Removing Dead Wood

Written by Amy Gordon (last updated July 22, 2024)

Trees are absolutely an essential part of any yard. Trees are great because they are beautiful if taken care of and provide shade to hang out in during a warm summer day. Although well established trees are usually easy to take care of, one things that you do have to worry about is dead wood, especially if it is a tree that you expect to give you fruit.

Removing dead wood is an important part of pruning a tree. Although it is possible that you can do irreparable harm to the tree if you are not careful, if you do things right it will make the tree much more healthy and grow stronger. Most of your pruning is easiest to do during the late winter since you can see the branches, removing dead wood is best done once the leaves start growing. This is best because the branches that are not growing leaves are the dead branches that need to be cut off.

The most common place to see dead branches is on the lower branches of the tree. This happens most often because the trees with heavy upper foliage will prevent light from coming down to the lower branches. Cut off dead branches, but be careful not to unbalance the tree, since this may hurt the tree beyond repair.

Something important to remember with dead wood is that it is not necessary to remove it from most trees if you do not want to. Nature will run its course for the most part and make up for any dead wood on the trees. In general it is just unsightly. This is not always the case, since dead wood could fall and hurt someone, and it is also more likely to catch fire, which lead to your whole house being burned down. Use your own judgement while cutting the dead wood from trees.

Author Bio

Amy Gordon

Amy Gordon loves keeping things simple, natural, and safe so she can spend more time having fun. Every day she learns new things about making life at home easier and she loves to share it with you! ...

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