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  • From: "tanis cuff" <tanistanis@hotmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] pruning recommendations
  • Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:51:45 +0000

Maybe a little late for this spring's pruning.

I recently told a novice pruner to go get the latest update of WI's extension publication on how to make proper pruning cuts, because it was an outline of Alex Shigo's recommendations. Yes, I got the Blank Stare, but the pruner acquired the publication.

Shigo is (was?) an arborist who decided to research & figure out why some pruning cuts "heal over" while others turn into big gaping rotten hollow branches & trees. You've really got to be interested in this to read one of his books entirely, but shorter pamphlets & publications illustrating the highlights are popping up everywhere. If your local extension publication mentions branch bark ridge, branch collar, included bark, & excluded bark, you're probably on the right track.

Shigo's general recommendation on timing of pruning is "not while the leaves are forming or falling"-- rapid spring growth and autumn senesence.

Tanis Cuff, who is noticing how much faster the pruning cuts close since I've tried to follow Shigo's recommendations






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