Pruning questions

[brodie]

the umbrella will grow from everywhere.
The mandarin you should take care with, remove crossing and rubbing branches, cut out center to let light and air in.
then selectively prune height.
You want a vase shaped tree so fruit can be got to easily.
If you just cut you will get a mess of growth everywhere with no shape.
It sounds to me like you should do some research via net or books before you rush in and attack this tree it is an art

Great information there most important thing is to give the tree good air flow.

Personally what I would recommend to your client is that the work be done over an extended time au two seasons.

In the first season I would free up the centre remove deadwood first, then crossing branches, then smaller internal branches.

Second season is when I would be reducing the trees height.

Removing to much foliage at one time will cause a lot of stress to the tree. Between seasons I would be applying an organic fertiliser and removing fruit and flowers as they appear. A lot of energy goes into growing both of these.

Any pruning you do on fruit trees should be done before fruiting.

For the umbrella tres well they will grow from most any point of the tree and more prolifically from a wound. They are a weak timber so you will need to manage the amount of new foliage on the outer extremities of the branches.

Hope I've been of some help to you.

Brodie

Advanced Grounds Management

Consulting Arborist.

[Blaktop]

Cheers Brody, three of the four mandarins are done......she wanted them done now.....so I did them. They're actually looking quite good with new shoots happening. The fourth is covered by a heavily fruiting passionfruit vine so she wants to wait for another month.

[great nature]

some pruning advice please.

a client has hawthorn (raphiolepis) that is out of shape. the top rhs needs to be lowered by a foot or so to get it back to a dome shape. normally id wait until early spring. but now might actually a good time to do it, just after flowering. ive tip pruned plenty of these, but never needed to hard prune a branch. has anyone in indyland ever seen them reshoot from old wood?
this is the branch. i wanna cut about halfway down.
IMG_1102.jpg

[Fred's mowing]

I think you'll be fine.
Ive cut them back hard & they,ve shot away no probs.
Just cut on a 45 above a node.
Only prob with cutting back hard at this time of year is new growth may be suseptible to burning on stinking hot days.
Generally they're quite tuff with those leathery leaves.
Cheers Fred.

[great nature]

thanks fred for the reply. i searched the net, read all my pruning books. they all said tip prune. i come on here and hey presto question answered.
burning will be no probs, its very shaded, even in summer.

[DavidS]

Just a hint for Newbies or others. Now is the time to sell shaping Pruning for Citrus trees. If you prune to shape now citrus trees will not put out prolific growth. If you prune in winter when Spring arrives, the tree will send out new growth every where and this will have to be pruned off later.

[Fred's mowing]

Interesting. I went to a seminar many years ago at Burnley Hort College. Dr Alex Shigo was the geust speaker.
Compartmentalization of trees was his topic.
One of the simplist aspects that could be passed on from that seminar is, dont flush cut branches.
This will create a scar up to 3 times as large as a correct cut, therefor placing way more stress on the tree.
When u look closely at the union of a branch joining the main trunk (or a larger branch) in many cases u can almost see a line to cut to.
The small stub remaining will be discarded by the tree & the wound will have a much smaller surface area.
I'll see if I can post a pic for those interested.
Are most ppl aware of how to remove a larger branch cleanly from the trunk with no risk of tearing?
Cheers Fred.

[Treecat]

highly recommend this book for anyone that wants to improve their prunning http://shigoandtrees.com/index.php?_...od&productId=4 roughly $160 in aus book stores.

[Kathryn]

i totally agree. i did an experiment years ago in the tropics whilst pruning some frangipanis as they heal fast. the cuts that were flush to the branch healed much slower than the ones cut at the collar.ive heard some gardners say it doesnt look as neat at the time of the cut but the scar is a much better result visually and i expect too for the tree!
pruning, a practical guide by rodger elliot is a good book on this subject

Interesting. I went to a seminar many years ago at Burnley Hort College. Dr Alex Shigo was the geust speaker.
Compartmentalization of trees was his topic.
One of the simplist aspects that could be passed on from that seminar is, dont flush cut branches.
This will create a scar up to 3 times as large as a correct cut, therefor placing way more stress on the tree.
When u look closely at the union of a branch joining the main trunk (or a larger branch) in many cases u can almost see a line to cut to.
The small stub remaining will be discarded by the tree & the wound will have a much smaller surface area.
I'll see if I can post a pic for those interested.
Are most ppl aware of how to remove a larger branch cleanly from the trunk with no risk of tearing?
Cheers Fred.

[Kathryn]

can you educate one of the tree loppers in town then. he did a terrible job on one of my customers trees. she ended up paying twice as i had to fix it. he needs to be taught how to prune so that the tree will grow into the required shape not to prune it just so that it looks good at the time

If people are serious about working in this industry I would hope so.

[Kathryn]

how did my post end up above paul's

[PaulG]

Are most ppl aware of how to remove a larger branch cleanly from the trunk with no risk of tearing?
Cheers Fred.

If people are serious about working in this industry I would hope so.

[Treecat]

This should hopefully help some people
ntp.jpg

[Cranbourne Lawnmowing]

If people are serious about working in this industry I would hope so.

Agree Paul. I'm not very confident with pruning and wont do fruit tree's but there are some aspects to pruning that should be a no brainer even for the novice.

[dave hirst]

chain saw 1 foot above the root stock will prune anything.

cowboy tree services, will beat all quotes