Old timer at the supply yard made me rethink how I prune oaks

Was chatting with this retired arborist named Bob at the Bartlett supply yard in Naperville last week. He said I was cutting too close to the branch collar on my oak pruning jobs and practically showed me his own scars from doing that for 20 years. Made me realize I've been potentially inviting decay on trees worth thousands of dollars. Has anyone else had an old pro change up a basic technique you thought you had down?

3 comments

3 Comments

wade_anderson20d ago

Bob's exactly right about that branch collar... I had an old forester tell me the same thing back in '09 after I butchered a red oak on a job in Lake Geneva. He showed me the difference between a flush cut and a proper one, and I swear the tree's still kicking today because of it. That three-inch rule he gave me about leaving the collar intact is one of those things you don't forget once you see the rot start setting in on a bad cut. Really glad you got that tip before it cost you a big tree.

ivan46220d ago

Didnt you used to think a flush cut was the proper way to do it? I was the same way for years, honestly. I remember watching a guy on a big job in Kenosha cut branches right at the trunk, smooth as glass, and I thought that was the standard. It took a dying ash tree in my own yard to make me look closer, and once I saw the rot working its way down from those flush cut stubs, I knew I had been doing it wrong all along. The collar is like a built in warning system, and ignoring it is just asking for trouble down the road.

charlie19820d ago

Yep, flush cuts are a hard habit to break lol.