When To Prune Your Trees In Minnesota

Healthy trees are the cornerstone of a healthy yard and garden. To keep your trees strong and beautiful, you must perform a variety of services which include pruning away dead and dying branches, protecting them against pervasive pests such as Emerald Ash Borers, and stimulating healthy root growth. You may be able to complete some of these tasks on your own but trickier jobs, particularly those involving large trees, may require the work of a professional arborist.

Pruning is one of the most vital services which maintains the good health of your trees throughout their lives. The careful removal of a decayed branch can prevent it from snapping in a way that wounds your tree and leaves it vulnerable to insects and disease. Pruning also allows you to shape a tree to fit your yard, while preventing it from choking out the sunlight from ground-level plants in your garden. It is especially important to prune your tree if its branches begin to hang dangerously far over a neighboring road, or if a large branch becomes diseased and runs the risk of falling on your home. However, it is paramount that your prune your trees during the correct season.

 

Minnesota Tree Pruning Calendar

  • Spring: Spring is the season of new growth and blooms, so it should come as no surprise that many trees prefer to be pruned in the springtime. Pruning early in spring stimulates the rapid regrowth of branches, while pruning later in the spring promotes better blooms. Most evergreen trees, including junipers, yews and arborvitaes, should be pruned in the spring. Flowering crabapples and hawthorns like to be pruned just after the ground has thawed. By contrast, maples and birches would rather be pruned toward the end of spring. Some trees, such as lilacs and redbuds, should not be pruned until after they have flowered.
  • Summer: Pruning trees in summer is a great way to shape their appearance and curb their overgrowth while keeping them happy and healthy. If not already pruned in late spring, maples and birches should be pruned early in the summer. Even if already pruned in spring, most evergreen trees can be lightly pruned again to mold them into your desired shape. Other trees that should be pruned in summer include wisterias and hydrangeas with blooms on old wood.
  • Fall: Only a handful of trees prefer to be pruned in the fall, mostly those which have a tough time handling our cold winters in Minnesota. Oaks are among the only large trees which are best pruned in the fall. Hydrangeas with blooms on new wood should also be pruned in late fall.
  • Winter: Because most trees are dormant during the winter in Minnesota, it can be beneficial to prune them late in winter in order to promote fast and healthy regrowth once spring finally arrives. Pruning trees in winter also reduces the risk that they will be exposed to boring insects. Oaks, cotoneasters, hawthorns, apples and flowering crabapples are among the tree varieties which respond well to winter pruning.

 

Expert Tree Pruning Services In Minnesota

If you’re looking for an excellent tree pruning service in the Twin Cities metro area, contact ProTree Outdoor Services. Our team of trained and certified experts can take care of all the trees on your property, no matter how big the job is. Call us today!

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