This is a career that we are proud of. We get angry when we see so much improper work being done and people being cheated. It usually boils down to the cheapest bid gets the job, but if the cheapest bid, costs you your trees, how much did you save?
Hey Blair, I’ve watch a bunch of your videos the past few weeks and you’ve single handedly opened my eyes to understanding trees. You have an excellent vocal rhythm when talking, and your explanations are always rooted in some logic when you explain. As a teacher myself, I’m impressed with your teaching skills. I hope you’re doing some side work teaching at some arbourist school in California! Keep up the great work.
Sometimes the customer asks for something you have to do it because they are paying you to work, not to tell them what not to do to the tree. That said, I’d agree that most of this work is total shit. Trouble is a lot of my customers do not care about what I tell them, they listen then ignore and tell me what to do. Sad
Hi Glenn, I'm a newly qualified tree surgeon. A long way to go knowledge wise, er, and rope work and rigging but I'm trying to do it right by the trees not the clients. What's you're opinion of these? My first 2 tree maintenance jobs www.dropbox.com/sh/kldcl8o4fk7ba3j/AABf6EkI5J8hnyYwO8lpS_Fda?dl=0 www.dropbox.com/sh/go3zqvtjrvrius3/AAAftsckqoh5MXQsp3O0-UmVa?dl=0
We are still in a severe drought in my part of Australia, and all the trees that shouldn't have been planted around here are all dying or dead. My son's school is about 150 years old and there "was" a row of very old crepe myrtles out the front that could well have been over a century old. Well the maintenance man thought he would cut those trees right back to about a 3rd of their height last winter, and come spring they looked very healthy. By mid summer after relentless heatwaves they were all dead because there's been no rain to support all that new fresh growth and they hadn't kept up with the watering. Those trees untouched had been through many severe droughts. They didn't look great because they grew to the conditions which meant a much sparser canopy, but at least they weren't dead and didn't require much help. Idiots let loose on trees with cutting implements really annoy the hell out of me.
Ah sad. My Grandad and Great Grandad were horticulturalists in Canberra and Sidney, and they took great pride in scientific reasoning and life-long research. True they were part of European colonizers that brought non-native species and planted them in very different environments. But, as you say, once those trees were established they became somewhat acclimatized and survived hardships as long as the original maintenance routines were respected. Sadly we live in a time of technological revolution where the past and history isn't as respected as it has been at other times. The original maintenance records for those trees (historical assets) were probably lost through staff turn over during the past 40 years too.
It's a simple fact that once a tree is on a homeowner's radar because of dead falling branches or just a fear of its sheer size, location and potential for damage, it's the beginning of the end for that tree. Pruning to keep the tree, albeit shorter or reduced in canopy as you say will increase the maintenance right up until they drop the hammer and say 'yeah ok, take it out' but at least it's had a bit more life before it's been taken down. As long as the homeowner has had that process explained to them you can only go one of two ways. Is it better to recommend it come out from initial inspection or go through this end of life tree care period? Plenty of tree guys have conflicting views on it but ultimately it's the owners decision, preferably an informed decision, whether to keep or remove this tree and hopefully replant with a new smaller species so that they can have the enjoyment of growing a tree in their property and it's a case of you've really got to think how close should you be planting this potential monster to your house?
I've been examining & dealing with previously topped trees for years. When you top a branch, the tree's defense is to throw 10 water sprout to that location. The limb can not support all the sprout, so it selectively kills a few. If these are not removed immediately, they leave a cavity & it starts to retain water & introduces rot! Great video
Dude you’re awesome! I’ve found lots of great info on climbing and cutting etc on UA-cam… But it until I found your channel I kept having unanswered questions about all this type of stuff, and it’s amazing to just be able to click a video and have you explain causes and effects and decision-making and stuff like that. This is the stuff I want to know before I even do anything or touch a tree, or even think I know what I’m about to do to it. Thank you so much!!
Another great informational video. This is why its important for tree service owners to become actual certified arborist with the ISA. About 90% of the trees we get called to prune have been topped, once youre up there you can see, HOW bad the decay is.
I have watched your videos for years. I was the ignorant person before finding your channel. Now I notice trees and think about their health everywhere I go. Thank you for the knowledge. Your dissecting of tree failures is my favorite part of your videos. I will say the pruning situation seems much worse in your area than it is in Mississippi where I live. Only trees that get butchered here are power company victims. Residents let their trees grow for the most part.
As you have said before. Some in the Silicon Valley have more money than they know what to do with. Cost might be an issue for some but I think the main factor is the correct trees have been planted in the right places. Plus trees don’t grow near as fast as they do there.
When you talked about those disastrously pruned trees; I instantly thought about my dad’s garden...😭😣 He pruned everything excessively every year. I’ve shared this video with him; hopefully he’ll watch & gain some knowledge 🤞🏻 Thank you very much for sharing
I recall a UA-cam video about coppicing and pollarding. The video was about producing firewood (or poles for staves or wattle and daub, etc.) from those shoots. Coppicing is done close to the ground. Pollarding is done higher up to keep the shoots out of the reach of deer or cows while they are still tender. The shoots at a few inches diameter are easy to harvest safely and regenerate relatively quickly. Obviously, the limb weight doesn't become a problem, and the trees are grown for the purpose of being so harvested and replaced. Coppicing is also a way to grow a hedgerow. I've always had a negative reaction to seeing pollarded trees in the winter, though.
I recently bought and planted 10 Cypress trees and everyone starts telling me to prune prune prune and my gut instinct always says let them grow naturally and they will be stronger. Thanks for reinforcing my better judgement.
Fantastic video! Echoes the sentiment of so many of us tree guys in the UK. Absolutely no end of shoddy sub-standard work here, council funded and to high amenity trees and carried out by well respected companies! It’s shocking. Cheers for taking the time to make this. Aiken
When I started my business here in Western Montana 1993, the only other tree services we're advertising tree topping in the Yellow Pages and the newspaper. I knew then that the valley needed my service, and I have done quite well. Now I am old and mentoring three young men. I always tell people the reason we should prune is because the trees are not in the forest where they naturally develop a single strong central leader. I prune to mitigate the fact that the trees are not in the forest by managing the diameters of branches. It is important to keep branches from becoming too large. This is accomplished through pruning, rarely removing more than 20% of a trees live vegetation. Everything that I have learned over the last 45 years of tree pruning I have learned from the forest and forest trees. Nature is our best teacher. I urge people to go to the forest and observe. Thank you for your excellent video Glen, ignorance is rampant
Blair, a lot of your videos should have gone viral already, but apparently a lot of people would rather watch stuff that is stupid and silly and that adds nothing to their lives, rather than actually gain some knowledge about the Natural world around them and about trees that they most likely have in their own yards. Sad...real sad. I have well over 100 trees of at least 10 or more species here at my place of about 3 1/4 Acres and I have learned a lot from you. You deserve to have a much bigger following. But I'm sure glad that you keep doing what you do...a lot of us really appreciate it.
marbleman52 Good on you for tending that many trees. I have a personal goal to plant 100 trees either here on my property (1 acre) in So. Cal. or at our local community garden. I’m at about 60 currently and looking to put in several fruit trees this Spring.
This is such a great video! I’m an aspiring arborist and I’ve been learning so much from all your content. I really appreciate your knowledge and experience. Thank you so much!
As a 15 year landscaper and a 10 year certified arborist with many licenses and certifications I really appreciate what you are teaching/spreading..... knowledge.
Stan Rodgers Thanks Stan. I try hard to keep a balanced approach to my videos. I don’t want to come across as a super climber (because I am not), nor do I want to profess to be a know it all. I’m trying to put together a collection of videos that will help answer questions to both new climbers and interested tree lovers. I get some seasoned pros adding to these comments and I believe that just makes the community more complete. So, keep contributing and don’t be afraid to contradict what I say😊
I went to see a GP last year. Their car park had had a variety of beautiful trees. Sadly, someone butchered all of them, a few weeks before my visit. Every cut was close within an inch or two of the supporting branch. If you had not provided videos such as this one, I wouldn't have seen anything wrong with that. Thanks for the education, Blair.
My parents have a maple that was planted as a sapling and it lived it's first ten years or so having to compete with two large trees for light and then another 15 with no competition at all. So at 25 years or so it had formed a big ball of foliage. Some arborist talked themselves into a job saying that it wasn't shaped naturally, that it should have skyward reaching trunks. My response was that a tree growing in a forest competing for light would look like that but growing in the environment that it has it's natural form is exactly as it is.
Unfortunately I have seen many examples of bad pruning in my country (Spain). Trees are pruned radically, especially sycamore trees. Thanks for showing us how to treat trees properly, by your comments one can notice you love trees.
In this suburban area where I find myself unfortunately marooned for almost 20 years it is quite remarkable how the people here have a positive mania about disfiguring trees by cutting them back severely. Most of my neighbors, who often on their tiny lots are lucky to have one or two trees for shade, are constantly calling in the landscape people to work the tops down. The results are uniformly hideous and of course they weaken the trees so mishandled. At least from having been brought up on a farm and owning farmland later on I had some basic knowledge of how to handle trees which saved me both money and the lives of the trees themselves.
I'm seeing more and more of this butchery these days, not just the crepe myrtles. I can't fathom the reasons for doing so. Thanks for showing the problem for what it is.
My grandparents had a Sugar Maple in their small urban yard, very similar "hack-job" to the last tree you showed in this video. Well, we cut the tree down when it got really bad, but was still very much "alive". We proceeded to cut and split the entire thing into firewood. The huge massive chunks at the top were a mangled mess of new growth with extensive amounts of rot inside and throughout. There was a stark contrast between what appeared to be new vibrant growth, mere fractions of an inch away from massive pockets of absolute rot that you could break apart in your fingers.
Thanks for this. I’m in Virginia and trying to improve the ecosystem in my suburban lot. The trouble as you noted is peer pressure- folks want you to “clean” your yard and trees and ironically it’s destroying our neighborhood ecosystem. Love that you share your experience here. Can you make a video showing what pruning of a river birch may be okay (versus the bad examples you show here)?
I show more bad examples because that is what people need to see to understand the problems. A well trimmed tree doesn’t look look like much has been done. Looks clean. No deadwood. No crossover limbs. Maybe a bit of separation from the other trees or buildings. That’s it! They are supposed to look, well, just like a tree!
I maintain fruit trees both commercial and residential. We always prune, just today I pruned darn near 30% off over 20+ small fruit trees. The types of trees in this video are a totally different scope, with different rules. I am really glad this video has taught me that I WILL NOT PRUNE THESE TYPES OF TREES🌲🌳! You know that over confident guy talk, I could easily see myself at some point saying "ohh yeah, I pruned many fruit trees, of course I can top and shape your _____ tree." And totally murder one of these beauties. Thank you so much for saving me from that fate! I will show many people this video, I hope it goes viral. Although the tree trimming industry will feel that big hit.
Since you trim fruit trees...I have a question for you if you wouldn't mind. If you were to let the fruit tree grow with one main trunk wouldn't it top out (stop growing taller) at some point? Is the only reason that fruit trees are pruned is to make harvesting easier? Is it also to make the tree produce less but you can harvest it all? I am super curious.
@@MrsMika I'm not a tree pruner, but besides keeping the fruit trees to a convenient size, pruning the tree prevents the tree from becoming apically dominant. This forces more regenerative growth (fruit production) instead of vegetative growth. I know of one person however, Masanobu Fukuoka, who prefered not to prune and let the tree grow to its natural potential and got great results, but I assume it takes longer and the harvesting is less feasible for industrial agriculture (which is fine depending on your perspective on agriculture).
This kind of tree care is my personal pet peeve. If a tree needs to be topped, it needs to come down. Glad you are trying to spread the word about basic tree care. Too many fly-by-night crooks lying to customers about topping etc.. There're tree cutters that know only how to take down a tree and there are those that can prune. The later is a skill and art in of itself. Thank you for doing this video.
J F topping is wrong but sometimes it is needed. A past topped tree that is failing, might need continued harder pruning to keep it safe. Key is not to start the mistake.
Blair, I just came across this video. I had a house in San Jose, CA that I had planted a few oak trees that I grew from acorns that I got from my parents house in north east California. After twenty years of growth my now ex-wife had the trees cut back because she thought they were too tall. It made me sick.
