What is the best time to prune trees, and how do I hire someone who can prune large trees?


Answer:
Generally speaking, it is a good time to prune in the late winter, before your trees come out of dormancy. It would be a good idea to research specific species when you do prune. Pruning during the growing season will make wounds in the trees. Fresh wounds during the growing season make certain trees more susceptible to diseases, such as oak wilt or Dutch elm disease. So, it is wise to know when to avoid pruning for your specific species. You should not try to prune trees that you would have to climb into to prune. It is also best to contact an arborist when deciding how to train a very young tree.

That said, pruning small trees is a fairly simple and enjoyable matter if you take the time to learn the basics. Since you need to have some concrete facts and a reasonable sense for aesthetics, I think that pruning is partly science and partly art. I have included resources below to help get you started. For the large trees on your property, it is necessary to hire someone to prune.

There is a wonderful article about hiring an arborist by Bill Elmendorf, a community forestry expert at Penn State. You will find that article at aginfo.psu.edu/News/may00/arborist.html. Bill has another article that goes further into the specifics about pruning at: http://aginfo.psu.edu/News/december98/pruning.html. There are also free publications you may send for online. When you get out to prune, having a publication with illustrations in front of you will be helpful! Here is a link to a free publication about pruning landscape trees: http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/uh099.html.