Dormant/Fall Pruning

[Rob Shauger]

Wher does the window fall between allowing for propper healing in the fall and dormant pruning. I am in N.Y., upstate along N.Y.S. Thruway.

Crabs- thinning

Calary pears/ Lindens- thinning, topping

Rejuvanation

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

topping-never. This is a not topping zone. No tree butchery allowed.

Better restate the question before someone hauls out the big guns on you.

One school of thought is that trees start to store carbs up just before abscision, so it is best to put off any seriouse pruning till after full doamancy. This is becaus wound closure takes up enought energy to reduce carb levels in the apical buds.

Calus starts to form in active trees shortly after the wound is made. Pruning is after all a controled wounding of the tree. Calus is a responce in the cambium of putting out a thin film of meristem that then differentiates into woundwood. This can happen in the tree even if the leaves are off, but temps are high enough for sap to flow. Chemical actrivity is taking place in the bark execpt on real cold days.

I rejuvenate, coppice, woody plants in late winter/early spring if the client wants the winter veiw. otherwise it is after hard freez. I dont think the small amount of photosynthesis that happens during winter will realy help root storage levels, it is mostly bud area storage from what I gather.

 

[Rob Shauger]

Dormant pruning

Sorry, wrong choice of words. This client has 2 tree side by side, calary pears. One is much bigger than the other. The shorter of the two was buried under too much mulch. Man what a difference. He wants a liitle off the top of the bigger one to keep it from hitting cable tv wire.
We have had plenty of killing frost here, so is it safe to do the general thinning?

 

[treeclimber165]

Yeah, customers can be funny (stupid) sometimes. Hack the tree for big bux or reroute a flimsy wire for next to nothing. Hmmmmmmmmm. I think I'll have the tree topped!

I guess the wire wasn't there when the tree was planted and it just magically appeared one day, so it cannot be moved? Or did he think that trees can be forced to stop growing once they reach the height he wants?

 

[FBerkel]

That's right, the (patented) Miracle Tree, grows 5 feet per year, then stops!

I once heard Shigo say that food storage can continue until late January. We usually put off dormant pruning until Dec. 1 or so.

Though this year, doing a municipal job right now: If the foresters determine that the timing's o.k., and I refuse to do the job, I can stand by and watch the job go to the local hackers. Maybe lesser of two evils at this point?

Food storage rates undoubtedly vary from year to year, but is anyone aware of any studies that plot percent of total stored against time?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The things I've read say that the bulk of the storage is pre abscision. After that the tree goes semidoarmant till the very harsh months. There is enough fluid movement for the green bark to charge up the local meristem on days that are not too cold.

Many things determine starage rates, vigor, vitality, weather, available sun....methinks too many variables to plot out.