This was fantastic, I could watch many more like this. Especially if you were able to get in close to some of the weak natural "joints" between "members" and explain structural considerations some more. Perhaps you have some more videos like that, I'm watching another video about 'Decisions' from a year ago and it has some of that, it's great! Subscribed!
I'm a woman and I totally agree with you, I'm pruning trees in France, since a while, not as a professionnal, but I love to take care of trees, I'm doing it like you and I'm devastated like you when I see butchered trees . Nobody is trimming them nicely, especially plane tree in town and all trees along drive way! If people doesn't want to have a big tree, why did they plant them... Especially in residential area where it's not safe for the houses????? They should take care and decided of the shape as soon as possible. Geat videos :)
You have a lot of passion with trees. Thank you in pointing out how trees can be butchered if not pruned correctly. I love trees and want do the right pruning. I live in Venice Florida and wish you lived close by to give me recommendations.
Thank you for your video. Some very good information. I recently had the experience at a local city park where a very nice healthy pepper tree was growing. We had some storms and a branch broke, but was still hanging in the tree. It wasn't a main branch. More of a smaller branch. It was there for a couple of weeks. I came back a few days after the two weeks and they removed the whole tree. That tree was 50 plus years old and gorgeous. I used to admire it as I drove up and parked nearby. There was no need to take it out only the broken branch needed to be removed. The stump that they left was perfectly healthy. I have pictures of it that have been sent to the city with a complaint filed.They also removed at least 2 other small trees. Meanwhile the dead deodar cedar and several dead crepe myrtles remain. They are big enough to be safety hazards. They have been dead for some time now. They need to be removed.
My mother had 2 oak trees on her property. About 18 years ago one of them split its main trunk in half top to bottom in a storm, but nothing broke of. It had to be removed. The 2 trees stood close and were growing into each other. She called a gardening and landscaping company in to do the job. They came in with a bucket truck and butchered the healthy tree also to get acces. The other option would have been to work from the neighbors property. He did not allow it because he was afraid of damage to his lawn(!). The irony is, that neighbor wanted the tree gone for a long time before because of fear. Several years before that he had cut on the tree much harsher than the permit allowed. I wonder if that caused the storm damage. Damaged tree was cut down and healthy tree was butchered also. They pruned the healthy oak from all sided to make it look about symetrical again. From what I know today thanks to you and other channels I would either hire a lawyer to force acces to the neighbors property or tell the company to send or hire a climber for the cuts they can not make with the bucket truck. Almost 2 decades to late. My mother is in her 50ies now and I wonder if she will outlive the butchered oak or reverse. Thank you.
Unfortunately even with the proper pruning knowledge most of us have these days, the art of topping will continue. Simply because the home owners are dead set on getting it done and we all want the work. So if you turn down the job trying to be the "better Arborist" you know someone else is going to take the job. So the practice continues
Coil's Tree Service are you part of the solution or part of the problem? Understanding the tree is key. Teaching correct tree care will only make you a better Arborist. Anybody can screw up a tree.
@@arboristBlairGlenn My son and I spend a whole lot of time trying to teach our potential customers why they should not and why we will not top their trees. Sometimes they get it but more often than not I feel like a fool after about 10 minutes of explaining proper techniques and collar cuts and I look in their eyes and I know that they don't care they just want what they want they want for as cheap as they can get it and we're not going to get the job but we just wasted a bunch of our time. My previous comment is out of frustration. We had one guy in town Last Summer who had 2 big red oak trees that had never been touched before. He was adamant about having those trees 30 feet shorter! We try to explain to him why that was horrible. And we further explained what we wanted to do which was thin raise & deadwood them. We refused to destroy those oaks. Well he didn't like it. But luckily our reputation is such that his neighbors talked him into listening to us and we finally got the job 2 months later. But more often than not we lose those customers. So I don't know, I'd like to think we were part of solution but if you drive around Dallas you're going to see a whole bunch of destroyed trees. That's all I'm saying my friend
Part of the reason for making these videos is to clearly show my clients what happens. When you open up a past topped tree, and clearly see all the decay, that becomes the proof that you understand. When you do a removal, open up the old wound with you chainsaw. Keep a small example in the truck and use that to show your “Un educated” clients.
Your a great carer and lover of trees a good lesson and video and refreshing to see a tree surgeon who takes care and pride in his work unlike some who hack and chainsaw away with little regard with only money as a forethought .
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Amazes me why big trees, or any tree that grows big (which most do) are planted in small yards. I do love trees, in the park, along the river, field tree-rows but not in my yard. Twice smashed my shed roof, damaged house roof, critters climbing onto roofs, leaves clogging gutters, roots growing everywhere you don't want them including into basement walls, seedlings all over sprouting up where you don't want them. Just a few issues I have with trees in my yard. I love my river bike paths for close up tree love. And I recycle all into my wood stove.
I'm so glad you mentioned those "butchered" crape myrtles. That is one of my pet peeves. If a homeowner only thinks before planting a tree, he can find one that will grow to fit the desired spot.
I'm sad, as it sometimes happens with new knowledge, but I know more about how to care for trees, and so I thank you so much. Thank you for caring about trees as much as you do. We all need to
@ben nichols it's a special case, because trees are living things, and we should treat living things with care. people who don't love the things they work with should never be surgeons for those things.
@ben nichols so ur saying u would throw ur ethics out of the window for paper money LOL. He still have costumers so y do he have to do something thats not him?
People only prune trees when the tree negatively impacts it's surroundings: blocking of light, threat to foundations, etc. I'm afraid the welfare of trees is secondary.
So sad. I bought a home having two huge mulberry trees with a history of being topped so they will produce long, straight branches like a giant shade umbrella. Every year people in town with mulberries and other trees do this. I hate it. I tried to help my trees to re-grow normal branches like my neighbor's mulberries, which have never been pruned. I hasn't worked. Mine just grew more long, straight branches, but His looked like real trees. After 18 years, I have had to give up. My mulberries are both rotting away, and I will remove them soon. My neighbor died. The new owner chopped up those nice, pristine mulberries to try to turn them too into bizarre shade umbrellas. It didn't work. His trees have only produced little tufts around the butchered branches and shoots from the roots. Your vid makes so much sense. I will replace my huge, rotting mulberries with other trees with less aggressive roots, etc., but I will educate myself, including all of your videos, to make sure the new trees stay healthy. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
raymae60 thanks for your interesting story. I rarely see mulberry trees that have not been butchered. I do know of one huge mulberry that has never been chopped and it has maxed out in size. The people still complain that they don’t get enough sun! Can’t win.
I believe the problem is twofold - people keep planting the wrong tree in the wrong place (my yard is a perfect example from previous owners) and unfortunately even proper pruning is done at the wrong time of year which eventually kills the tree also.
I am currently dealing a situation of raw wood chips being dumped by the ton in the forest by surrounding neighbors which over ten years has killed off 1/3 of the forest & consequently some of my trees. I want to rejuvenate my part of it but am worried about vertimillium wilt which I read travels underground (fungus) & can kill surrounding trees. Is it feasible for me to bring back my part of the woods with new trees, shrubs & perennials or is it a lost cause as long as they continue dumping? Flooding has resulted from this too & it's sickening what it's done to our native trees
@@sherriianiro747 Reforestation is entirely possible, but you'd have to consult someone local to get specifics. At the very least, raking the wood chips into piles for composting and sowing some seeds of native pioneers (like birch and mulberry, in my area of southeast Michigan) in the exposed soil could get the ball rolling. If there's flooding, you may need to have a retention pond dug.
Pollards are way to make use of willow (mostly) to have basket weaving material and bean stakes etc. It needs to be harvested/pruned every few years otherwise the tree rips apart. Have seen them 3-4 metres high, a crown 10 metres across and with a hollow big enough for a kitchen table. 10-13 ft and 34 ft in imperial.
Great video - good stuff to know. I live in Michigan, and I don't recall seeing any topped trees, but now, I know what to look for. . The tree trimmers around here seem to stick with cleaning up the lower branches and not touching the crowns.
arboristBlairGlenn thank you for your videos. I have checked several of you videos over the past couple of years. What I am writing about is wanting to talk about how we can help fix it. In my town even the city ISA arborist does bad cuts and lion tails. I can give you examples that will make you want to cry.
Bradley Beckner A well known, and very profitable tree care firm has a recipe for success. It started with the statement that "every tree needs service". This company, which will remain nameless, worked their sales staff hard, pushing the attitude that they must make sales at every level. The strategy was this; first push the trim job for all it’s worth. Then push the fertilizer because "all trees need to be fed". With all that fertilizer, the trees push out more growth than ever and in many cases, the aphid population flourished as well as all the other leaf eating insects. Most leaf eating insects are attracted to the masses of succulent new growth. Now that the insects are here, sell a spray job. This of course becomes a maintenance contract. The next year the same trees will need to be trimmed again and fertilized and sprayed, .etc. That is the secret to making money in the tree business. Ok, what’s wrong with this story? It is not in the best interest of the trees and certainly not in the best interest of your pocketbook. Here is the truth. Most trees decline due to people pressure and the efforts by people to "make things better". Decay is one factor that leads to the premature decline and death in trees. Most decay is caused by the wounds in trees. Most wounds are caused by people with chainsaws and people using heavy equipment. Trees in the forest do fine without any help. Here is another truth. Most tree workers do not do a proper job pruning trees. Most tree trimmers do most of the work with a chainsaw because it gets the job done fast. Most trimmers think it is better to make a few big cuts and move on. Most trimmers are too lazy to work with hand saws and hand pruners because it is not fast. Here is an important truth that you need to understand. It takes longer to do the job right but if the tree is pruned correctly, you will not need to do it as often. The tree’s health will improve with a proper pruning but a (quick chainsaw job) will cause long term decline. Even if the tree looks like it sprouted out fine, the poor cuts lead to internal decay that will cause early decline. Often the decay leads to limb or whole tree failure.
Now 39 thumb down but, i added a thumbs up to counter react the thumb downs. My believe if you do not like the big tree cut it down and start new. Pruning a tree is all right if done to help the tree but, over pruning a tree just makes them look ugly. This is my back ground exlogger. I have seen many healthy trees and sick trees in the woods believe it or not man has been part of sick trees even in the woods. Stupidity is not only in the cities.
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Many youtube posters see a bunch of immediate thumbs down. Whether it's bots, or haters, or just foolish folks I suggest that you ignore any & all negative issues. You, Mr. Glenn, have no negative issues, only excessive tree love. Like kids, I love trees when they belong to someone else. Beautiful, but too much trouble
Thanks for the informative video. I had a limb on a silver maple that was touching the house when we bought the house. It was a decent size limb and I hated to take it down but it was right over the house power line and touching the house. I cut it off per what I knew of industry standard, cutting at the collar, but it has not healed well in a year and a half. Hearing you mention sun scald got me thinking about sun damage as it faces due west with clear exposure. Is there anything that can be done to prevent this from decaying further?
In bonsai, we apply lime sulphur to the exposed deadwood to keep it from decaying. It needs reapplication. There are also tricks in bonsai to get the bark to grow back over the wound, but if you're dealing with decay it's a bit too late for that - you'd just be sealing the problem within, not dealing with it.
I was concerned about the health of my trees. I had a man come out and told me he could make them look better but that there was nothing to worry about. I appreciated that. I never had him do any work any now I can’t find him. My loss. I have a maple, a flowering dogwood and an awesome peeling birch which is starting to grow over my driveway. Not sure what to do. Thanks for the info
another great use/audience for these videos is #woodworkers and #artists, everyone reputable says learning about trees helps work with lumber, and also it helps with sketching and painting too! thanks again
Awesome video! I really learned a lot! Trees would be a lot less dangerous and natural and beautiful, if people just left them alone and only prune them the proper way, when it’s nessisary. People should really learn how to prune and care for a tree properly.
Thank you for such a wonderful lesson in caring for these beautiful structures, something every young homeowner should be taught before butchering living plants in that appalling lust men have for "making their own mark" on a new home quickly. I have the misfortune to have downsized to a property right next to my previous large house and garden only to have to witness the deranged destruction of the landscape I created over 20 years, including the planting and nurture of dozens of trees.
Awesome awareness raising video. Before each cut ask yourself "why am I making this cut". Unfortunately many homeowners think when hiring a tree service that more pruning is better because they make the assumption that they would get ripped off when you only cut out the necessary branches which could be very little.
