Procedures, Techniques And Ideas On Pruning Evergreens
Posted by Sarah on Mar 8, 2010
When pruning evergreens, the year after planting a pruning program should be started. Evergreens left to grow “wild” will in a short time develop a spindly look with but a few hard woody branches. Such evergreens as junipers, yews, and arbor-vitaes, which are made up of numerous sterns and soft foliage, can be pruned without giving consideration to buds or shoots. On these, pruning can be done any time during the late spring and summer.
The first couple of years the plants will not show their shape characteristics plainly. Be sure to have the planting labeled so you’re not topping an upright or removing the long horizontal branches of a spreader.
During this time removal of only the tip ends should be done unless there is an unwieldy side branch. With pines, spruces and firs more consideration must be given. Trees of this type grow in whorls or layers and cannot be trained to any shape other than is their habit. Pruning of these is merely to correct defects and to make the tree more compact.
The spruce’s tip buds are nipped just as growth is starting, usually around the middle of May. This induces buds below the cut to start growth, many of which would have otherwise remained dormant. Each new shoot down the branch will then form its own buds which in turn are pruned the following year.
Never touch the leader. If this leading bud at the top should be broken off or damaged, drive a stake into the ground, select one of the side branches growing nearest the top, and tie this securely to the stake. By the following year this branch will take over as the leader and the tree will show no damage.
In pruning pines, wait until the candle-like spring growth has progressed to a point where the needles are just beginning to spread. Then cut these back partially. This is a necessary practice to the low growing Mugho pine in order to have a dense, cushion-like specimen.
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