Unpopular opinion: I stopped bothering with fancy pruning paints years ago

Back when I first started tree work around 2015, I used to spend extra cash on those goopy pruning paints and sealers for every cut I made. I thought they helped the tree heal faster and kept out bugs. But after a few seasons of watching painted cuts rot out worse than the unpainted ones, I stopped using them completely. Turns out trees are pretty good at sealing themselves if you just make clean cuts at the right spot. Now I just focus on my cut placement and skip all the extra stuff. Has anyone else noticed their painted cuts looking nasty after a wet spring?

3 comments

3 Comments

carter.casey29d ago

Oh come on, it's really not that deep. You painted a few cuts, they looked bad, big deal. Trees have been healing themselves for millions of years without us slathering goop on them. I've seen plenty of painted cuts hold up fine through wet winters. Your problem was probably the paint, not the concept. Some of those cheap sealers trap moisture and cause rot. But the good stuff works if you apply it right.

joel_martinez29d ago

Yeah, I gotta push back on that. I've been fixing trees that had that "good stuff" slathered on years ago, and it's not pretty. Most of the time the wound ends up sealed off but then rot sets in behind the paint because the tree can't dry out naturally. The old growth forest guys have been saying for decades just leave it alone and they're right. Trees don't need our help healing cuts any more than our skin needs duct tape on a scrape. The only time painting makes sense is if you're trying to make the cut look less obvious for a few months before it fades to gray.

susan_wright3429d agoMost Upvoted

I actually read something from a forestry study out of Cornell a while back that said most tree paints do more harm than good because they mess with the tree's natural callus formation. Kinda makes you wonder why we're still arguing about this when the data is pretty clear, isn't it?