At 57 years old and as a vehicle technician of 40 Years. Blair Glen always makes me wish I had been an arborist . The only thing is if I had been a crap one watching these videos would make me hang my head in shame. While on road test I find my back brain listening and feeling the car , my front brain watching the road and my wherewithal looking at what idiots have done to the trees 🌲. Always a pleasure watching and listening to these videos.
To me it is very obvious that people plant trees without thinking about how big they might get one day. Then, years later when they are completely shading the garden, threatening to destroy the roof, or possibly come down on the house in a storm, they decide to cut the tree down to half its size, rather than fell the tree once and for all. I see this kind of mistake very often, and when i bought and moved into my current house about three years ago there was 60 year old oak tree roughly 4-5 yards away from the house. Some of the branches were already causing damage to the roof tiles, and this tree was obviously still only a 'youngster' that would eventually grow much bigger, and potentially cause dramatic damage to the house. I felled the tree last year, which was probably just in time before the root network could start causing any potential damage to the foundation of the house (the rotting away of huge root networks under foundations can cause the land, and the foundation to sink). I was not proud of my decision but I actually blame it on whoever was foolish enough to plant an oak tree only 4-5 yards from the house in the first place. In place of the oak tree I have now planted an ornamental crab apple tree, a couple of extra yards away from the house. This is a suitable tree for such a location and it can live to its maximum size without causing any issues whatsoever. My bottom line with all this is that while some tree owners do stupid things with their trees, possibly because they simply do not know any better, the actual mistake is typically made when the wrong type of tree is bought and planted in a location that is just not not suitable.
I'm with you. Seeing topped trees drives me crazy. I live in Ellis County Texas and is the home to thousands of beautiful Crape Myrtles. But then there are those that hack them off year after year- stop Crape Murder!!!!
Even before day 1 when the trees are brought to site and planted, you must be sure the tree will be a proper fit for the location that is being proposed. On small lots you cannot have huge trees; select ornamentals then that when mature compliment the house and surrounding area. Off topic from that, we planted a Korean Pear 28 years ago in Michigan. One harsh winter, the ice storm just annihilated it and it shattered. In the early spring, it was going to be taken down by me. I dismantled it limb by limb, and the only part that remained was the main trunk, and two secondary but short limbs. It looked like a desert cactus with three limbs only. I got busy and never found the time to cut the base to rid of it. In three years it sprouted from those three limbs about 7 feet straight up, and in an oval pattern...oval! Now it might not last another 20 years, but this anomaly of a tree when leafed out looks like a perfect specimen, and we love it more than the crazy Korean pear it was in the past. It looks just like a perfect oval lollipop. Crazy as it seems, now its right sized for the front lawn. I agree it's contrary to what a Korean pear should be, and against what Blair is trying to convey in this video, but my heart will shatter when we loose this quasi specimen because it's everything this newfound specimen should be; smaller, fuller, right sized, and appreciated. In this case, we just got lucky.
Luck has nothing to do with it. The right tree in the right spot and a tree will thrive. Part of a trees survival is coming back from the type of damage you described. The Eastern White Pine is an excellent example of this. Ice or wind storms cause them to shed branches but the tree remains. This is opposed to Silver Maple which may uproot in similar conditions.
I used to live in a tree lined avenue on the outskirts of London, and the council would regularly cut all the tops of our trees. I was brought up to think that a tree was a trunk with a bush on the top. I only got to see real trees when we moved to Wales.
My father is an arborist with a lot of passion for nature and a lot of experience. He is always keeping his customers right and refusing to compromise trees. Many "arborists" will because either they don't know or they just want the money. It may be the case you make more money this way, I don't really know. But I can attest to the fact that respect and reputation are a huge factor in succeeding in not only being an arborist but.. being a human.
I really don't like to see trees be chopped up to nothing but a tall stump with a few sticks that have no leafs left. The trees should be left alone, and only pruned properly when they need it to prevent failures. Fortunately the majority of the trees at my dad's house have been left alone, so they never drop branches, except for maybe a few very small branches.
Viral or not I've learned a lot watching your videos. Here in rural-ish of southern NH we don't tend to have the level of tree abuse you document, except for utility rights of way, but that is a little more excusable. I harvest cord wood on our property and have become much more careful about damaging trees and cutting limbs as a result of your videos. Our property was logged in the 1950's so we have lots of multiple trees growing out of a single stump. Great for fire wood but easy to damage the parts I want to save. Your love of trees is infectious. You are probably aware of this book "The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate" by Peter Wohlleben but between your videos and this book I have an entirely different perspective about the forest. The forest is more alive and complex that I had imagined.
Look, sometimes it just has to be done, certain situations dictate so. We'll find 75' oaks between two row homes for example, the home owner simply doesn't like the look of that big stick waving around on a windy day, inevitably they become uncomfortable, the top then comes off to a height we agree on. We'll remove enough to mitigate that back and forth that bothers the hell out of them. There's much more drama when we see trees uprooted and fall on top of cars, houses, sheds, garages and what not, this is what people remember...vividly! So, we do our best through proper cuts, wound care and simply hope for the best. Yes there have been some hack-an-slash jobs we simply had to walk away from, but on most jobs we try to explain to them as best we can that to harsh of a cut back will really shorten the life of that big tree. The vast majority of the time they prefer to go with our recommendation, however in almost all cases, those trees are getting cut back, one way or another...its their choice.
To ry that’s EXACTLY my experience. You just can’t tell them, they’re freaked out by some big limb or whatever and you end up doing things you don’t really want to do to the tree but it’s a job, you gotta pay the bills. I always try and get what I suggest but I also need to work.
I remember when I was a kid, The Weekend Gardener on WHAS 11 in Louisville used to say if you're going to prune a tree like that (topping), then you should prune it level with the ground. I have always agreed.
While I feel tipping is not right for the tree, so much of our work is dealing with past topping and try to keep the tree safe. Canopy is important and people still want their trees. I keep an open mind and deal with each situation as it comes up.
I live in London England where london plane trees are used as street trees. These are generally pollarded annually to prevent contact with traffic. But in central London parks and squares we have trees, several hundred years old, which have never been pruned. As a bonsai growing amateur I understand the benefits and dangers of pruning. I have seen many trees killed by poor pruning ,both bonsai and fullsize trees. With so many infections in trees sterilizing of tools is often overlooked by amateur and professionals.
Mikey Thrussell A well known, and very profitable tree care firm has a recipe for success. It started with the statement that "every tree needs service". This company, which will remain nameless, worked their sales staff hard, pushing the attitude that they must make sales at every level. The strategy was this; first push the trim job for all it’s worth. Then push the fertilizer because "all trees need to be fed". With all that fertilizer, the trees push out more growth than ever and in many cases, the aphid population flourished as well as all the other leaf eating insects. Most leaf eating insects are attracted to the masses of succulent new growth. Now that the insects are here, sell a spray job. This of course becomes a maintenance contract. The next year the same trees will need to be trimmed again and fertilized and sprayed, .etc. That is the secret to making money in the tree business. Ok, what’s wrong with this story? It is not in the best interest of the trees and certainly not in the best interest of your pocketbook. Here is the truth. Most trees decline due to people pressure and the efforts by people to "make things better". Decay is one factor that leads to the premature decline and death in trees. Most decay is caused by the wounds in trees. Most wounds are caused by people with chainsaws and people using heavy equipment. Trees in the forest do fine without any help. Here is another truth. Most tree workers do not do a proper job pruning trees. Most tree trimmers do most of the work with a chainsaw because it gets the job done fast. Most trimmers think it is better to make a few big cuts and move on. Most trimmers are too lazy to work with hand saws and hand pruners because it is not fast. Here is an important truth that you need to understand. It takes longer to do the job right but if the tree is pruned correctly, you will not need to do it as often. The tree’s health will improve with a proper pruning but a (quick chainsaw job) will cause long term decline. Even if the tree looks like it sprouted out fine, the poor cuts lead to internal decay that will cause early decline. Often the decay leads to limb or whole tree failure.
In a wind storm a friend lost a huge branch, took out her cable. I cut up the downed limb, about 24 inches across and hollow. I believe the stub that was left is also hollow, but it is about 15 feet up and I didn't go up to look. If the rot has not gone into the stem, how should that stub be pruned? A chain saw to get it close to the branch collar, but then what? A really long hand saw? I plan to go back and lower the stub before spring. Portawrap because the tree is between two buildings on the property and there is concrete that would be damaged even if the stub doesn't bounce into a wall. I am not a trained arborist, so I normally don't do pruning, but that stub is going to be a problem if it is just left there. On the other hand, once I get up there, if the stem is also rotting, I'm going to advise her to remove the tree as soon as possible. Thank you!
Dwayne Madsen from what you told me, here is how I might do it. Not seeing the situation, this is a guess. A ladder leaned up to the trunk and tied to the tree. A number of small chainsaw cuts controlling them Down, dropping onto a pile of brush to keep them from bouncing. Be CAREFUL!! Not a a job for someone with limited chainsaw skill. I recommend calling a pro.
Very insightful video! Glad I found you. I have a leaning young river birch. Unlike most birch that has a forking base trunk (the classic birch shape), mine has a single trunk growing up in a bowed/arched shape. How can I make it straight?
I just planted trees on my property, one thing I noticed and couldn't get away from is all of the nurseries had topped all the trees for transport. I spent hours trying to find ones that were not so damaged.
I have seen many instances of the neighbours putting pressure on the tree owner to cut back a tree. Particularly in the UK where houses are crammed in like Sardines in a tin. Often the neighbours will chip in to remove or top a tree because it blocks their light or drops leaves on their plastic artificial lawn which they have to clear up. The home owner feels obliged then to get the work done. I agree the large prune is bad for the tree, but is it the lesser of two evils if the alternative is to cut it down? Great channel Blair and info. Thank you.
I agree when there is no alternative, hard sitting is better than removal but the big however is understanding what the tree’s future will become. Many people really care about the longevity and health of the tree over human needs.
The only issue that I have when someone pollards a tree is with your example. People have lost touch with the reasoning of the tree pollard. I believe homesteaders did not do this for aesthetics. It was done for purpose. The trees were not cut to 12-15' in height. They were cut at 5-6' or shorter in height when they were young trees. Remember Little Miss Muffet? She sat on a tuffet? That was the stump left from a tree being coppice cut or pollard cut.
Pollarding or hard cutting is a practice that dates back to days in Europe where the sprouts from hard cut trees came back as useful pieces for fencing and building.
BIG KID This is a career that we are proud of. We get angry when we see so much improper work being done and people being cheated. It usually boils down to the cheapest bid gets the job, but if the cheapest bid, costs you your trees, how much did you save?
I think alot of professional arborists are tired sometimes of ignored advices, then give in to the customers narrative just to get the job, didn't used to be this way even a decade or 2 a go, the influx in tree surgeons has been enormous in my area at least in the past years in comparison to when I began. So many times I've talked myself out of a job due to giving the right but unwanted advice. Any advice on how to solve this.?
Leon Visser the history of pollarding is interesting. Going way back in time, harsh cutting of trees was done to create long straight shoots for fencing and building. Over time, people thought it was the right way to prune. Certain species are more tolerant of harsh cutting while others decay rapidly. All pollards start with butchering a tree. Continued pollarding is best with lots of small cuts rather than large chainsaw wounds. You learn a lot when you cut open an old pollard stub.
Another thing I've noticed myself is that people will plant trees that will get really big right under power lines, and then you see trees that have 70 percent of their tops pruned off because they are under the power lines...
Good lecture/light rant. Like in forestry, you need to look and think a lot before you grab a tool. Knowledge of your tree or bush is important. When not to make a pollard of a pine or a box hedge of a row of birch. 👍
This is a great video! Good job. Along the road near where I live in New England, there's a row of red maples that were planted way too close to the power lines, and now the branches are all in the wires. There are many flush cuts on the lower trunks of the trees, and old, decaying wounds. It's too bad... In my opinion, people shouldn't plant large-to-be trees near the wires, because those trees will be condemned to endless pruning!
Great video!. Your showing some obviously bad pruning. But what to do when a tree gets too large for the available space, when it is getting too tall and is too close to a house?
