Dormant or Winter Tree Pruning – Why Winter is The Ideal Time to Prune Your Trees

Caring for your trees during the dormant – winter – season provides lasting benefits all year long

When we talk about the dormant season, we’re referring to the period of rest where trees enter a phase of inactivity and stop growing. During the weeks leading up and into early winter, they shed their leaves to economize and conserve resources – save them for their brilliant re-emergence in the spring!

So, as we make our way into November, with winter in the air and the dormant season for trees and shrubs just around the corner – it’s the perfect time to prune!

 Choose the right tree service. GLTS is experienced, credentialed, and insured!

Dormant tree pruning is best

Winter – or dormant season – pruning is one of the best times to prune your trees and shrubs. Not only is it easier while the trees are bare, but it’s beneficial for the trees as well. 

The experienced and qualified arborists at Green Leaf Tree Services, Ltd. list a variety of advantages of dormant tree pruning. They include: 

•           Enhanced vigour and aesthetics
During dormancy, it’s easier to identify the overgrown parts of the tree or shrub. An experienced arborist can cut down the overgrowth to help enhance its growth and beauty next spring and summer.

•           Accuracy and precision
Again, when the trees and shrubs are free of leaves, if offers a much clearer, easier view of the entire tree structure. Free of foliage to obscure, damaged and diseased branches are easier to see and identify. A clear view helps you make better decisions about what should be removed.

•           Helps trees prepare for winter conditions
Winter pruning helps maintain the safety and health of your trees and shrubs. If a tree has brittle, dead, or weak branches, it can pose a hazard. Heavy snow that collects on a weak branch can cause the branch to break, coming down on whatever is below. Removing damaged or dead branches helps keep you and your property safe no matter the conditions through the winter. When the trees are free of leaves, a qualified arborist has a clearer vision of winter conditions, particularly the added weight of moisture, ice, and snow that will affect the tree. Seeing the tree unadorned with leaves helps to make the important dormant tree pruning decisions to help them best handle severe winter conditions, including storms and high winds.

•           Frozen ground reduces the impact on the surrounding landscape
Columbia Valley winters, more often than not, mean frozen ground. Working on tree removal when the ground is frozen and hard, particularly with bigger equipment, results in less, if any, damage to the surroundings. Additionally, trees prepare themselves for the stresses of cold, frozen conditions so the impacts of tree work is typically minimal to the health of your landscape.

•           Disease Control
There are many trees and shrubs that can’t be pruned at any other time than during the dormant season. Winter pruning helps to prevent the spread of disease to other branches or surrounding trees. During winter, it’s not only the trees that are dormant but the harmful diseases and insects that impact them, too. When pruned at any other season, the pruning cuts allow points of entry for disease and insects. Springtime offers vital recovery and healing from the cuts made over the winter before diseases and insects become active.

•           Improved Healing
As springtime is the ideal time for trees and shrubs to recover, the dormant season is a great time to prune away diseased branches and give them time to heal. Green Leaf arborists understand that winter tree pruning leaves trees and shrubs with spare resources – root and energy reserves – to help heal wounds more quickly and support more vigorous spring growth that will help heal the pruning cuts. 

•           Winter pruning for more fruitful trees
If you enjoy your fruit trees, any major pruning must be done during the winter months. Winter pruning will only help you maximize your tree’s fruit production. Prune any fruit or ornamental trees before they begin to bud in the spring or flowers appear. Winter pruning will also ensure that the branches grow strong enough to hold an abundance of fruit. 

•           Improved tree health
When there are damaged, diseased, or otherwise compromised parts of a tree or shrub, they can negatively impact other healthy parts of the structure. Dormant tree pruning removes unhealthy branches, helping to improve the overall health of your trees and shrubs.

Dormant tree pruning – safe and protected! 

No matter when you need to prune your trees and shrubs, do it as safely as possible! Choose an ISA Certified arborist who is fully licensed and insured. 

There are inherent risks to any work you do to manage and care for your trees and shrubs. When you choose a reputable and professional tree service, you can rest easy knowing that they carry the appropriate insurance coverage, training and proper equipment to minimize the risks. 

When you look for a good tree service, be sure that they have their municipal license, full WCB coverage for their employees, and carry a minimum of $5,000,000 general liability insurance to protect you from any potential liability. While unlikely, accidents can happen and you want to know you’re protected.

 Dormant tree pruning done right! CONTACT GLTS help keep your trees and shrubs as healthy – and safe! – as possible.