OUTAGAMIE COUNTY (NBC 26) — It might not feel like spring across northeast Wisconsin, but landscaping specialists are reminding people how to properly take care of your trees throughout the year.
NBC 26 Today Meteorologist Lauren Larsen connected with Lowney's Tree Service lead arborist, Adam Pashouwer, to learn how take care of trees throughout the season.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details added for the web)
Adam the arborist with Lowney’s tree service is here to tell us when we should trim our trees. Why should we do this now when it still feels pretty early in the season?
Adam says ideally you should have all your trimming done before the trees leaf out. In the summer, trees need to be producing and storing energy. We want to get our structure pruned so that when the trees are active and taking water out of the soil, the only thing they’re working on is storing energy.
So, I am going to prune this tree before it leafs out so that when it does leaf out in the summer it is just focused on growing strong. The buds have begun to swell on this beautiful tree which means spring is just around the corner. We are running out of time to safely prune our trees.
I am going to do a quick structure prune so that when this tree leafs out in the spring, all the energy is going into one of these strong dominant branches. I’ll grab my nice, sharp shears here, stay outside to not make sure I am hitting the main trunk, and give a quick little snip. There we go! I have made sure I am far away from that main trunk. This piece is going to compartmentalize and wall off.
All of my other branches are at a nice ratio compared to the main trunk. So these lower branches don’t need to be pruned.
Generally if you can reach the branch without getting too high up in the air, you can prune the tree yourself. However you don’t want to harm your tree by pruning it improperly. If you hit the main trunk, you can cause some serious damage to this living creature. When in doubt have one of our arborists come on out and give you advice. We want to take care of your trees.
