all the trees in our city parks,
which involves everything from the planning phase, deciding,
you know, which trees go where, when to
prune trees, all that big picture stuff down
to the the little details of actually physically
(02:29):
planting the trees,
monitoring for pests and insects and fungal diseases,
that sort of thing, pruning and working with
contractors,
and actually removing trees when they become at
the end of their life cycle.
Yes. So it seems like there's a lot
involved with being our city arborist, and you
do such a good job. And I know
I've been able to work with you on
(02:51):
the tree board from time to time, and
you do a great job with the Arbor
Day celebration. And and that usually is held
in the month of April. Is that correct?
Yes. It's in the month of April every
year. I think it might be this 3rd
Saturday this year. I don't remember the exact
date. But thank you for the compliment. I
really enjoy taking care of trees. I've been
doing it with the city for a little
(03:12):
over 19 years now, so it's a great
joy to me to be out there among
the trees on a daily basis and taking
care of them
and helping improve our urban forest for the
residents of Bowling Green.
Yes. I know that you're a big tree
lover if I could call it that. And,
you know, to be a certified arborist, there's
a lot of certifications
that you've had to do.
(03:33):
And I think that you also had to
take a big test and you also keep
your certifications
and that does allow you to have that
tree knowledge.
Is that something that you're glad that you've
done?
Absolutely. To take the ISA, that's the International
Society of Arboriculture,
to be a certified arborist and take that
test requires a knowledge of, the biology of
a tree, everything from the soils through photosynthesis,
(03:56):
how everything works in the tree,
and to understand all of those processes that
happen
within that tree really gives you a better
knowledge base to help take care of that
tree. So I do a lot more than
just pruning a tree or digging a hole
and planting into the ground, and understanding the
biology of that tree really helps me understand
(04:16):
how that tree will react to pruning at
different times of the year, why why it's
a better time of the year to plant
the tree at a certain time than another
time. So that basis is really important.
And there's other things as well in the
the ISA exam like, basic climbing techniques, how
to how to do the practical work as
well as the theory of that. So it
covers everything. It's really pretty comprehensive
(04:39):
certification.
Yes. I would say it's a a deep
dive into tree care and like you said,
knowing more about the the tree processes. And
I know that we get a lot of
questions here at the extension office about this
particular topic that I have you on the
podcast about today, and it's specifically about pruning.
And I know a lot of times people
thinks that, you know you can just go
(05:00):
get your pruning shears and go to town
but it's really important to know more about
the tree and the best time of year
for the tree pruning. So Jared just to
kind of ask you when is the best
time of year for tree pruning and does
that really vary for different tree species?
The best time of the year for tree
(05:20):
pruning
as a as a big picture is when
the tree is under the least amount of
stress.
So when the when most trees are under
the least amount of stress is when they're
dormant in the wintertime. So for deciduous trees
when they've dropped all of their leaves off,
they're kind of gone to sleep for the
winter. They're not biologically
as active as they are in the summertime.
(05:41):
Same thing with evergreens. They're still doing a
little bit in the winter, not nearly as
much as they would in the summer though.
So they're kind of in a dormant stage,
so pruning in the that dormant season is
the optimum time. We do prune
throughout the year depending on our scheduling and
the needs. We can't do everything at the
best time
possible, unfortunately. We just don't have that much
(06:02):
time. So in the summer, if you do
need to prune a tree, we try to
limit it
to pruning broken branches, you know, for for
storm damage or that sort of thing. But
if you do have to prune at other
times of the year, try to do it
when the tree is not under stress from
extreme heat or extreme drought stress, that sort
of thing. We try to avoid those times.
(06:23):
We also try to avoid right when the
buds are swelling and emerging, when the leaves
are emerging in the spring. That's a a
very transformative time for the tree in the
spring. Also, right in the fall when the
leaves are dropping, that's a lot of biological
activity happening in the tree when they're reallocating
resources to prepare for that winter
dormancy.
So try to avoid those times when the
(06:44):
tree is undergoing major changes or it's under
a lot of stress, but the dormant season
is the best time, generally speaking, for most
tree work. What about for evergreen
type of landscape trees? Is that the same
for the dormant sea? Yes. They'll still be
semi dormant in the winter. They'll still have
their needles or leaves on them even if
(07:04):
the evergreen trees, but they'll still be having
a lot less biological activity happening in that
winter season.