Thanks for the video. I have always been trained not to use wound dressing/Paint when pruning trees. I have been told that it does more harm than good. Apparently there is research that demonstrates this to be true. Therefore I have come to believe it to be true. Now that "Oak Wilt" is or has become a major threat to Red Oaks and to a lesser degree White Oaks, some jurisdictions(Texas) and organizations(I.S.A.) are recommending that wound dressing/paint be used when dealing with Oaks as a method of dealing with this disease. What are your thoughts on this.Two years ago, I travelled to London England and Paris France. The streets are just full of Pollarded London Plane trees. My first thoughts were "My God they have topped every single tree in this place". I got use to it though. I guess they have the art of Pollarding down to a science.Alan McDonald
Alan McDonald I have studied Dr Alex Shigo’s work and he has concluded that wound dressing is of no value. Ask your town to quote the studies that confirm the recommendation. Share if it is of value please.
Blair, as I came across this video. I just thought about my next-door neighbor's Norfolk Island Pine which has been planted within close proximity to her garage and has been topped countless times since 2008. And honestly, it just looks mind-bendingly stupid, it shouldn't be there. Ever since it has always thrown out multiple central leaders after each time it was topped. And it's unbelievable that the tree is still alive. I mean if you saw the current state of her tree, you would absolutely erupt, knowing it's a serious problem. People really should how to maintain and care for a tree properly.
WHY does hard pruning create "decay pockets?" I don't hard prune. I only cut dead, diseased or crossing branches. I'm just curious on how to explain it to people so they will believe me.
Cheers for the information man, great video! i have a question, those birch trees that had branches been cut as close to the bark as possible, is that also a problem when the trees are younger than the ones in this video, or i shoud say the branches are much smaller than what we saw in the video?
I have been gladly following your channel for few years now, please accept my extra Thank You for this presentation! 14:33 explains it all. Why can't a tree just b a tree?
Astrodiver 1 This is a career that we are proud of. We get angry when we see so much improper work being done and people being cheated. It usually boils down to the cheapest bid gets the job, but if the cheapest bid, costs you your trees, how much did you save?
john schlesinger This is a career that we are proud of. We get angry when we see so much improper work being done and people being cheated. It usually boils down to the cheapest bid gets the job, but if the cheapest bid, costs you your trees, how much did you save?
Now you've got me second guessing myself. I've got these old oak trees with multiple trunks that look likely to threaten a home someday, and I've taken to slowly cutting off the problem branches over the course of years. I've been particularly aggressive in getting out the extremely long horizontal branches in a balanced fashion. I've been doing it slow to keep the trees balanced, but I've still got a good deal more to do to clear one particular tree away from a neighbor's house. As in take off one or two of the eight major trunks of the tree. Any advice?
The spcies of Oak makes a difference on how it responds to pruning. As was said in the video cutting a tree opens a path for decay. Some species manage decay well, others don't. Any major wound on the trunk opens the door to major problems in the future. Rather than removing a stem it would be better to remove the tree, or prune for weight reduction and install a support cable. If you decide on a caple I would not recommend a Cobra system in this case.
Do you have any recommendations on how to find someone who knows what they're doing? I have a tree that has seen better days, and something needs to be done, but I don't want to hire someone that is just going to guarantee its destruction. Is there any learning materials for this kinda stuff? I wouldn't mind investing in being able to take better care of our trees (or make sure they're being properly taken care of).
I agree with 1caramarie. I just wasted 19+ minutes watching a video tell me that pruning trees this way is wrong when anyone with half a brain already knows that! I wanted to know the PROPER way to prune trees. Guess I'll have to go hunt up someone else's site to get that info.
Frank Deluca, first I didn't type in anything. This just came up on my feed. Second, the title of the video is "Why Prune". Now that title implies that the reasoning for pruning will be imparted and to a smaller extent, the correct methods of pruning. Therefore the title of this video is incorrect and should've been "How Improper Pruning Damages Trees". As to your opinions of my character & lifestyle, you sir, don't know me or anything about my life. Your comments are worthless, uncalled for and unfortunately, a reflection of your own inadequacy. I didn't enjoy wasting 19 minutes of my busy life watching an improperly titled video, since I have an orchard to plant & prune and won't compound it by wasting any more time on someone so judgemental and rude.
@Frank deluca Something is wrong with your "ignorance" of the difference between the terms: "how to prune" and "why prune". I think you are just a idiot, trying to use any opportunity to insult a woman. Did mommy, beat you up as a child?
@@arboristBlairGlenn So you want to get technical? This should have been named, "Why you should NOT TOP a tree". Taking into account that what you showed were trees that were topped (as if they were given a crew cut). In what planet is that pruning, as you should know. Or you could have named it "Mistakes you should be aware of before pruning a tree." Plus, asides from showing trees that were topped and ended up with a flat top, and 'virtual' hairs sticking up, you could have shown someone doing it the wrong way or make an illustration of how it should be done. I prune my fruit trees so they stay small, but since I know how to do it, they look like trees. But, since I am not all knowing, it is always nice to see other people's "Why." I have a dozen 100 year old trees, and the idiot that almost allowed a sick aspen tree to fall on my pear tree, due to his stupidity (missed by no more than 2 inches, because he didn't bother to do it in two pieces, as I asked him), actually tried to convince me that I should hire him to TOP my trees. They would have ended up like the trees in your video. My squirrels would have not forgiven me. What you showed is valuable information, if people had been aware of what you were actually going to show them. As to my healthy trees, I let them drop what ever they want, since I trust them more than I trust "arborists". My previous experience cost $1,500, for another 100 year old tree with branches were over my house, that I was re-roofing. The expert, with great recommendations and reviews, ended up damaging two of my dwarf fruit trees, because the guy's co-owner (his father) got into a fight with his brother (the uncle) while on my roof and ended up tossing massive branches from the top of the house to where my dwarf trees were. Hint: had I know that, I would have hired some nice senior citizen with a tree farm, experienced in cutting his own trees, to be sure of a great job.
The 'why' anyone tops trees is always because it is an option (I'm not a fan but,I have done it for various reasons). The general public will always want to tame nature. How can they achieve this? Top the tree and bring it under 'control'. Hence, tree management. The reality is that trees have been planted in the wrong places, outgrown their spot, homeowners are not around (in my area, we are experiencing a winter wind storm and a lot of people that can afford large properties have headed south for the winter. They want the trees to be a 'non issue' while they're gone), urban encroachment, personal attachment to a tree etc.Tree owners have legitimate concerns when it comes to trees. The hardest part is to take an unbiased look at any tree and make educated decisions for its longevity. In short, we have to learn how to coexist with trees today and in the future. We need to use good foresight to plant future trees for posterity.
Pruning is a balancing act. Sometimes it's a compromise. One must look at the reason behind it and determine the best coarse of action. PS some of those trees might have been attacked by the dreaded chainsaw footed bird! Remember sometimes less is more. Good info Blair!
Large trees near buildings must suffer for the safety of the structure. Trees allowed to grow naturally with little to no pruning will inevitably drop large limbs especially in high winds. Limbs that can cause significant damage to property. Storms cause large sections of trees to break off, especially on trees that have not been pruned properly. Damage also comes when trees grow and just start bouncing against your house. They can knock off shingles and rub a hole in your roof just like that. With the assist of a slight breeze, boom there goes your window and oops was that your phone line? Not to mention leaves, which can be considered a form of mulch. Mulch, of course, traps in moisture and nobody wants a moist roof. Those birch we're pruned poorly and of course they're going to die, eventually. Everything dies. But id be willing to bet they'll still out live every single one of us. The pear was unfortunate but the truth is, there are more trees than just the "properly trained" can deal with. Far more. In a perfect world, where everything we need and have and want is indestructable, i would totally agree with what you're saying but in this reality, what can you do?
You should see the current trend in The Villages in Florida. They are trimming oaks (mostly live oaks) into oversized topiaries. Round or boxed with a flat top and bottom and a height less than 10' tall. Most of these trees have trunks around 10-18". It's gross.
so right' have done tree work for a lota years, but its hard to convinch older people that takin the top down makes it worse, few times have thined and pruned well client comes out, and can see so much more light, branches of the roof, there happy, but some dont its never enough and shit. what do ya do? can be ya boss says do it hate it but i needa live'
Julian Alderson I know I can’t change the minds of those people who are too stubborn to listen. If you know it’s wrong, but you do it anyway, well, there ya go. No offense intended but I do hope you see how to become a better professional in your chosen trade.
I intuitively have always hated seeing trees pollarded. It made me cry when our municipality would send out crews with their chainsaws and I would see the single tree in front of our building butchered every couple of years. (No power lines or anything to explain it.. A lot of neighbours complained about the fallen leaves though.) People where I live say it's good for the trees. But I would often see trees die in my neighbourhood or in nearby parks after this pollarding. Thanks for making things clear for me.
Hello I have a very tall white birch planted 30th an ago. I brought it from up north in Muskoka. It’s a fantastic tree but my neighbour want it pruned as he feels the branches will break and damage his property. During an ice storm this was the only tree that survived as it b my over with the weight whilst other trees just snapped. I’d love ke to send you a picture as I need advice on where to trim this beautiful tree.May I pls have your email sir.
This is a career that we are proud of. We get angry when we see so much improper work being done and people being cheated. It usually boils down to the cheapest bid gets the job, but if the cheapest bid, costs you your trees, how much did you save?
arboristBlairGlenn vary much agree sir.
Hey Blair, I’ve watch a bunch of your videos the past few weeks and you’ve single handedly opened my eyes to understanding trees. You have an excellent vocal rhythm when talking, and your explanations are always rooted in some logic when you explain. As a teacher myself, I’m impressed with your teaching skills. I hope you’re doing some side work teaching at some arbourist school in California! Keep up the great work.
Sometimes the customer asks for something you have to do it because they are paying you to work, not to tell them what not to do to the tree. That said, I’d agree that most of this work is total shit. Trouble is a lot of my customers do not care about what I tell them, they listen then ignore and tell me what to do. Sad
ali ray the world is full of ignorant people who don’t care to hear the truth.
Hi Glenn, I'm a newly qualified tree surgeon. A long way to go knowledge wise, er, and rope work and rigging but I'm trying to do it right by the trees not the clients. What's you're opinion of these? My first 2 tree maintenance jobs www.dropbox.com/sh/kldcl8o4fk7ba3j/AABf6EkI5J8hnyYwO8lpS_Fda?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/sh/go3zqvtjrvrius3/AAAftsckqoh5MXQsp3O0-UmVa?dl=0
We are still in a severe drought in my part of Australia, and all the trees that shouldn't have been planted around here are all dying or dead. My son's school is about 150 years old and there "was" a row of very old crepe myrtles out the front that could well have been over a century old. Well the maintenance man thought he would cut those trees right back to about a 3rd of their height last winter, and come spring they looked very healthy. By mid summer after relentless heatwaves they were all dead because there's been no rain to support all that new fresh growth and they hadn't kept up with the watering. Those trees untouched had been through many severe droughts. They didn't look great because they grew to the conditions which meant a much sparser canopy, but at least they weren't dead and didn't require much help. Idiots let loose on trees with cutting implements really annoy the hell out of me.
Jedda73 good story, thanks
Ah sad. My Grandad and Great Grandad were horticulturalists in Canberra and Sidney, and they took great pride in scientific reasoning and life-long research. True they were part of European colonizers that brought non-native species and planted them in very different environments. But, as you say, once those trees were established they became somewhat acclimatized and survived hardships as long as the original maintenance routines were respected. Sadly we live in a time of technological revolution where the past and history isn't as respected as it has been at other times. The original maintenance records for those trees (historical assets) were probably lost through staff turn over during the past 40 years too.
Jedda73
The “idiot” is the right term
. Really bother me how some people let loose with pruner
It's a simple fact that once a tree is on a homeowner's radar because of dead falling branches or just a fear of its sheer size, location and potential for damage, it's the beginning of the end for that tree. Pruning to keep the tree, albeit shorter or reduced in canopy as you say will increase the maintenance right up until they drop the hammer and say 'yeah ok, take it out' but at least it's had a bit more life before it's been taken down. As long as the homeowner has had that process explained to them you can only go one of two ways. Is it better to recommend it come out from initial inspection or go through this end of life tree care period? Plenty of tree guys have conflicting views on it but ultimately it's the owners decision, preferably an informed decision, whether to keep or remove this tree and hopefully replant with a new smaller species so that they can have the enjoyment of growing a tree in their property and it's a case of you've really got to think how close should you be planting this potential monster to your house?
