Pro tip: I saw a Bradford pear in my neighbor's yard go from a brittle mess to a strong tree after three years of proper structural pruning.

They stopped topping it and instead did selective thinning cuts each spring, which completely changed its wind resistance and branch attachment strength, so has anyone else seen a dramatic turnaround from changing just one practice?

3 comments

3 Comments

mila_murphy213d ago

Joel's landlord hacking everything to stubs hits home. I once tried to "prune" a rose bush with kitchen shears after watching one youtube video. Let's just say it looked like a crime scene and didn't flower for two years. I'm clearly better at killing plants than fixing them, so this proper pruning stuff sounds like actual magic.

kevin_west3d ago

Seems a bit overblown for a yard tree.

joel_hall173d ago

Absolutely. My old landlord used to hack everything back to stubs every fall. The trees were just weak, spindly messes. Once he stopped and we did some proper thinning, the difference in just two seasons was crazy. The branches actually looked sturdy and stopped snapping off in every storm.