And there's a lot less pests active in
the winter also. So it's the optimum time
when
after the leaves fall off of the deciduous
trees but before the buds start to swell
in the spring.
So you've been able to tell us, you
know, best time of year for both deciduous
(07:26):
and evergreen trees. Can you next walk us
through the basic steps of proper tree pruning?
Sure. So when we go out to prune
a tree in the parks, I like to
teach my employees that we prune we call
pruning by prescription.
So we don't just arbitrarily
say, oh, these trees all have to be
pruned in the park. We wanna know and
(07:46):
understand exactly why we're pruning that tree. That'll
help us do a better job of it.
So the first thing we do with any
tree we're pruning is we do a crown
cleaning,
And that means we're gonna prune out anything
that's dead,
broken, or has generally poor structure. The branches
are crossing and rubbing on each other, which
can create an injury to the tree. We
(08:06):
wanna remove the potential problems for the tree.
Anything that's, dead or broken has to come
out for safety reasons. But then if you
got rubbing branches, if you have a branch
with
a a fungal infection, we wanna remove those
for the health of the tree to make
it a more long term process for the
tree. After that, we wanna start looking at
what that tree is doing in our landscape,
(08:28):
what function it is it performing,
and is it meeting that function. So if
we have a tree that we planted as
a screen in between 2 separate uses, We
wanna make sure we keep that canopy of
that tree as thick and full as possible
to create that screen.
Conversely, if a tree is near a sidewalk
or a street or for homeowners, if it's
near your front walkway or close to your
(08:49):
house, you may need to prune that tree
for clearance.
May need to limit up above the sidewalk
to a certain height or prune it so
it's not gonna grow into your front room
window or or that sort of thing. So
consider what the function is of that tree
and prune with that in mind.
And we also work with the electrical utility
companies and we talk about something called
(09:09):
directional pruning,
and they're pruning to make trees grow away
from the power lines. Any branch that's growing
towards the power lines, they wanna prune it
so it grows the opposite direction. And in
order to accomplish that, you have to look
at the angle of the branches where that
how that species of tree tends to naturally
grow what its habit is. And homeowners can
apply that as well. If they've got a
(09:31):
tree planted close to their home, they might
wanna do some directional pruning so it grows
away from their home, away from their house,
away from the gutters, that sort of thing
to make it grow the right direction. You
can still plant a tree
relatively close to other things, but prune it
while it's young with that future growth in
mind.
Exactly. And I appreciate you kinda telling us
(09:53):
the basic steps of proper tree pruning and
sometimes you just have to like you said,
I know directional is one of the things
and also, you know, for the size for
the space but just looking at the shape
of the tree can kinda give you an
indication on how to prune it because I
know there's a lot of different shapes
that are available for a lot of different
trees too.
(10:14):
Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. You've got a crab apple tree.
You would prune a lot differently than you
would an oak tree because of their mature
size. You wanna consider that mature size. A
lot of this goes back, especially if you're
a homeowner to planting the right tree in
the right place initially.
I always like to get that in there
because, you know, you can minimize
your pruning needs by planting the right tree
in the right place at the very start
(10:35):
of that tree's life.
So right tree in the right place, you'll
have to do a lot less pruning overall.
We often do have to do some corrective
pruning when we get a tree from the
nursery. If the listeners ever have a chance
to go out and look at trees in
nature and observe them from the time they're
a seedling through their growth as a sapling
into a mature tree, Trees in nature are
usually a lot more sparsely branched than the
(10:58):
trees we find in a nursery. Nursery grown
trees, they tend to prune them so they
look very full when they're young. But, a
naturally grown tree is gonna be a lot
thinner, a lot more sparsely branched. And we
wanna try to mimic nature while we're doing
our pruning to get that long term structure.
We wanna look 15, 20, 30 years down
the road and consider how that tree is
(11:18):
supposed to look
naturally
according to its natural branch habit and it
its natural growth.
Absolutely. And it's a lot of fun, especially
for this particular month that we're in, the
month of October to be able to get
in and around the area. I know, you
know, Lost River Cave is a good spot.