I've been examining & dealing with previously topped trees for years. When you top a branch, the tree's defense is to throw 10 water sprout to that location. The limb can not support all the sprout, so it selectively kills a few. If these are not removed immediately, they leave a cavity & it starts to retain water & introduces rot!
Great video
The last chapter of the book for topping trees is ....removal.😭
Your You Tube name made me laugh! Great choice.
I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. I, and I'm sure many others appreciate it very much!!!
MrTwk63 I’m on a mission!
I was going to write the same thing.
What can be done to fix such abortions?
Dude you’re awesome!
I’ve found lots of great info on climbing and cutting etc on UA-cam… But it until I found your channel I kept having unanswered questions about all this type of stuff, and it’s amazing to just be able to click a video and have you explain causes and effects and decision-making and stuff like that.
This is the stuff I want to know before I even do anything or touch a tree, or even think I know what I’m about to do to it.
Thank you so much!!
Thanks Tony. A LOT of videos on my channel
Another great informational video.
This is why its important for tree service owners to become actual certified arborist with the ISA.
About 90% of the trees we get called to prune have been topped, once youre up there you can see, HOW bad the decay is.
I have watched your videos for years. I was the ignorant person before finding your channel. Now I notice trees and think about their health everywhere I go. Thank you for the knowledge. Your dissecting of tree failures is my favorite part of your videos. I will say the pruning situation seems much worse in your area than it is in Mississippi where I live. Only trees that get butchered here are power company victims. Residents let their trees grow for the most part.
John Rice is the area where you live less affluent where cost is an issue?
As you have said before. Some in the Silicon Valley have more money than they know what to do with. Cost might be an issue for some but I think the main factor is the correct trees have been planted in the right places. Plus trees don’t grow near as fast as they do there.
When you talked about those disastrously pruned trees; I instantly thought about my dad’s garden...😭😣 He pruned everything excessively every year. I’ve shared this video with him; hopefully he’ll watch & gain some knowledge 🤞🏻
Thank you very much for sharing
My pleasure. Hope you find the time to check out some of my other videos as well. Be safe
I recall a UA-cam video about coppicing and pollarding. The video was about producing firewood (or poles for staves or wattle and daub, etc.) from those shoots. Coppicing is done close to the ground. Pollarding is done higher up to keep the shoots out of the reach of deer or cows while they are still tender. The shoots at a few inches diameter are easy to harvest safely and regenerate relatively quickly. Obviously, the limb weight doesn't become a problem, and the trees are grown for the purpose of being so harvested and replaced. Coppicing is also a way to grow a hedgerow.
I've always had a negative reaction to seeing pollarded trees in the winter, though.
I recently bought and planted 10 Cypress trees and everyone starts telling me to prune prune prune and my gut instinct always says let them grow naturally and they will be stronger. Thanks for reinforcing my better judgement.
Fantastic video! Echoes the sentiment of so many of us tree guys in the UK. Absolutely no end of shoddy sub-standard work here, council funded and to high amenity trees and carried out by well respected companies! It’s shocking. Cheers for taking the time to make this. Aiken
Aiken Collinge I thought standards were higher in the UK
When I started my business here in Western Montana 1993, the only other tree services we're advertising tree topping in the Yellow Pages and the newspaper. I knew then that the valley needed my service, and I have done quite well. Now I am old and mentoring three young men. I always tell people the reason we should prune is because the trees are not in the forest where they naturally develop a single strong central leader. I prune to mitigate the fact that the trees are not in the forest by managing the diameters of branches. It is important to keep branches from becoming too large. This is accomplished through pruning, rarely removing more than 20% of a trees live vegetation. Everything that I have learned over the last 45 years of tree pruning I have learned from the forest and forest trees. Nature is our best teacher. I urge people to go to the forest and observe. Thank you for your excellent video Glen, ignorance is rampant
Blair, a lot of your videos should have gone viral already, but apparently a lot of people would rather watch stuff that is stupid and silly and that adds nothing to their lives, rather than actually gain some knowledge about the Natural world around them and about trees that they most likely have in their own yards. Sad...real sad. I have well over 100 trees of at least 10 or more species here at my place of about 3 1/4 Acres and I have learned a lot from you. You deserve to have a much bigger following. But I'm sure glad that you keep doing what you do...a lot of us really appreciate it.
marbleman52 thank you. I always appreciate your comments.
marbleman52 Good on you for tending that many trees. I have a personal goal to plant 100 trees either here on my property (1 acre) in So. Cal. or at our local community garden. I’m at about 60 currently and looking to put in several fruit trees this Spring.
This is such a great video! I’m an aspiring arborist and I’ve been learning so much from all your content. I really appreciate your knowledge and experience. Thank you so much!
Thanks Logan! Hope you find time to work your way through the collection. Some good stuff in here!👍🏻
As a 15 year landscaper and a 10 year certified arborist with many licenses and certifications I really appreciate what you are teaching/spreading..... knowledge.
Stan Rodgers Thanks Stan. I try hard to keep a balanced approach to my videos. I don’t want to come across as a super climber (because I am not), nor do I want to profess to be a know it all. I’m trying to put together a collection of videos that will help answer questions to both new climbers and interested tree lovers. I get some seasoned pros adding to these comments and I believe that just makes the community more complete. So, keep contributing and don’t be afraid to contradict what I say😊
I went to see a GP last year. Their car park had had a variety of beautiful trees. Sadly, someone butchered all of them, a few weeks before my visit. Every cut was close within an inch or two of the supporting branch. If you had not provided videos such as this one, I wouldn't have seen anything wrong with that. Thanks for the education, Blair.
RWBHere I wish my channel views were higher. Seems to me that not too many people care
My parents have a maple that was planted as a sapling and it lived it's first ten years or so having to compete with two large trees for light and then another 15 with no competition at all. So at 25 years or so it had formed a big ball of foliage. Some arborist talked themselves into a job saying that it wasn't shaped naturally, that it should have skyward reaching trunks. My response was that a tree growing in a forest competing for light would look like that but growing in the environment that it has it's natural form is exactly as it is.
Unfortunately I have seen many examples of bad pruning in my country (Spain). Trees are pruned radically, especially sycamore trees. Thanks for showing us how to treat trees properly, by your comments one can notice you love trees.
We need trees for our survival.
In this suburban area where I find myself unfortunately marooned for almost 20 years it is quite remarkable how the people here have a positive mania about disfiguring trees by cutting them back severely. Most of my neighbors, who often on their tiny lots are lucky to have one or two trees for shade, are constantly calling in the landscape people to work the tops down. The results are uniformly hideous and of course they weaken the trees so mishandled. At least from having been brought up on a farm and owning farmland later on I had some basic knowledge of how to handle trees which saved me both money and the lives of the trees themselves.
I'm seeing more and more of this butchery these days, not just the crepe myrtles. I can't fathom the reasons for doing so. Thanks for showing the problem for what it is.
My grandparents had a Sugar Maple in their small urban yard, very similar "hack-job" to the last tree you showed in this video. Well, we cut the tree down when it got really bad, but was still very much "alive". We proceeded to cut and split the entire thing into firewood. The huge massive chunks at the top were a mangled mess of new growth with extensive amounts of rot inside and throughout. There was a stark contrast between what appeared to be new vibrant growth, mere fractions of an inch away from massive pockets of absolute rot that you could break apart in your fingers.
Patrick Wagz when you opened up the tree, it was an “ahh ha “ moment?
@@arboristBlairGlenn For sure, really drives home all the points you made in the video. One cut can turn into 10+ suckers that grow like weeds.
Thanks for this. I’m in Virginia and trying to improve the ecosystem in my suburban lot. The trouble as you noted is peer pressure- folks want you to “clean” your yard and trees and ironically it’s destroying our neighborhood ecosystem. Love that you share your experience here. Can you make a video showing what pruning of a river birch may be okay (versus the bad examples you show here)?
I show more bad examples because that is what people need to see to understand the problems. A well trimmed tree doesn’t look look like much has been done. Looks clean. No deadwood. No crossover limbs. Maybe a bit of separation from the other trees or buildings. That’s it! They are supposed to look, well, just like a tree!
I maintain fruit trees both commercial and residential. We always prune, just today I pruned darn near 30% off over 20+ small fruit trees.
The types of trees in this video are a totally different scope, with different rules. I am really glad this video has taught me that I WILL NOT PRUNE THESE TYPES OF TREES🌲🌳! You know that over confident guy talk, I could easily see myself at some point saying "ohh yeah, I pruned many fruit trees, of course I can top and shape your _____ tree." And totally murder one of these beauties.
Thank you so much for saving me from that fate! I will show many people this video, I hope it goes viral. Although the tree trimming industry will feel that big hit.
❤️
Since you trim fruit trees...I have a question for you if you wouldn't mind. If you were to let the fruit tree grow with one main trunk wouldn't it top out (stop growing taller) at some point? Is the only reason that fruit trees are pruned is to make harvesting easier? Is it also to make the tree produce less but you can harvest it all? I am super curious.
@@MrsMika I'm not a tree pruner, but besides keeping the fruit trees to a convenient size, pruning the tree prevents the tree from becoming apically dominant. This forces more regenerative growth (fruit production) instead of vegetative growth. I know of one person however, Masanobu Fukuoka, who prefered not to prune and let the tree grow to its natural potential and got great results, but I assume it takes longer and the harvesting is less feasible for industrial agriculture (which is fine depending on your perspective on agriculture).
Thanks for the info. Could you recommend a book or source of info that a homeowner could read to learn how to properly prune and maintain their trees?
This kind of tree care is my personal pet peeve. If a tree needs to be topped, it needs to come down. Glad you are trying to spread the word about basic tree care. Too many fly-by-night crooks lying to customers about topping etc.. There're tree cutters that know only how to take down a tree and there are those that can prune. The later is a skill and art in of itself. Thank you for doing this video.
J F topping is wrong but sometimes it is needed. A past topped tree that is failing, might need continued harder pruning to keep it safe. Key is not to start the mistake.
Blair, I just came across this video. I had a house in San Jose, CA that I had planted a few oak trees that I grew from acorns that I got from my parents house in north east California. After twenty years of growth my now ex-wife had the trees cut back because she thought they were too tall. It made me sick.
dfhepner sorry
I can think of worse reasons to divorce someone.
This was fantastic, I could watch many more like this. Especially if you were able to get in close to some of the weak natural "joints" between "members" and explain structural considerations some more. Perhaps you have some more videos like that, I'm watching another video about 'Decisions' from a year ago and it has some of that, it's great! Subscribed!
Bruce Norman Smith Thanks Bruce. I too am a woodworker and enjoy milling as well. I think you might enjoy some of my woodworking videos too.
I'm a woman and I totally agree with you, I'm pruning trees in France, since a while, not as a professionnal, but I love to take care of trees, I'm doing it like you and I'm devastated like you when I see butchered trees . Nobody is trimming them nicely, especially plane tree in town and all trees along drive way! If people doesn't want to have a big tree, why did they plant them... Especially in residential area where it's not safe for the houses????? They should take care and decided of the shape as soon as possible. Geat videos :)
Thank you. You would appreciate Lucy Leeburg. She is a Certified Arborist and has been working with me for the last 32 years. Women do tree work too.
I'm with you....let nature take it's course. Fruit trees, however are pruned for production.
You have a lot of passion with trees. Thank you in pointing out how trees can be butchered if not pruned correctly. I love trees and want do the right pruning. I live in Venice Florida and wish you lived close by to give me recommendations.
If you stay with my channel, you can learn a lot about tree care. Welcome
Thank you for your video. Some very good information.
I recently had the experience at a local city park where a very nice healthy pepper tree was growing. We had some storms and a branch broke, but was still hanging in the tree. It wasn't a main branch. More of a smaller branch. It was there for a couple of weeks. I came back a few days after the two weeks and they removed the whole tree. That tree was 50 plus years old and gorgeous. I used to admire it as I drove up and parked nearby. There was no need to take it out only the broken branch needed to be removed. The stump that they left was perfectly healthy. I have pictures of it that have been sent to the city with a complaint filed.They also removed at least 2 other small trees. Meanwhile the dead deodar cedar and several dead crepe myrtles remain. They are big enough to be safety hazards. They have been dead for some time now. They need to be removed.
