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Ventilation: Properly trimming a tree involves ventilation—cleaning the center of the tree so that air can properly flow through it. This keeps your trees healthier as they are less affected by high winds or storms.
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Insect Control: Dead/Tangled/Overlapping branches are an open invitation for insects to attack your tree. Many insects are attracted to rotting woods. If part of your tree is rotting, insects such as “borers” may attack, damaging the live parts of the tree as well.
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Cosmetics: A properly trimmed tree simply looks more appealing and presentable.
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Safety: It is important to give your home and nearby power lines plenty of clearance from tree limbs. Properly pruned trees are also less likely to cause debris in the event of a storm.
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Cutting main branches to close to the trunk can damage the health of your tree.
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Cutting branches in such a way that does not alleviate the weight of the branch as it falls will damage your tree.
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Trimming main branches improperly may leave too much weight and foliage at the end of the branch “called liontailing”. This can cause the branch to weigh down unevenly in the event of snow or ice.
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A trained arborist can identify the ideal cutoff points to keep your tree as healthy as it should be. |
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Sparse foliage |
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Smaller than usual leaves |
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Discolored leaves |
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Unusually slow growth |
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Early leaf drop |
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Dying branches and twigs |
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Wilting of leaves, especially newer leaves |
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Fungus growth, especially toward the base of the tree.
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| Tree stress is often not noticed until it is too late, because the effects are often gradual. There are many factors that lead to tree stress, but there are usually a combination of factors are at work. |
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For instance, a tree may appear to be stressed because of a harmful insect infestation. The tree, however, may never have attracted the insect if it did not have rotting branches that were caused by poor nutrition and soil conditions. Tree stress factors include:
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Water is obviously vital for tree growth, so it is important that your tree be consistently watered in drought conditions. It is, however, VERY important that your tree not be exposed to too much water. Standing water can cause tree roots to rot, stressing the health of the tree. This is why All About Trees provides drainage services, to ensure that standing water is not drowning your tree’s health.
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Soil that is sandy, or rich with clay may provide a difficult environment for your tree’s growth. Watering and fertilization can help.
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Fertilization is extremely important for a healthy tree, with Nitrogen being the most essential nutrient a tree needs. Nitrogen occurs in natural environment (like a forest), because leaves and wood rot into the soil and provide the necessary nitrogen. A yard tree, however, is not so lucky and may need your help in getting the nitrogen it needs.
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If you are building a home and intend to keep some of the trees on the property, you should work with a professional arborist ahead of time to understand how the placement of building will affect tree health. If you have a newly built home and did not take this into consideration, you should call an arborist immediately. Your tree may have had its root system significantly disrupted, and may die without proper care.
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Your tree may be stressed because it is diseased, or diseased because it is stressed. Either way, a professional arborist can help you identify and treat the problem. Diseased trees often have blotched, spotted, blistered, discolored or mildewed leaves and bark. A professional arborist has options for saving the diseased tree, but you must act as soon as" possible.
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Pests and parasites not only further stress a tree’s health, but many can sense a stressed tree and are drawn to the rotting bark or branches. Leaf Galls, Trig galls, mites, aphids, bark beetles, and wood borers are just a few of the insects plaguing trees in the Midwest.
Borers are particularly damaging, as they tunnel through your tree, disrupting its life support. |
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Damage |
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Age |
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Improper growth |
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Co-Dominant stems are a very common growth problem in trees. This occurs when a trunk produces two stems in a V configuration that are roughly the same thickness and weight. This provides constant pressure at the center of the tree and will eventually lead to a split trunk. Ice storms, high winds, and the weight of snow can have disastrous results on a tree with a co-dominant stem. Cabling and Bracing are great solutions to help trees with co-dominant stems. Cabling and bracing support the tree at it’s fork, preventing further cracking or splitting. Because this procedure requires penetrating tree stems, it is important to utilize a trained arboris, who can brace a tree without damaging its health. |
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Cabling and Guying are great solutions for age, damage, or other growth issues. A tree's environment can sometimes cause irregularities in growth, especially as the tree ages. This can lead to imbalanced conditions in which main branches create too much weight pressure on the trunk line. Cabling can significantly extend the life of your tree. Main branches can be cabled to the trunk line (as shown on the left).
Aging trees, however, are not the only ones to benefit from cabling. Younger trees who are experiencing irregular growth can be anchored to the ground or to other trees to properly guide vertical growth. |
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Tree removal can be dangerous and unpredictable. Safely removing a tree requires the right combination of techniques (hinging, cabling, notching, etc.), the right equipment, and the right people—like the professionally trained arborists at All About Trees.
Though tree removal may seem like a simple concept, there are several important considerations.
A felled tree still has live roots underground. Often, depending on the type of tree, these roots will attempt to sprout around the former tree, causing saplings to appear all over the property. A professional arborist can disrupt the root system to prevent this from happening. |
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It is important that the stump be removed in such a way that adequate clearance is provided for soil and sod.
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All About Trees carefully cables and gently lowers each tree section, to ensure that the existing lawn and buildings are not damaged. |
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