Pruning REVAMPED feb 21

What are the 3 Ds and I of pruning

Dead

Diseased

Damaged

Interfering

What are 5 reasons for pruning shrubs, vines and groundcover

1 maintain health and vigor

2 direct, control or modify growth

3 enhance flower and fruit production

4 3 Ds (dead disease and damage and interfering)

5 aesthetics

What three keys points are you promoting when “maintaining health and vigor”

• plant health

• Structural integrity

• Light and air penetration

If you want better flower production for roses when do you prune?

In the spring before buds break dormancy

To enhance flower/fruit production in apples and pears what approximate angle of branches from the trunk is best

45-60 degrees

If a plant is constantly needing pruning due to dddi tissue issues or health and vigor what is the real problem?

Wrong plant for the space

Factors affecting the pruning of plants

Plant form

Function

Age

Location (safety or rubbing/size etc)

Timing

Pre pruning treatments

Severe pruning

Alternatives to pruning

Where is auxin found and what is it?

It is a hormone found in the growing tips of the shoots. It has a higher concentration in the buds closest to the tip of a branch. It varies a lot across species. It is about tissue differentiation and growth

Excurrent branching shape and is it apical dominance or control at work

Apical control is at work. Holing that main leader and letting the laterals have just a bit of growth behind each apex. This creates a conical growth pattern (often seen in conifers)

Decurrent or deliquescent/diffuse branching what is the shape and is it apical control or dominance at work

Apical dominance but like EVERYwhere so each new shoot has dominance and a main leader is surpassed or added too creating a rounder shape (ie birches)

What is spur pruning

Shortening shoots to within a few buds of their bases. Common on fruit and berry plants to encourage lateral shoots fruit and flowering

Coppicing is

The regular heading of trees/shrubs to the ground (or drastically) to promote vigorous upright stems/ succors.

What is pollarding

Repeated heading to a permanent stubby framework to encourage lateral branch growth, Control height, Or create a similar caliper branching

Pinching is

Encouraged branching and creates more compactness depending on species. In conifers this looks like candling to maintain size. In other this is just pinching off terminal bud for heigh but also for lateral growth

What is the difference btwn the branch bark ridge and branch collar in pruning?

You cut just out from the bark ridge so the paranchyma cells dont have to go far to heal. You do NOT cut at the collar

What is the first cut you make when removing a large branch

Undercut

To reduce large regrowth in the spring you prune in

Late june early july

To reduce photosynthetic green foliage

To increase growth prune in

EARLY Spring

Secondary fall and winter (as the stores from the summer are already locked in) however if you prune in spring on plants that set buds on old wood you wont get blooms

An immediate short term, auxin effect on shoot growth and branching is called

Apical dominance

A longer-term affect of oxen on shoot and branching growth is

Apical control (The amount of growth over time)

How can you often recognize young growth

It is more stiffly upright, more vigorous with larger fleshier leaves than on mature reproductive shoots

What does severe repeated pruning do to growth?

Often it will delay, maturity of tissues and create more juvenile regrowth

What are signs in an established plant that would cause a need for replacement more than pruning?

Defective roots, caliper not balance with canopy size, Codominant leaders on a plant where that is not its normal growth pattern, sunken colors or extensive amounts of included bark

What are signs of higher exposure to sunlight?

Reduced elongation of internodes

Increased leaf thickness

Decreases in leaf size

Principal Factors that can influence the timing of pruning are?

• dormancy

• Flower period

• Growth response

• Wind and frost damage

• Scorch

Additional factors that would affect the timing of pruning are?

• age and type of wood

• Time of year

• Disease and infection

• Location of plant

If a plant like hydrangeas or rhododendrons or camellia or forsythia, set their blooms for next year on THIS years growth when would you prune them?

After flowering has finished which varies for these. The spring bloomers Rhodo, Forsythia and Camellia would be end of June -July. But Hydrangea would be late feb (seeing when the foilage buds start to break. Cut back the spent heads from last year to the new buds. You can also take out about ¼ of the old shoots to help with air/shape and growth) watch for plump buds (flower not foliage) also different cultivars have different needs.

In the wisteria example in hort ed why do you prune it 2x/yr

Summer pruning the long “whips” to control form and keep air flow

Winter prune 2-3 buds from base to help with flowing next spring. Watch that you are cutting to foliage buds not flower so wait until you can tell the difference.

General recommendations for the approach to pruning are:

• Know the growth habit of the plant

• DDDI (Dead diseased, damaged interfering)

Cleaning refers to

Removing dead, diseased, damaged or interfering first

Thinning refers to

The vast majority of commercial landscape plant pruning

Used to maintain or reduce plant size preserve natural form, and increase light and air circulation

Often this is done on old wood

Raising pruning refers to

Removing the lower branches to provide clearance

Renovation or rejuvenation pruning is

A bigger prune to rebuild an old plant

Making cuts on half the stems one year and the remaining half the following year. It can also be used on many sub shrubs in late winter.

Plants are often headed back to within 15 to 10 cm of the ground

Hedging and pruning is

Complicated for timing, depending on the plant

Plants that sprout on old wood handle this well any time (knowing you can control growth better if you reduce photosynthetic opportunities ie foilage - for next year. IF you prune in late june early july).

Ie taxus, thuja occidentalis, carpinus (hornbeam), buxus (boxwood), euonymous, cupressus x leylandii, prunus laurocerasus (cherry laural),

FLOWERING hedges often need to be pruned AFTER flowering ie calluna vulgaris (heathe), thymus serpyllum (mother of time), santonlina chamaecyparissus (cotton lavendar) and lavandula angustofolia (english lavendar)

Group 1 plant group according to growth and flowering habits

Plants that do not regularly produce replacement growth from base

This category can include both plants that flower on current season or old wood

Prune while Young to build solid foundation

Arborescent shrubs and most trees

Group 2

Deciduous and evergreen shrubs and ground cover that produce flowers from the previous seasons wood/growth

Often require basil thinning

Removing oldest branches

Pruning after flowering

Group 3

Plants that produce flowering spurs on old wood (similar to group 2)

Commonly rosaceous trees and shrubs

Plants can be pruned to maximize flowering through dormant and growing season heading

Balance of vegetative and reproductive growth is key

Group 4

Plants that produce flowers on the current seasons growth

Some can be cut completely to the ground

Others just to the low woody framework

Pruning early to allow maximum time for flowering new development

Prune in late winter or very early spring

Includes many sub, subshrubs

Group 5

Deciduous shrubs, grown for decorative stem or foliage effect

Prune all shoots annually, hard to the ground(coppice) Or to low woody framework

Thin plants that produce multiple basil shoots

Plants must be well established before hard pruning

Pruned in mid to late winter

Group 6

Evergreen shrubs, grown primarily for foliage effect

Dormant season pruned if mild weather or pruned in spring after flowering

Vigorous evergreens may require further pruning in mid summer

Evergreens with fine leaves and stems can be shared

Mostly evergreen hedges and mass plantings

General seasonal rules are

Don’t prune when it’s wet and freezing

Don’t prune when it’s wet

Prune in early summer to control growth

Do not prune in late summer

Do not prune in spring

3types of cuts

Under cut

Reduction cut

Removal cut

Heading cut is

Removal cut is

Reduction cut is