I know there's several parks that you all
have worked on to be able to see
(11:40):
some of these mature trees because, you know,
like you said, right spot, you know, right
tree for that right location
does make a huge difference.
Now I do have a question, and this
kinda relates back to improper pruning techniques, but
how can those
those improper techniques affect the health and lifespan
of a tree if you were to maybe,
(12:02):
like you said, not consider the natural habitat
of the tree? Good question. The worst pruning
that we see, we usually call it topping.
Where they where somebody comes in and they
arbitrarily cut that tree, they just say, I
want that tree to be 25 feet tall
and they cut off every branch. That leaves
leads to an a lot of problems with
the tree if you don't consider the natural
(12:22):
growth patterns of that tree. That leaves large
wounds where decay can come back into that
tree. When you do something that severe, you're
removing all of those buds and foliage that
that tree has put all of its resources
into growing.
Leaves are what provide food to the tree.
They gather the energy from the sunlight and
they photosynthesize
and create the food for the tree. So
(12:43):
without those leaves and buds that it stored
all that energy in, you're really starving that
tree and it causes it to
use all of its stored energy
and to create new growth. When it uses
all of its stored energy, it doesn't have
that energy to fend off insect and disease
attacks or compartmentalize
wounds. So it's really hard for that tree
(13:04):
to recover if you've basically taken all of
its capability to make food away from it.
Yes. And I know that we we do
try to educate here at the extension office
about, you know, we don't want you to
top the tree, but we we want you
to prune it as natural
as possible, and you kinda hit on those
basic steps for proper tree pruning.
(13:25):
But, yeah, those topping can really, like you
said, make it more pest attractant for diseases
and insects.
Now whenever we go about pruning our trees,
what tools do you carry or what do
you recommend for homeowners who do want to
prune their trees?
For your average homeowner, I wouldn't recommend climbing
(13:47):
up in the tree and doing that sort
of work. It can become very dangerous if
you if you get up into the tree
with a chainsaw.
That's left to the professionals. There's a good
place to find a certified arborist called trees
are good.com.
That's all spelled out words, trees are good.com,
and you can search for an arborist to
do those more advanced techniques.
But for your average homeowner,
(14:07):
pair of good hand pruners and a a
good hand saw will accomplish a lot of
your pruning needs. Everything that's that you can
reach from this from standing on the ground,
you can accomplish with a good pair of
pruners and a good hand saw. If you
wanna reach a little bit higher, get a
manual a stick pruner,
something that's got a lopper on the end
where you can reach a little higher into
the canopy of the tree. I would avoid
(14:28):
chainsaw the pole saw chainsaws
for most homeowners because that can become dangerous
as well. You can start to get a
little tricky when you start pruning larger limbs.
But if you've got a a hand pruners
or a pull pruner, you can accomplish a
lot of work with that. The important things
for that is to make sure you keep
your pruner sharp, make sure they're well maintained
so they function properly, and they don't tear
(14:48):
the bark on the tree. Yes. I'm glad
that you, mentioned the trees are good
website because I know that is where we
oftentimes
will send,
you know, clients that come into the office
that, do need some professional services
through a certified arborist.
And sometimes they you know, if you don't
feel comfortable getting in a tree and doing
(15:10):
those type of things, then it's always good
to call the professionals, and they'd be certainly
glad to help. Now as far as
can you tell us kind of some safety
precautions
that individuals take when they're pruning trees to
avoid injury? I know you kinda mentioned that
about the chainsaw, but are there any others?
Absolutely. Here at the city, we always we
(15:32):
have a list of safety rules that we
have to follow, of course, and for good
reason. We want everyone to be safe and
go home just the same at the end
of the day as the one they came
to work that morning. So we wear safety
glasses to protect our eyes from poking branches
and sawdust.
Particularly if you're proving anything above your head
height. If you're if you're cutting with a
saw, that sawdust can get in your eye
and that can cause a severe injury to
(15:53):
your eyes and everyone wants to see to
enjoy these beautiful trees. A good pair of
sturdy gloves. If you're doing anything above head
height using pole pruners, hard hats are recommended.
But, good sturdy work boots are always nice
to wear. Something that's gonna provide you a
little ankle support so you don't twist your
ankles. But, of course, good work clothes. You
want something that's gonna resist some abrasions, a
(16:15):
good pair of pants and a a work
shirt or a jacket depending on the season.