Cathy Vincent lots of ignorance in our world
My mother had 2 oak trees on her property. About 18 years ago one of them split its main trunk in half top to bottom in a storm, but nothing broke of. It had to be removed. The 2 trees stood close and were growing into each other. She called a gardening and landscaping company in to do the job. They came in with a bucket truck and butchered the healthy tree also to get acces. The other option would have been to work from the neighbors property. He did not allow it because he was afraid of damage to his lawn(!). The irony is, that neighbor wanted the tree gone for a long time before because of fear. Several years before that he had cut on the tree much harsher than the permit allowed. I wonder if that caused the storm damage. Damaged tree was cut down and healthy tree was butchered also. They pruned the healthy oak from all sided to make it look about symetrical again.
From what I know today thanks to you and other channels I would either hire a lawyer to force acces to the neighbors property or tell the company to send or hire a climber for the cuts they can not make with the bucket truck. Almost 2 decades to late. My mother is in her 50ies now and I wonder if she will outlive the butchered oak or reverse.
Thank you.
ensen89 sad story
Unfortunately even with the proper pruning knowledge most of us have these days, the art of topping will continue. Simply because the home owners are dead set on getting it done and we all want the work. So if you turn down the job trying to be the "better Arborist" you know someone else is going to take the job. So the practice continues
Coil's Tree Service are you part of the solution or part of the problem? Understanding the tree is key. Teaching correct tree care will only make you a better Arborist. Anybody can screw up a tree.
@@arboristBlairGlenn My son and I spend a whole lot of time trying to teach our potential customers why they should not and why we will not top their trees. Sometimes they get it but more often than not I feel like a fool after about 10 minutes of explaining proper techniques and collar cuts and I look in their eyes and I know that they don't care they just want what they want they want for as cheap as they can get it and we're not going to get the job but we just wasted a bunch of our time. My previous comment is out of frustration. We had one guy in town Last Summer who had 2 big red oak trees that had never been touched before. He was adamant about having those trees 30 feet shorter! We try to explain to him why that was horrible. And we further explained what we wanted to do which was thin raise & deadwood them. We refused to destroy those oaks. Well he didn't like it. But luckily our reputation is such that his neighbors talked him into listening to us and we finally got the job 2 months later. But more often than not we lose those customers. So I don't know, I'd like to think we were part of solution but if you drive around Dallas you're going to see a whole bunch of destroyed trees. That's all I'm saying my friend
@@arboristBlairGlenn ua-cam.com/video/HPNxe67_EmQ/v-deo.html
Here's what we're up against in Dallas!
Part of the reason for making these videos is to clearly show my clients what happens. When you open up a past topped tree, and clearly see all the decay, that becomes the proof that you understand. When you do a removal, open up the old wound with you chainsaw. Keep a small example in the truck and use that to show your “Un educated” clients.
@@arboristBlairGlenn 10/4
Your a great carer and lover of trees a good lesson and video and refreshing to see a tree surgeon who takes care and pride in his work unlike some who hack and chainsaw away with little regard with only money as a forethought .
Amazes me why big trees, or any tree that grows big (which most do) are planted in small yards.
I do love trees, in the park, along the river, field tree-rows but not in my yard. Twice smashed my shed roof, damaged house roof, critters climbing onto roofs, leaves clogging gutters, roots growing everywhere you don't want them including into basement walls, seedlings all over sprouting up where you don't want them. Just a few issues I have with trees in my yard. I love my river bike paths for close up tree love. And I recycle all into my wood stove.
I'm so glad you mentioned those "butchered" crape myrtles. That is one of my pet peeves. If a homeowner only thinks before planting a tree, he can find one that will grow to fit the desired spot.
Sandra Sweeney most of my clients don’t think about their trees until the trees are overwhelming
I'm sad, as it sometimes happens with new knowledge, but I know more about how to care for trees, and so I thank you so much. Thank you for caring about trees as much as you do. We all need to
RedCloudBeechWaveAhh my pleasure. I’m happy that the view count on this video is growing.
I lost jobs because I would not top some trees I explained homeowners why drive back by months later and there topped
Greg Brown what is right and what is wrong? Your ethics will define you.
@ben nichols it's a special case, because trees are living things, and we should treat living things with care. people who don't love the things they work with should never be surgeons for those things.
@ben nichols so ur saying u would throw ur ethics out of the window for paper money LOL. He still have costumers so y do he have to do something thats not him?
You made a commitment to your standards.
Good job.
People only prune trees when the tree negatively impacts it's surroundings: blocking of light, threat to foundations, etc. I'm afraid the welfare of trees is secondary.
DSC Y true but a lot of people still don’t understand
So sad. I bought a home having two huge mulberry trees with a history of being topped so they will produce long, straight branches like a giant shade umbrella. Every year people in town with mulberries and other trees do this. I hate it. I tried to help my trees to re-grow normal branches like my neighbor's mulberries, which have never been pruned. I hasn't worked. Mine just grew more long, straight branches, but His looked like real trees. After 18 years, I have had to give up. My mulberries are both rotting away, and I will remove them soon. My neighbor died. The new owner chopped up those nice, pristine mulberries to try to turn them too into bizarre shade umbrellas. It didn't work. His trees have only produced little tufts around the butchered branches and shoots from the roots. Your vid makes so much sense. I will replace my huge, rotting mulberries with other trees with less aggressive roots, etc., but I will educate myself, including all of your videos, to make sure the new trees stay healthy. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
raymae60 thanks for your interesting story. I rarely see mulberry trees that have not been butchered. I do know of one huge mulberry that has never been chopped and it has maxed out in size. The people still complain that they don’t get enough sun! Can’t win.
What is so different about pruning a fruit tree?
I really enjoy and appreciate your videos and you sharing your knowledge with us.
The job of a fruit tree is to produce fruit. Proper pruning will promote fruit production.
I believe the problem is twofold - people keep planting the wrong tree in the wrong place (my yard is a perfect example from previous owners) and unfortunately even proper pruning is done at the wrong time of year which eventually kills the tree also.
Sherri Ianiro absolutely correct
I am currently dealing a situation of raw wood chips being dumped by the ton in the forest by surrounding neighbors which over ten years has killed off 1/3 of the forest & consequently some of my trees. I want to rejuvenate my part of it but am worried about vertimillium wilt which I read travels underground (fungus) & can kill surrounding trees. Is it feasible for me to bring back my part of the woods with new trees, shrubs & perennials or is it a lost cause as long as they continue dumping? Flooding has resulted from this too & it's sickening what it's done to our native trees
@@sherriianiro747 Reforestation is entirely possible, but you'd have to consult someone local to get specifics. At the very least, raking the wood chips into piles for composting and sowing some seeds of native pioneers (like birch and mulberry, in my area of southeast Michigan) in the exposed soil could get the ball rolling.
If there's flooding, you may need to have a retention pond dug.
Pollards are way to make use of willow (mostly) to have basket weaving material and bean stakes etc. It needs to be harvested/pruned every few years otherwise the tree rips apart. Have seen them 3-4 metres high, a crown 10 metres across and with a hollow big enough for a kitchen table. 10-13 ft and 34 ft in imperial.
Jan-Reinier Voute in that situation the plant becomes a useful crop rather than a proper tree
@@arboristBlairGlenn yes. But a proper tree is also a useful product!
Great video - good stuff to know.
I live in Michigan, and I don't recall seeing any topped trees, but now, I know what to look for. . The tree trimmers around here seem to stick with cleaning up the lower branches and not touching the crowns.
Well I see at least 35 thumbs down from folks who believe I’m wrong. Then again, some people still believe the world is flat!
arboristBlairGlenn thank you for your videos. I have checked several of you videos over the past couple of years. What I am writing about is wanting to talk about how we can help fix it. In my town even the city ISA arborist does bad cuts and lion tails. I can give you examples that will make you want to cry.
Bradley Beckner send him my video and ask him what he thought of it.
Bradley Beckner A well known, and very profitable tree care firm has a recipe for success. It started with the statement that "every tree needs service". This company, which will remain nameless, worked their sales staff hard, pushing the attitude that they must make sales at every level. The strategy was this; first push the trim job for all it’s worth. Then push the fertilizer because "all trees need to be fed". With all that fertilizer, the trees push out more growth than ever and in many cases, the aphid population flourished as well as all the other leaf eating insects. Most leaf eating insects are attracted to the masses of succulent new growth. Now that the insects are here, sell a spray job. This of course becomes a maintenance contract. The next year the same trees will need to be trimmed again and fertilized and sprayed, .etc. That is the secret to making money in the tree business.
Ok, what’s wrong with this story? It is not in the best interest of the trees and certainly not in the best interest of your pocketbook.
Here is the truth. Most trees decline due to people pressure and the efforts by people to "make things better". Decay is one factor that leads to the premature decline and death in trees. Most decay is caused by the wounds in trees. Most wounds are caused by people with chainsaws and people using heavy equipment. Trees in the forest do fine without any help.
Here is another truth. Most tree workers do not do a proper job pruning trees. Most tree trimmers do most of the work with a chainsaw because it gets the job done fast. Most trimmers think it is better to make a few big cuts and move on. Most trimmers are too lazy to work with hand saws and hand pruners because it is not fast. Here is an important truth that you need to understand. It takes longer to do the job right but if the tree is pruned correctly, you will not need to do it as often. The tree’s health will improve with a proper pruning but a (quick chainsaw job) will cause long term decline. Even if the tree looks like it sprouted out fine, the poor cuts lead to internal decay that will cause early decline. Often the decay leads to limb or whole tree failure.
Now 39 thumb down but, i added a thumbs up to counter react the thumb downs.
My believe if you do not like the big tree cut it down and start new.
Pruning a tree is all right if done to help the tree but, over pruning a tree just makes them look ugly.
This is my back ground exlogger. I have seen many healthy trees and sick trees in the woods believe it or not man has been part of sick trees even in the woods. Stupidity is not only in the cities.
Many youtube posters see a bunch of immediate thumbs down. Whether it's bots, or haters, or just foolish folks I suggest that you ignore any & all negative issues. You, Mr. Glenn, have no negative issues, only excessive tree love. Like kids, I love trees when they belong to someone else. Beautiful, but too much trouble
Thanks for the informative video. I had a limb on a silver maple that was touching the house when we bought the house. It was a decent size limb and I hated to take it down but it was right over the house power line and touching the house. I cut it off per what I knew of industry standard, cutting at the collar, but it has not healed well in a year and a half. Hearing you mention sun scald got me thinking about sun damage as it faces due west with clear exposure. Is there anything that can be done to prevent this from decaying further?
Jason Green Sorry, best to keep wounds smaller when possible. Tree sealant has been proven to be of little value.
In bonsai, we apply lime sulphur to the exposed deadwood to keep it from decaying. It needs reapplication.
There are also tricks in bonsai to get the bark to grow back over the wound, but if you're dealing with decay it's a bit too late for that - you'd just be sealing the problem within, not dealing with it.
If you don't like tall trees, plant trees that are naturally short.
Adrian J Nyaoi understanding is key
Spoken like a true communist! :-)
Adrian, who are you? What is your channel? How did you get YT verified?
I was concerned about the health of my trees. I had a man come out and told me he could make them look better but that there was nothing to worry about. I appreciated that. I never had him do any work any now I can’t find him. My loss. I have a maple, a flowering dogwood and an awesome peeling birch which is starting to grow over my driveway. Not sure what to do. Thanks for the info
another great use/audience for these videos is #woodworkers and #artists, everyone reputable says learning about trees helps work with lumber, and also it helps with sketching and painting too! thanks again
Awesome video! I really learned a lot! Trees would be a lot less dangerous and natural and beautiful, if people just left them alone and only prune them the proper way, when it’s nessisary. People should really learn how to prune and care for a tree properly.
BG Tech we need to understand trees better to know how to make fewer mistakes.
Thank you for such a wonderful lesson in caring for these beautiful structures, something every young homeowner should be taught before butchering living plants in that appalling lust men have for "making their own mark" on a new home quickly. I have the misfortune to have downsized to a property right next to my previous large house and garden only to have to witness the deranged destruction of the landscape I created over 20 years, including the planting and nurture of dozens of trees.
Bruce McNally I understand that feeling.
