QuestionQUESTION: Our neighbor wants us to trim our silver maple now in August, with temps hovering at 100 degrees every day. We're in SE Iowa. She doesn't want as many leaves to fall in her yard that she has to rake up so wants it done before leaves drop. We've been told that the dead of winter or early Spring is the best time to trim back deciduous trees. We want the best for the health of our tree. Should we wait until after the leaves drop to have it trimmed? Her trimmer said a silver maple can be trimmed any time of year. I kind of doubt that this hot weather is going to facilitate quick healing for the wounds incurred where larger limbs are removed.
ANSWER: Some trees have free-flowing sap that 揵leeds?after late winter or early spring pruning. Though this bleeding causes little harm, it may still be a source of concern. To prevent bleeding, you could prune the following trees after their leaves are fully expanded in late spring or early summer. Never remove more than 1/4 of the live foliage. Examples include: all maples, including box elder
To remove large branches, three or four cuts will be necessary to avoid tearing the bark. Make the first cut on the underside of the branch about 18 inches from the trunk. Undercut one-third to one-half way through the branch. Make the second cut an inch further out on the branch; cut until the branch breaks free.
Before making the final cut severing a branch from the main stem, identify the branch collar. The branch collar grows from the stem tissue around the base of the branch. Make pruning cuts so that only branch tissue (wood on the branch side of the collar) is removed. Be careful to prune just beyond the branch collar, but DON扵 leave a stub. If the branch collar is left intact after pruning, the wound will seal more effectively and stem tissue probably will not decay.
Do not use wound dressing on the cuts this will slow the healing process.
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QUESTION: Your answer implies that if we have our silver maple trimmed in late winter or early spring it will bleed sap enough to cause concern for the health of the tree. As there is a large limb overhanging our neighbor's roof plus another sizable dead limb that needs to be removed, both our neighbor and we want to have those limbs removed before the winter ice storms hit which can and do pull down even very healthy limbs and sometimes split a large tree in half down the trunk. So we want to get this tree trimmed sometime in the Fall when the weather is cooler and not so much sap will flow as would happen now in the hot weather of August. The rotting stump that needs to be cut back is about 2 feet in diameter so this will create a large wound. Therefore, we want to have the tree be able to heal as quickly as possible. Do you recommend say, early October, when it's much cooler but the leaves are still on and it has enough life energy to heal or waiting until later, say November, when it's freezing at night and quite cool in the day and the leaves have fallen? Will it heal slower in these cold temps? It needs to be trimmed before deep winter, so which is the best time to have it done?
AnswerI would wait until the middle of September--the tree should have begun to slow down in growth and the sap will not be moving up. It does not matter about the cool weather and healing just the concern of the sap bleeding from the wound. Any time after about the middle of September will be fine up until around Feb. or very early March. I would plan to prune in September.