Eyeglasses are one of the most important. It's
it's too easy to get poked in the
eyes with with a branch or to get
sawdust in your eye and that can be
really really irritating in your eyes and cause
severe injuries.
Yes and we we do want people to
feel safe and protected when they are doing
(16:35):
some of these pruning techniques that we've talked
about.
Now as far as the tree removal,
what do you generally advise people if they're
doing that on their own rather than using
a certified arborist?
If you're getting into tree removal, you might
be getting the into chainsaw territory.
And I would highly recommend
you wearing the full protective gear if you're
(16:57):
using a chainsaw. Chainsaw chaps, the full helmet
with the face shield and all that in
addition to the gloves and the eyeglasses. So
safety is, of number one importance there. But
there's a lot of information online,
both good and bad about how to use
a chainsaw and remove a tree. There's whole
classes we teach on this to get down
into the details, but if it's if you're
(17:17):
not comfortable using a chainsaw,
don't take the risk of felling a tree
if you're not comfortable cutting up something that's
already on the ground. If you've got storm
damage, make sure you're paying attention to power
lines or even if it's not storm damage.
If you're felling a tree, make sure you're
paying very close attention to where the overhead
power lines are. Make sure you look at
the way that tree is leaning, if it's
(17:38):
gonna fall one way or another. Gravity is
a very powerful force. If the tree is
leaning, the tree is most likely to go
that way already. But if you have the
opportunity, take a chainsaw class
and understand the reactive forces of that chain
and kick back and understand how to cut
a proper notch in a tree to make
it fall the right direction and have the
(17:58):
best control over that tree so that you're
minimizing the chances of anything going wrong.
Mhmm. I appreciate you sharing some of those
safety precautions with us because pruning, I know
there's a lot of different equipment that you
can be utilizing, and I think you've covered
that basis really well. I wanna do circle
back and revisit something, and maybe you can
use specific
(18:19):
examples with this one too, Jared, if it
comes to mind. But
can you share any tips on identifying
when, like, say, certain tree species do need
pruning? Is there just, like, a obvious,
you know, sign that says, oh, this needs
to be pruned?
A lot of it depends on, the natural
growth habit of that tree. Now if it's
(18:41):
a nursery
grown tree when it's young, it's probably gonna
need some corrective pruning
to help it live its best life and
grow to be a large mature tree that
has good structure and good form.
When it comes to flowering, if you've got
a flowering tree, trees like, crepe myrtles that
flower in the summer, you can prune the
prune those in the fall and they'll form
(19:03):
their buds in the spring. If you've got
a spring flowering tree like cherry trees or
dogwoods,
you wanna prune those for optimum flowering effect.
You wanna prune those after the flowers in
the spring because they're gonna spend that summer
growing new flower buds and if you prune
the the dogwood or cherry in the winter,
you're pruning out the flower buds for that
(19:24):
coming spring.
So you want to consider your tree health
as well as flowering time for those. I
mean, sometimes it's a trade off. If the
tree is very healthy,
you can prune it after they flower in
the spring.
If a tree might not be the healthiest,
you might consider pruning that in the winter
to take care of those issues and you
might have a few flowers that next spring,
(19:45):
but the long term tree health might be
a bit more important than 1 year's flower
growth.
Very much so. And, I'm glad that you
did mention that about the flowering trees because
a lot of times we we do as
homeowners
come in contact with those that like that
seasonal color, so it does make a difference
when you're having some of those blooms for
(20:05):
the season.
Now, Jared, I know that we've covered, you
know, basic steps
for pruning trees and then the best time
of year. You've also covered
pruning techniques that maybe are not the best
as well as tools and, you know, some
safety precautions.
Is there anything else you wanna mention that
homeowners may need to know about pruning trees
(20:27):
that we haven't covered so far? Yeah. It's,
we came back around to this. We talked
about some of the bigger picture things about
overall structure of the tree and everything, But
the mechanics of the individual pruning cut are
very important also. If you get a chance,
go out and spend time looking at mature
trees, and there's terms we use called branch
collar and branch bark ridge that you wanna
(20:48):
become familiar with. So when you prune a
branch off of a tree, you wanna mimic
the way nature would naturally shed that branch.