Awesome awareness raising video. Before each cut ask yourself "why am I making this cut". Unfortunately many homeowners think when hiring a tree service that more pruning is better because they make the assumption that they would get ripped off when you only cut out the necessary branches which could be very little.
You are right. I often get the client out before I chip so they see all the brush. Perspective is often based on volume
At 57 years old and as a vehicle technician of 40 Years. Blair Glen always makes me wish I had been an arborist . The only thing is if I had been a crap one watching these videos would make me hang my head in shame. While on road test I find my back brain listening and feeling the car , my front brain watching the road and my wherewithal looking at what idiots have done to the trees 🌲. Always a pleasure watching and listening to these videos.
ala montana look to the bare trees to read what happened to them
To me it is very obvious that people plant trees without thinking about how big they might get one day. Then, years later when they are completely shading the garden, threatening to destroy the roof, or possibly come down on the house in a storm, they decide to cut the tree down to half its size, rather than fell the tree once and for all. I see this kind of mistake very often, and when i bought and moved into my current house about three years ago there was 60 year old oak tree roughly 4-5 yards away from the house. Some of the branches were already causing damage to the roof tiles, and this tree was obviously still only a 'youngster' that would eventually grow much bigger, and potentially cause dramatic damage to the house. I felled the tree last year, which was probably just in time before the root network could start causing any potential damage to the foundation of the house (the rotting away of huge root networks under foundations can cause the land, and the foundation to sink). I was not proud of my decision but I actually blame it on whoever was foolish enough to plant an oak tree only 4-5 yards from the house in the first place. In place of the oak tree I have now planted an ornamental crab apple tree, a couple of extra yards away from the house. This is a suitable tree for such a location and it can live to its maximum size without causing any issues whatsoever. My bottom line with all this is that while some tree owners do stupid things with their trees, possibly because they simply do not know any better, the actual mistake is typically made when the wrong type of tree is bought and planted in a location that is just not not suitable.
J F learning to live with trees takes understanding of what they become.
'fear is the wrong reason to prune a tree' ... that is probably the most important lesson I've learned in a while, thanks.
Michael Robertson 👍🏻 hope you enjoy the rest of my videos too
I'm with you. Seeing topped trees drives me crazy. I live in Ellis County Texas and is the home to thousands of beautiful Crape Myrtles. But then there are those that hack them off year after year- stop Crape Murder!!!!
tazmankb26 good one! Can I use that? Crepe Murder!
Even before day 1 when the trees are brought to site and planted, you must be sure the tree will be a proper fit for the location that is being proposed. On small lots you cannot have huge trees; select ornamentals then that when mature compliment the house and surrounding area. Off topic from that, we planted a Korean Pear 28 years ago in Michigan. One harsh winter, the ice storm just annihilated it and it shattered. In the early spring, it was going to be taken down by me. I dismantled it limb by limb, and the only part that remained was the main trunk, and two secondary but short limbs. It looked like a desert cactus with three limbs only. I got busy and never found the time to cut the base to rid of it. In three years it sprouted from those three limbs about 7 feet straight up, and in an oval pattern...oval! Now it might not last another 20 years, but this anomaly of a tree when leafed out looks like a perfect specimen, and we love it more than the crazy Korean pear it was in the past. It looks just like a perfect oval lollipop. Crazy as it seems, now its right sized for the front lawn. I agree it's contrary to what a Korean pear should be, and against what Blair is trying to convey in this video, but my heart will shatter when we loose this quasi specimen because it's everything this newfound specimen should be; smaller, fuller, right sized, and appreciated. In this case, we just got lucky.
Luck has nothing to do with it. The right tree in the right spot and a tree will thrive. Part of a trees survival is coming back from the type of damage you described. The Eastern White Pine is an excellent example of this. Ice or wind storms cause them to shed branches but the tree remains. This is opposed to Silver Maple which may uproot in similar conditions.
I used to live in a tree lined avenue on the outskirts of London, and the council would regularly cut all the tops of our trees. I was brought up to think that a tree was a trunk with a bush on the top. I only got to see real trees when we moved to Wales.
Hi Scifi education is the primary reason for my channel.
My father is an arborist with a lot of passion for nature and a lot of experience. He is always keeping his customers right and refusing to compromise trees. Many "arborists" will because either they don't know or they just want the money. It may be the case you make more money this way, I don't really know. But I can attest to the fact that respect and reputation are a huge factor in succeeding in not only being an arborist but.. being a human.
Thanks Sam (the poor?) Does your father watch my channel?
I really don't like to see trees be chopped up to nothing but a tall stump with a few sticks that have no leafs left. The trees should be left alone, and only pruned properly when they need it to prevent failures. Fortunately the majority of the trees at my dad's house have been left alone, so they never drop branches, except for maybe a few very small branches.
obs ford diesels inc. 1 you are fortunate
Viral or not I've learned a lot watching your videos. Here in rural-ish of southern NH we don't tend to have the level of tree abuse you document, except for utility rights of way, but that is a little more excusable.
I harvest cord wood on our property and have become much more careful about damaging trees and cutting limbs as a result of your videos. Our property was logged in the 1950's so we have lots of multiple trees growing out of a single stump. Great for fire wood but easy to damage the parts I want to save.
Your love of trees is infectious. You are probably aware of this book "The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate" by Peter Wohlleben but between your videos and this book I have an entirely different perspective about the forest. The forest is more alive and complex that I had imagined.
Tom Schmidt yes, I know that book and I need to read it. Thank you
Thank you. I'm looking for it now.
Look, sometimes it just has to be done, certain situations dictate so.
We'll find 75' oaks between two row homes for example, the home owner simply doesn't like the look of that big stick waving around on a windy day, inevitably they become uncomfortable, the top then comes off to a height we agree on. We'll remove enough to mitigate that back and forth that bothers the hell out of them.
There's much more drama when we see trees uprooted and fall on top of cars, houses, sheds, garages and what not, this is what people remember...vividly!
So, we do our best through proper cuts, wound care and simply hope for the best. Yes there have been some hack-an-slash jobs we simply had to walk away from, but on most jobs we try to explain to them as best we can that to harsh of a cut back will really shorten the life of that big tree. The vast majority of the time they prefer to go with our recommendation, however in almost all cases, those trees are getting cut back, one way or another...its their choice.
To ry that’s EXACTLY my experience. You just can’t tell them, they’re freaked out by some big limb or whatever and you end up doing things you don’t really want to do to the tree but it’s a job, you gotta pay the bills. I always try and get what I suggest but I also need to work.
"you alter the tree's future" That sums it up.
jason you got it!
I remember when I was a kid, The Weekend Gardener on WHAS 11 in Louisville used to say if you're going to prune a tree like that (topping), then you should prune it level with the ground. I have always agreed.
While I feel tipping is not right for the tree, so much of our work is dealing with past topping and try to keep the tree safe. Canopy is important and people still want their trees. I keep an open mind and deal with each situation as it comes up.
I live in London England where london plane trees are used as street trees. These are generally pollarded annually to prevent contact with traffic. But in central London parks and squares we have trees, several hundred years old, which have never been pruned. As a bonsai growing amateur I understand the benefits and dangers of pruning. I have seen many trees killed by poor pruning ,both bonsai and fullsize trees. With so many infections in trees sterilizing of tools is often overlooked by amateur and professionals.
Mikey Thrussell A well known, and very profitable tree care firm has a recipe for success. It started with the statement that "every tree needs service". This company, which will remain nameless, worked their sales staff hard, pushing the attitude that they must make sales at every level. The strategy was this; first push the trim job for all it’s worth. Then push the fertilizer because "all trees need to be fed". With all that fertilizer, the trees push out more growth than ever and in many cases, the aphid population flourished as well as all the other leaf eating insects. Most leaf eating insects are attracted to the masses of succulent new growth. Now that the insects are here, sell a spray job. This of course becomes a maintenance contract. The next year the same trees will need to be trimmed again and fertilized and sprayed, .etc. That is the secret to making money in the tree business.
Ok, what’s wrong with this story? It is not in the best interest of the trees and certainly not in the best interest of your pocketbook.
Here is the truth. Most trees decline due to people pressure and the efforts by people to "make things better". Decay is one factor that leads to the premature decline and death in trees. Most decay is caused by the wounds in trees. Most wounds are caused by people with chainsaws and people using heavy equipment. Trees in the forest do fine without any help.
Here is another truth. Most tree workers do not do a proper job pruning trees. Most tree trimmers do most of the work with a chainsaw because it gets the job done fast. Most trimmers think it is better to make a few big cuts and move on. Most trimmers are too lazy to work with hand saws and hand pruners because it is not fast. Here is an important truth that you need to understand. It takes longer to do the job right but if the tree is pruned correctly, you will not need to do it as often. The tree’s health will improve with a proper pruning but a (quick chainsaw job) will cause long term decline. Even if the tree looks like it sprouted out fine, the poor cuts lead to internal decay that will cause early decline. Often the decay leads to limb or whole tree failure.
In a wind storm a friend lost a huge branch, took out her cable. I cut up the downed limb, about 24 inches across and hollow. I believe the stub that was left is also hollow, but it is about 15 feet up and I didn't go up to look. If the rot has not gone into the stem, how should that stub be pruned? A chain saw to get it close to the branch collar, but then what? A really long hand saw? I plan to go back and lower the stub before spring. Portawrap because the tree is between two buildings on the property and there is concrete that would be damaged even if the stub doesn't bounce into a wall. I am not a trained arborist, so I normally don't do pruning, but that stub is going to be a problem if it is just left there. On the other hand, once I get up there, if the stem is also rotting, I'm going to advise her to remove the tree as soon as possible. Thank you!
Dwayne Madsen from what you told me, here is how I might do it. Not seeing the situation, this is a guess.
A ladder leaned up to the trunk and tied to the tree. A number of small chainsaw cuts controlling them Down, dropping onto a pile of brush to keep them from bouncing. Be CAREFUL!! Not a a job for someone with limited chainsaw skill. I recommend calling a pro.
I’m in the tree business in NJ.Your videos and knowledge is outstanding , if I ever make it out to Cali would like to meet you
aliesma as for the trees in California, pretty amazing!
Very insightful video! Glad I found you. I have a leaning young river birch. Unlike most birch that has a forking base trunk (the classic birch shape), mine has a single trunk growing up in a bowed/arched shape. How can I make it straight?
I just planted trees on my property, one thing I noticed and couldn't get away from is all of the nurseries had topped all the trees for transport. I spent hours trying to find ones that were not so damaged.
Autumn Blues nurseries often cut trees to make them more visually attractive for sale.
I have seen many instances of the neighbours putting pressure on the tree owner to cut back a tree. Particularly in the UK where houses are crammed in like Sardines in a tin. Often the neighbours will chip in to remove or top a tree because it blocks their light or drops leaves on their plastic artificial lawn which they have to clear up. The home owner feels obliged then to get the work done.
I agree the large prune is bad for the tree, but is it the lesser of two evils if the alternative is to cut it down? Great channel Blair and info. Thank you.
I agree when there is no alternative, hard sitting is better than removal but the big however is understanding what the tree’s future will become. Many people really care about the longevity and health of the tree over human needs.
The only issue that I have when someone pollards a tree is with your example. People have lost touch with the reasoning of the tree pollard. I believe homesteaders did not do this for aesthetics. It was done for purpose. The trees were not cut to 12-15' in height. They were cut at 5-6' or shorter in height when they were young trees. Remember Little Miss Muffet? She sat on a tuffet? That was the stump left from a tree being coppice cut or pollard cut.
Pollarding or hard cutting is a practice that dates back to days in Europe where the sprouts from hard cut trees came back as useful pieces for fencing and building.
@@arboristBlairGlenn And so much more. Thank you for response. I look forward to much more of your content.
Thank you for your time and energy put into these videos!
Sad, to see these practices!😢
BIG KID This is a career that we are proud of. We get angry when we see so much improper work being done and people being cheated. It usually boils down to the cheapest bid gets the job, but if the cheapest bid, costs you your trees, how much did you save?
Worked my way through university cutting trees. This is pretty much spot on.
Hue Manatie then you received a valuable education and need to help others understand.
