Loading…
15
PSA: the 3 cut pruning rule I swore by got thrown out after watching a guy in Portland butcher his maple
I was at the Hoyt Arboretum volunteer day in Portland last month and watched a volunteer take 40 minutes to make 3 perfect cuts on a storm damaged maple, and the tree died anyway because he left a 6 inch stub that rotted straight into the trunk, so now I cut way closer to the branch collar and stopped counting cuts altogether, anyone else ditch the old rule after seeing something like that?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
elliotellis24d ago
That bit about him making 3 perfect cuts and the tree dying anyway hits home. I helped my neighbor take down a big limb off his oak two summers ago and we spent like 20 minutes measuring and marking to avoid the collar, then his kid ran over the drop zone with a mower and gashed the trunk. We stood there staring at this clean perfect cut while the real damage was 4 feet below it. Tree healed fine but we learned more from that dumb mower moment than any youtube vid. Now I just focus on not hurting anything around the tree, cuts sorta take care of themselves.
8