If a tree has is it getting large,
the lower branches will get shaded out and
they'll naturally die off. Look at that on
mature trees and see exactly how nature sheds
those branches, and that's what we try to
try to wanna recreate.
(21:09):
We have a lot of good information on
our city website about this. That's bgky.org/tree,
or you can look up tree compartmentalization,
And that'll give you a lot of information
about how trees grow, how the tree
tissues overlap,
and why you want to leave that branch
collar on a tree when you prune it,
why you wanna make a good 3 step
(21:30):
pruning cut to avoid tearing bark down the
the trunk of the tree. Make as small
of a wound as possible because every pruning
cut
is essentially a wound to that tree. And
the better pruning cuts that you do, the
smaller injury that to that tree that you
make, the easier that tree is gonna have
a time of compartmentalizing
and sealing over that wound
(21:51):
and minimizing the chance for fungal organisms to
get in that tree and decay it. I'm
really glad that you mentioned that. That's a
very important step that we have when we
go about pruning, and we definitely don't wanna
damage the main trunk of the tree, and
that's really good material to know.
I know that we've covered a lot on
the podcast today, but, you know, saying if
somebody
(22:11):
needs some visuals or they need more information,
Jared, do you have a good spot to,
send them to get that information?
Sure. Bgky.org/tree
is a great website as well as trees
are good.com.
Or if you just Google
natural target pruning,
you should come up with a lot of
(22:31):
information on there. The Arbor Day Foundation also
has some good information on their website about
the mechanics of pruning and how to do
that.
So there's a lot of good websites out
there, but most of those good websites, they're
they're all looking at the way a tree
naturally sheds branches and trying to recreate that.
So spend some time in nature, look at
trees and the way they naturally grow, and
(22:52):
that'll give you a good head start on
how you should be pruning a tree.
Yes. Thank you, Jared, for all that information.
And I know when we opened up the
podcast
that we talked about this is tree week.
And
where can people find all the different tree
week activities
that are going on just for say, Bowling
Green?
On our city web city tree board website,
(23:14):
bgky.org/tree,
we've got a list of activities there as
well as the link to the state tree
week website. The urban forest initiative, I believe,
is who's doing that. They've got activities all
around the state in addition to Bowling Green
about all kinds of great ways you can
get out and join nature and be among
the trees and celebrate all the great benefits
that trees provide us.
(23:34):
Yes. Well, Jared, thank you so much for
being on the podcast with us today. I
know that I'm definitely a lot better at
knowing all the advice and, you know, recommendations
that you shared for tree pruning, and we
invite people to check out some of that
information in the show notes, and we'll get
that posted
up on the Warren County Agriculture blog. But,
(23:56):
Jared, thank you so much for all that
you've talked to us about today, and we
hope that you all have a great tree
week, and we'll be talking to you again
in the future. Thank you. I love talking
trees with you, Kristen. Thank you.
That's a wrap on this episode of the
Sunshine Gardening podcast.
We hope you've learned valuable tips on correctly
pruning trees in Kentucky's landscape.
(24:18):
The key is to plan carefully,
prune with care
and prioritize
the health of your trees.
Thank you again to our guest, Jared Weaver,
for sharing his expertise.
To see the show notes for episode 39,
make sure to visit us over on the
blog
at warrencountyagriculture.com.
Now if you enjoyed this episode,
(24:40):
please consider leaving us a review on your
preferred podcast platform.
Your reviews help us connect with more people
and provide valuable feedback for improvement.
We also encourage you to share your biggest
gardening success or takeaway with us.
Please let us know if you have any
questions or topics you'd like to see covered
(25:00):
in future episodes.
Until next time. Remember,
a little pruning today means more vital healthier
trees tomorrow. We're here to support you on
your gardening journey. So
happy gardening.
Thanks for listening to the sunshine gardening podcast
with Kristen Hildebrand.
If you enjoy today's content, make sure to
(25:21):
hit the subscribe button wherever you get your
podcast to catch future segments of the sunshine
gardening podcast.
Gardeners, keep on digging and learning more about
gardening so the sun shines brighter over your
Kentucky garden.
The Sunshine Gardening podcast with Kristen Hildebrand is
a production of the University of Kentucky Cooperative
Extension Service.
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