I think alot of professional arborists are tired sometimes of ignored advices, then give in to the customers narrative just to get the job, didn't used to be this way even a decade or 2 a go, the influx in tree surgeons has been enormous in my area at least in the past years in comparison to when I began. So many times I've talked myself out of a job due to giving the right but unwanted advice. Any advice on how to solve this.?
Hey Blair
Really helpful vid. I steer away from topping like the plague.
When would you consider pollarding as an appropriate?
Leon Visser the history of pollarding is interesting. Going way back in time, harsh cutting of trees was done to create long straight shoots for fencing and building. Over time, people thought it was the right way to prune. Certain species are more tolerant of harsh cutting while others decay rapidly. All pollards start with butchering a tree. Continued pollarding is best with lots of small cuts rather than large chainsaw wounds. You learn a lot when you cut open an old pollard stub.
Pollarding i.e. carpal tunneling
Another thing I've noticed myself is that people will plant trees that will get really big right under power lines, and then you see trees that have 70 percent of their tops pruned off because they are under the power lines...
Good point
Good lecture/light rant. Like in forestry, you need to look and think a lot before you grab a tool. Knowledge of your tree or bush is important. When not to make a pollard of a pine or a box hedge of a row of birch. 👍
Jan-Reinier Voute different species react differently to hard cuts.
This is a great video! Good job.
Along the road near where I live in New England, there's a row of red maples that were planted way too close to the power lines, and now the branches are all in the wires. There are many flush cuts on the lower trunks of the trees, and old, decaying wounds. It's too bad... In my opinion, people shouldn't plant large-to-be trees near the wires, because those trees will be condemned to endless pruning!
Great video!. Your showing some obviously bad pruning. But what to do when a tree gets too large for the available space, when it is getting too tall and is too close to a house?
ddd hhh is the tree “too tall” or is the homeowner too scared?
Thanks for the video. I have always been trained not to use wound dressing/Paint when pruning trees. I have been told that it does more harm than good. Apparently there is research that demonstrates this to be true. Therefore I have come to believe it to be true. Now that "Oak Wilt" is or has become a major threat to Red Oaks and to a lesser degree White Oaks, some jurisdictions(Texas) and organizations(I.S.A.) are recommending that wound dressing/paint be used when dealing with Oaks as a method of dealing with this disease. What are your thoughts on this.Two years ago, I travelled to London England and Paris France. The streets are just full of Pollarded London Plane trees. My first thoughts were "My God they have topped every single tree in this place". I got use to it though. I guess they have the art of Pollarding down to a science.Alan McDonald
Alan McDonald I have studied Dr Alex Shigo’s work and he has concluded that wound dressing is of no value. Ask your town to quote the studies that confirm the recommendation. Share if it is of value please.
Blair, as I came across this video. I just thought about my next-door neighbor's Norfolk Island Pine which has been planted within close proximity to her garage and has been topped countless times since 2008. And honestly, it just looks mind-bendingly stupid, it shouldn't be there. Ever since it has always thrown out multiple central leaders after each time it was topped. And it's unbelievable that the tree is still alive. I mean if you saw the current state of her tree, you would absolutely erupt, knowing it's a serious problem. People really should how to maintain and care for a tree properly.
I too see the absurdity of how people try to “control” their trees
WHY does hard pruning create "decay pockets?" I don't hard prune. I only cut dead, diseased or crossing branches. I'm just curious on how to explain it to people so they will believe me.
Cheers for the information man, great video! i have a question, those birch trees that had branches been cut as close to the bark as possible, is that also a problem when the trees are younger than the ones in this video, or i shoud say the branches are much smaller than what we saw in the video?
KongleKeiseren a pruning wound of any size “Make the smallest diameter cut without leaving a stub, but never flush with the trunk”.
Thank you for posting this...I see the same situations around me as well...i hope your video goes viral.
Nichola pollock up to 28 thousand views so I’m starting a small movement.
I have been gladly following your channel for few years now, please accept my extra Thank You for this presentation! 14:33 explains it all. Why can't a tree just b a tree?
Astrodiver 1 This is a career that we are proud of. We get angry when we see so much improper work being done and people being cheated. It usually boils down to the cheapest bid gets the job, but if the cheapest bid, costs you your trees, how much did you save?
Thanks so much. Such imoortant information, and it's so very sad to see trees that have been massacred.
john schlesinger This is a career that we are proud of. We get angry when we see so much improper work being done and people being cheated. It usually boils down to the cheapest bid gets the job, but if the cheapest bid, costs you your trees, how much did you save?
We had four over 70 years huge ash trees in our yard. We didn’t want to prune them but the storm did us the favor. One was even hit by lightning.
Do you have Emerald Ash Borer in your area yet?
Now you've got me second guessing myself. I've got these old oak trees with multiple trunks that look likely to threaten a home someday, and I've taken to slowly cutting off the problem branches over the course of years. I've been particularly aggressive in getting out the extremely long horizontal branches in a balanced fashion.
I've been doing it slow to keep the trees balanced, but I've still got a good deal more to do to clear one particular tree away from a neighbor's house. As in take off one or two of the eight major trunks of the tree.
Any advice?
The spcies of Oak makes a difference on how it responds to pruning. As was said in the video cutting a tree opens a path for decay. Some species manage decay well, others don't. Any major wound on the trunk opens the door to major problems in the future. Rather than removing a stem it would be better to remove the tree, or prune for weight reduction and install a support cable. If you decide on a caple I would not recommend a Cobra system in this case.
How and when should I trim my silver birch. A guy cut the central trunk years Go and it is now way above the house in a small gRden.
Big answer for a comment
pollarding and coppicing are technics for harvesting firewood from the same tree repeatedly when done right.
dusk River right for the product or right for the tree?
Do you have any recommendations on how to find someone who knows what they're doing? I have a tree that has seen better days, and something needs to be done, but I don't want to hire someone that is just going to guarantee its destruction.
Is there any learning materials for this kinda stuff? I wouldn't mind investing in being able to take better care of our trees (or make sure they're being properly taken care of).
Wrong name for the video. I should have been named why NOT prune. Kept looking for the part of why prune.
1caramarie can’t understand why until you fully understand the mistakes.
I agree with 1caramarie. I just wasted 19+ minutes watching a video tell me that pruning trees this way is wrong when anyone with half a brain already knows that!
I wanted to know the PROPER way to prune trees. Guess I'll have to go hunt up someone else's site to get that info.
Frank Deluca, first I didn't type in anything. This just came up on my feed. Second, the title of the video is "Why Prune". Now that title implies that the reasoning for pruning will be imparted and to a smaller extent, the correct methods of pruning. Therefore the title of this video is incorrect and should've been "How Improper Pruning Damages Trees".
As to your opinions of my character & lifestyle, you sir, don't know me or anything about my life. Your comments are worthless, uncalled for and unfortunately, a reflection of your own inadequacy.
I didn't enjoy wasting 19 minutes of my busy life watching an improperly titled video, since I have an orchard to plant & prune and won't compound it by wasting any more time on someone so judgemental and rude.
@Frank deluca Something is wrong with your "ignorance" of the difference between the terms: "how to prune" and "why prune". I think you are just a idiot, trying to use any opportunity to insult a woman. Did mommy, beat you up as a child?
@@arboristBlairGlenn So you want to get technical? This should have been named, "Why you should NOT TOP a tree". Taking into account that what you showed were trees that were topped (as if they were given a crew cut). In what planet is that pruning, as you should know. Or you could have named it "Mistakes you should be aware of before pruning a tree." Plus, asides from showing trees that were topped and ended up with a flat top, and 'virtual' hairs sticking up, you could have shown someone doing it the wrong way or make an illustration of how it should be done. I prune my fruit trees so they stay small, but since I know how to do it, they look like trees. But, since I am not all knowing, it is always nice to see other people's "Why." I have a dozen 100 year old trees, and the idiot that almost allowed a sick aspen tree to fall on my pear tree, due to his stupidity (missed by no more than 2 inches, because he didn't bother to do it in two pieces, as I asked him), actually tried to convince me that I should hire him to TOP my trees. They would have ended up like the trees in your video. My squirrels would have not forgiven me. What you showed is valuable information, if people had been aware of what you were actually going to show them. As to my healthy trees, I let them drop what ever they want, since I trust them more than I trust "arborists". My previous experience cost $1,500, for another 100 year old tree with branches were over my house, that I was re-roofing. The expert, with great recommendations and reviews, ended up damaging two of my dwarf fruit trees, because the guy's co-owner (his father) got into a fight with his brother (the uncle) while on my roof and ended up tossing massive branches from the top of the house to where my dwarf trees were. Hint: had I know that, I would have hired some nice senior citizen with a tree farm, experienced in cutting his own trees, to be sure of a great job.
The 'why' anyone tops trees is always because it is an option (I'm not a fan but,I have done it for various reasons). The general public will always want to tame nature. How can they achieve this? Top the tree and bring it under 'control'. Hence, tree management. The reality is that trees have been planted in the wrong places, outgrown their spot, homeowners are not around (in my area, we are experiencing a winter wind storm and a lot of people that can afford large properties have headed south for the winter. They want the trees to be a 'non issue' while they're gone), urban encroachment, personal attachment to a tree etc.Tree owners have legitimate concerns when it comes to trees. The hardest part is to take an unbiased look at any tree and make educated decisions for its longevity. In short, we have to learn how to coexist with trees today and in the future. We need to use good foresight to plant future trees for posterity.
Kevin Davis well said.
Pruning is a balancing act. Sometimes it's a compromise. One must look at the reason behind it and determine the best coarse of action. PS some of those trees might have been attacked by the dreaded chainsaw footed bird! Remember sometimes less is more. Good info Blair!
Damon Reuning I’ve seen that damn bird!
Large trees near buildings must suffer for the safety of the structure. Trees allowed to grow naturally with little to no pruning will inevitably drop large limbs especially in high winds. Limbs that can cause significant damage to property. Storms cause large sections of trees to break off, especially on trees that have not been pruned properly. Damage also comes when trees grow and just start bouncing against your house. They can knock off shingles and rub a hole in your roof just like that. With the assist of a slight breeze, boom there goes your window and oops was that your phone line? Not to mention leaves, which can be considered a form of mulch. Mulch, of course, traps in moisture and nobody wants a moist roof. Those birch we're pruned poorly and of course they're going to die, eventually. Everything dies. But id be willing to bet they'll still out live every single one of us. The pear was unfortunate but the truth is, there are more trees than just the "properly trained" can deal with. Far more. In a perfect world, where everything we need and have and want is indestructable, i would totally agree with what you're saying but in this reality, what can you do?
My thoughts exactly. And I really love trees.
I now realize that my “pruning” is what destroyed my trees. :(
Hector Castro sorry, next time😊
You should see the current trend in The Villages in Florida. They are trimming oaks (mostly live oaks) into oversized topiaries. Round or boxed with a flat top and bottom and a height less than 10' tall. Most of these trees have trunks around 10-18".
It's gross.
It is gross. What really sucks is that Live Oak may recover from this which only encourages this awful practice.
Glen can you say what you could use crape Myrtle lumber for and would you cut it looking for the best grain with your swing blade?
El Dorado Woodcraft hobbies never seen a crepe myrtle big enough to mill except with a shop bandsaw.
so right' have done tree work for a lota years, but its hard to convinch older people that takin the top down makes it worse, few times have thined and pruned well client comes out, and can see so much more light, branches of the roof, there happy, but some dont its never enough and shit. what do ya do? can be ya boss says do it hate it but i needa live'
Julian Alderson I know I can’t change the minds of those people who are too stubborn to listen. If you know it’s wrong, but you do it anyway, well, there ya go. No offense intended but I do hope you see how to become a better professional in your chosen trade.
I intuitively have always hated seeing trees pollarded. It made me cry when our municipality would send out crews with their chainsaws and I would see the single tree in front of our building butchered every couple of years. (No power lines or anything to explain it.. A lot of neighbours complained about the fallen leaves though.) People where I live say it's good for the trees. But I would often see trees die in my neighbourhood or in nearby parks after this pollarding. Thanks for making things clear for me.
Hello I have a very tall white birch planted 30th an ago. I brought it from up north in Muskoka. It’s a fantastic tree but my neighbour want it pruned as he feels the branches will break and damage his property. During an ice storm this was the only tree that survived as it b my over with the weight whilst other trees just snapped. I’d love ke to send you a picture as I need advice on where to trim this beautiful tree.May I pls have your email sir.