Trees Invest In Your Future and Theirs with pruning

Invest in the Future: Trees, Knowledge and Timely Management Increases Value!


As you gaze up into your trees this summer, it is possible you will see not only a sky of green, beautiful shapes, song birds, butterflies and perhaps even caterpillars. You might also see limbs without leaves, smaller than normal leaves and areas where the quantity of leaves appears to be less or not evenly distributed.

The typical approach is then to grab a chain saw and start accessing tree limbs for removal.
Halt, wait stop! Not all trees should be managed at the same time or even the same way!
Pruning can be dangerous for you and the tree. The professional assistance of an arborist can save you time and money. There is the potential opportunity for injury for you, the tree and the surrounding property!

Professional Arborists manage trees (and frequently your entire landscape) They are in some ways, your best financial investment expert, since what they do increases your real estate value. When done right, as the tree grows, so does your investment portfolio!

Tree management needs assessment all during the fluctuating cycles (seasons) and reviewed periodically for best management practices for value building for the future.

As a property owner, this is like hiring a financial consultant to review your investment portfolio to look at your overall needs, create a inventory of what your currently have and need and advise you how best to proceed. A consultant considers your existing commitments, your long and short term investments, and your goals. This will help you understand your real estate investment and build value in your property.

Pruning at the proper time can avoid certain disease and physiological problems:
To avoid oak wilt disease DO NOT prune oaks during April, May, or June. If oaks are wounded or must be pruned during these months, apply wound dressing to mask the odor of freshly cut wood so the beetles that spread oak wilt will not be attracted to the trees.
To avoid increased likelihood of stem cankers, prune honey locusts when they are still dormant in late winter. If they must be pruned in summer, avoid rainy or humid weather conditions.

Prune apple trees, including flowering crabapples, mountain ash, hawthorns and shrub cotoneasters in late winter (February-early April). Spring or summer pruning increases chances for infection and spread of the bacterial disease fireblight. Autumn or early winter pruning is more likely to result in drying and die-back at pruning sites.

Some trees have free-flowing sap that “bleeds” after late winter or early spring pruning. Though this bleeding causes little harm, it may still be a source of concern.

Prune the following trees after their leaves are fully expanded in late spring or early summer. Never remove more than 1/4 of the live foliage.

Examples include:
Acers (all maples, including box elder
Butternut and Walnut
Birch and its relatives, ironwood and blue beech.

The time of pruning should take into account the life cycle of insects and diseases. Plants in the genus Prunus (flowering cherry, cherry laurel) are prone to develop bacterial cankers. The spores for the diseases, which are released in fall and early winter, can enter plants through fresh pruning cuts and wounds. Prunus trees do not initiate new cankers during late spring or summer. Dogwood borers are most active in May, June, and July. Thus, dogwoods should not be pruned during these months.

Common Borers of Missouri

Show Me Smart Gardening Best Management Practices:

Tree Care: Avoid Wood Borer Issues!

Most common borers of Missouri:

Flatheaded appletree borer
Roundheaded appletree borer
Shothole borer
Peachtree borer
Lesser peachtree borer
Dogwood borer

For more information on these borers click here

(For specific on Missouri and Emerald Ash Borer click here )

Show Me Smart Gardening Best Managment Practice Guidelines

Wood borers are attracted to stressed trees. The stress can be caused a variety of reasons including transplant shock, injury, (common causes: mechanical: pruning, machinery and animal damage or environmental including ice storm, wind damage and other weather induced injury from freeze and thaw cycles. Also drought, compacted soil and limited/ confined root room (competition from other trees, construction and hardscape such as pavement.)

Most of the time healthy trees can fend off wood borer attacks and are able to recover from a limited number of borer attacks.

BMP recommendations:

Avoid damaging tree trunks and roots with mowing equipment and string weed trimmers.
Avoid pruning oaks in spring and summer, when beetles carrying the oak wilt fungus and wood borer adults are active.
Do not have trees topped (cutting branches back to stubs in a hat-rack manner.) Topping stresses trees, increasing their risk of tree decline and death.
Place mulch around the base of trees to conserve moisture. Mulch should be distributed 2 to 3 inches deep in a ring around the tree, but should not touch the trunk or be piled against it in a volcano shape.
Provide supplemental water during summer droughts by allowing a hose to drip slowly on the soil above the root zone at approximately two-week intervals.
Wood borers are difficult to control with insecticides, and few insecticides are registered for treating wood borers in landscape trees. Attempts to use insecticides are likely to be ineffective and may have harmful effects for humans or the environment.

Prune Pin Oaks Now To Avoid Oak Wilt

Avoid pruning oak trees from April to October. Remember this rhyme,

DON'T PRUNE

IN APRIL, MAY

AND JUNE!

Oak Wilt
By Dennis Patton
DPatton@oznet.ksu.eduCounty Extension Agent, Horticulture Johnson County, KansasKansas State University Research and Extension
Oak wilt can attack all species of oak, but the red oak group is most susceptible. This group includes red oak, blackjack oak, and pin oak. The white oak group is more resistant to the oak wilt fungus, which is usually found in oak woodlots or in urban subdivisions that were built in areas where native oak stands were present.
From mid-May to early June, oak wilt symptoms become apparent. Infected trees show a bronzing or wilting of leaves on individual branches or on a portion of the tree crown. The leaves appear scorched on the outer half of the leaf, which then turns red or brown, and the inner half of the leaf, nearest the leaf stalk, remains green. In a few weeks, wilted leaves start to drop. Wilting spreads to other portions of the tree during the summer. Most red oaks are killed in one season.
If you suspect oak wilt, collect a sample of a wilting branch that is at least one-half inch in diameter and six inches long. Make sure the sample is not exposed to high temperatures, as the fungus is very sensitive to heat. Take the sample to your County Extension Office. Because oak wilt can be confused with other problems on oak, a sample is needed to positively identify the presence of the wilt fungus.
Since the fungus can pass from one tree to another by root grafts, and since oak trees within 50 feet of each other often have a common root system, oak wilt can quickly spread through a stand of oaks. Thus, to avoid transmission of the disease, control methods must concentrate on inhibiting the root-to-root contact. Trench to a depth of 3 feet between adjacent healthy and diseased trees. Also, oak wilt may be spread by insects, birds and small mammals, so avoid pruning in late spring, as the sap seeping from wounds might attract insects that could spread the disease.
A tree infected with oak wilt cannot be saved. Remove it and destroy the wood. The only way you can possibly use the wood for firewood is to split and stack it, cover the whole pile with 4-mil clear plastic tarp that has been sealed to the ground. There should be no tears or holes in the plastic, and the pile should be tarped all summer. Since the fungus is sensitive to high temperatures, this treatment will heat the wood sufficiently to destroy the oak wilt fungus.
Fungicide injections should only be considered for healthy oaks adjacent to oak wilt pockets. For more information about oak wilt, call your County Extension Office.