How To Fix A Badly Pruned Tree?

Fixing a badly pruned tree can be a complicated task. That's because fixing a badly pruned tree might require... pruning, and perhaps you were the one who over pruned tree in the first place.



That's ok. We have been there before and are here to help you out.

How To Fix A Badly Pruned Tree

Fixing a badly pruned tree is going to come down to figuring out which one of the common tree pruning mistakes you are making and acting accordingly.

The person who topped their tree is going to have a different plan then the one who isn't pruning at all. Over pruning has its own problems.

If you aren't familiar with pruning, or gardening - you just found this website and are trying to save your tree - your best bet is going to be to call local tree care services.

If you are learning how to grow a healthy tree, this guide is definitely for you.

Common Tree Pruning Mistakes

There are a number of common pruning mistakes you should avoid when it comes to pruning your tree.

• You Need To Prune Your Tree
• You Pruned Your Tree Like Michelangelo (You Tried to Sculpt It)
• You Pruned Excessively
• You Pruned The Tree Leader (Otherwise Known As Topping A Tree)

You Need To Prune Your Tree

Pruning trees can be scary. Beginner gardeners (or aspiring arborists) are sometimes hesitant to prune their tree for fear of doing it wrong and damaging the tree. This is fair.

We can remember our first time pruning a tree, standing before the beautiful growth with our pruning shears in hand... afraid. In this case, we thought, no action is surely better than maiming the tree.

Though you don't want to maim your tree, if you aren't pruning the tree you are making a serious mistake. Not pruning a tree is a huge mistake for the longevity of the tree's health and color.

Remember pruning encourages growth and healthy plants. Color always goes to new growth. So regularly pruning your tree will keep its beautiful color which is likely the reason you started growing the tree in the first place. Get out the best tools to cut the tree branches and get started.

Of course, there are methods to pruning so don't just start hacking away at the tree or you are bound to make some of the other mistakes we listed below.

You Pruned Your Tree Like Michelangelo: Don't Prune Your Tree Like That!

Okay, so you started pruning your tree as if you were Michelangelo with a vision of the tree implanted so firmly in your mind that you knew, you just knew, you were going to prune a masterpiece. We see this all the time.

Some new gardeners or otherwise... start pruning trees as if it was sculpture. It's not. It's a plant. Though you are by analogy giving it a haircut, that doesn't mean it needs a bowl cut from the 70s.

Again, it's a plant. The best course of action with trees is to prune to their natural shape. The natural shape of a tree is going to vary from species to species but the advice is always the same with shape: don't create your own.

Remember, pruning stimulates growth. If you are selectively pruning your tree to your heart's desire, the tree will respond with new growth which means the tree will become super dense.

Super dense trees die early because the tree simply cannot support all the new branches you have forced it to grow. Less is more. Before trying to bend the tree to your will, do some research and see what sort of shapes you enjoy the most.



Poor pruning should be avoided at all costs.

You Pruned Excessively: Let The Tree Grow

If you have pruned your tree so hard that it barely looks like a tree anymore, the best course of action (really, the only course of action) is going to be let the tree grow.

This advice is for the most egregious of prune jobs - like, you trimmed all the branches down to the nub type of trim job. If you pruned that far, there isn't much you can do but wait and hope the tree grows back to its regular height/strength.

An over pruned tree is going to be stressed. Pruning extra is just going to stress the tree out more and that's something you want to avoid to make sure you don't own a dead tree.

You Pruned The Tree Leader

So You Topped Your Tree - What Now?

The biggest and baddest mistake of all (in our opinion) when it comes to pruning a tree is thinking that all the tree branches were created equal and that, they should all be pruned equally. Wrong.

What a lot of tree gardeners don't know is that every tree has a branch or limb that is considered the leader. The leader is essentially the backbone of the tree from the majority of other branches grow. The leader is the vertical stem that grows from the top of the tree trunk.

That being said, different species will grow out leaders in different ways. Deciduous trees will grow differently than a coniferous. If you can't identify your leader, you want to contact a professional tree service before you start to prune.

Trees without leaders are known as topped trees. Topped trees make the tree susceptible to decay, infestation, sunburn and more. It's something to avoid.

But most people inadvertently trim the leader for good reason - perhaps the tree is getting way too tall and it seems it seems dangerous. Maybe the neighbor cut the tree on the property line.

Perhaps the tree is pushing up on a utility line and it has to be cut less you lose your power (Of course, if you should never plant a tree under a utility line so if you did that, shame on you! But a lot of the time, trees are already on the land growing higher and higher towards the electricity line!).

If you trimmed the leader, other limbs will compete to become the new leader. This can be bad depending on the tree because double leaders will make the tree weak as nutrients are spread between the two competing branches which can lead to bark inclusion. You want to train your tree to have a single leader so if you trimmed it or lost it, be sure to trim any lateral branch to a shorter length than the leader.

Also, if you trimmed the leader, the tree will encourage new branches to grow. These new branches will likely grow to the previous height of the tree but since they are not growing as the leading tree branch would, they make the tree weaker.

If you topped your tree, the best course of action is going to be wait for the leader to grow back while making sure to trim any lateral branch attempting to grow in it's place.

In some scenarios, topping the leader may have been so egregious that the tree might need to be removed. Either way, it's going to take a long time for the topped tree to get back to its original strength.

Leave Fixing An Over Pruned Tree To A Professional

If you feel you destroyed your tree, before you rip it out of the ground, you should contact a professional arborist or tree service. You went through all the work to grow the tree and with one mistake, you shouldn't give up hope.

Trees are living things. Cutting haphazardly away at the branches or the stem or the leaves could do irreparable damage but in most cases, people don't go this far. Try to assess the situation and react accordingly.

Your arborist will likely prescribe your tree a rejuvenation pruning method to bring back the health of the tree. This rejuvenation pruning method could take months and even years before your tree is brought back to normal so it's important to figure this out sooner rather than later.

Not only that but if an arborist needs to prune away at a diseased branch, they are going to have the best tree loppers available. They make their livelihood trimming trees so you can be sure they are going to take it seriously. Read some reviews in your local area before making a decision.

When Tree Branches Become Dead Branches

Deadwood.

Deadwood is just part of a tree that has died: weak branches that break off easily, branches that no longer grow any leaves, spots on the tree that aren't growing bark or branches that hold on to dead leaves while the rest of the tree has already dropped.

A common mistake beginner pruners make is they don't remove this deadwood prior to pruning the tree. This is a mistake.

If you don't remove the deadwood floating around you won't be able to get the full view of the tree canopy. Without a full view of the tree's canopy, you aren't going to be able to intelligently decide what branches to cut.

Not only that, deadwood can pose a serious safety issue. You can imagine falling branches and limbs could be problematic to structures or life below so don't wait: remove the deadwood.

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