Flowering Crabapple Tree Trimming

[Jackokey]

I have a large flowering crabapple tree that needs trimming. How much can/should I trim it without hurting it? I live in Minnesota.

Thanks for your help.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

depends on the vitality of the tree. if it is young and growing well, then removing 25% of the total leafv mass is not a real big stress. if it is an older tree then you want to remove less, very old and stressed trees with a lot of deadwood should only have the dead/dieing removed.

A primary tenet of pruning is to keep the wounds small.

here is a search where you can study proper pruning

http://search.dogpile.com/texis/search?q=proper+pruning&geo=no&fs=web

 

[Jackokey]

Thanks very much, I got the info I needed!