Structural pruning for young trees
This is the cheapest tree work you will ever have done and almost nobody asks for it. A few cuts on a young tree decide whether it grows into an asset or into a problem you pay to remove in twenty years.
- Method
- Hand pruned, leader selected, forks reduced
- Outcome
- A tree growing the shape it should
Before you book this one
When you need this
- You have planted trees in the last ten years and nobody has touched them
- A young tree has two competing leaders forming a narrow fork
- Branches are growing back into the middle of the crown
- The tree is developing a lean it does not need
- You want it to grow up and over the drive rather than into it
What we do
- We pick the leader the tree should keep and reduce the ones competing with it
- Narrow forks with included bark get dealt with while they are still small
- Lower limbs are shortened over a few visits rather than cut off all at once
- The crown is opened enough for air and light without stripping it
- You get told what the tree will want next and roughly when
What to know
- This is not a one visit job on a very young tree. The right answer is a small amount of work now and a little more in a few years
- It will not look dramatic when we leave. That is the point of it
- We will not shape a tree into something it does not want to be
A tree with two trunks that meet in a tight V is a tree that will split. Not this year and probably not next, but eventually, usually in wind, usually onto whatever is under it. The bark gets pushed into the join as both stems thicken, so the union never bonds properly. On a twenty year old tree that is a rigging job and a real bill. On a five year old tree it is one cut with a hand saw.
The same goes for a limb growing back through the middle of the crown, a low branch that will one day be a six inch scar on the trunk, or a lean that a young tree will happily correct if you take a little weight off the heavy side while it can still respond.
We do not push this work because it makes us money. We push it because an estimate that says nothing about the young trees on a property is only looking at half of it.
Questions people ask about this
How young is young enough?
Anything from planting up to about fifteen years is where this work pays back most. Under that you are mostly selecting a leader and taking off anything obviously wrong. Above that, structure is mostly set, and what you are doing is managing what the tree has already decided. It is never too late to improve a tree, but the earlier you start the fewer big wounds it ever has to close.
Is this different from ordinary trimming?
Yes, and the difference is what you are aiming at. Trimming is about the tree as it is now, clearance, deadwood, light. Structural pruning is about the tree in thirty years. Very little comes off, the cuts are small, and the value is entirely in choosing the right ones. It is the part of the job the ISA certification is actually about.
Will you tell me if my tree is beyond helping?
Yes, plainly. Some young trees were planted in a spot that will never work, too close to a foundation, under a power drop, or a species that gets far larger than the person who planted it realised. In that case pruning is delaying something rather than fixing it, and we would rather say so at the estimate than take money for a few years of cuts.
Related work
Have a certified arborist look at it
Tell us what the trees are doing and we will come out, walk the property with you and write it up. The visit is free, it takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and you get an itemized estimate you can hold on to.
Call or text
(360) 842 7433Washington contractor licence WARRIBT777DF. Licensed, bonded and insured. Verify on LNI.wa.gov.ISA Certified Arborist PN 368801AEstimates are scheduled Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm Pacific.