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TIL a client's mom taught me more about pruning than my cert ever did | Arborists - Vivisector

TIL a client's mom taught me more about pruning than my cert ever did

I was trimming this old oak in a backyard near Portland and the homeowner's 70-something mother came out and watched me for a solid 10 minutes without saying a word. Finally she goes 'you're leaving too many stubs, cut back to the collar or you're asking for rot.' I was a little annoyed at first, but I looked at the cuts I'd made and she was right. I'd been leaving these half-inch nubs because I was scared of cutting too close and damaging the branch bark ridge. She showed me on a branch how to angle the cut so it heals clean, and now I check every single cut I make against the collar before I saw. Has anyone else had some random person on a job site drop knowledge that actually made you better?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantw412mo ago

Got a buddy who does tree work in the Midwest and he told me a similar story. Some old farmer walked up while he was trimming a silver maple and told him he was "gonna make that tree hate him" by cutting too flush. The farmer showed him how to leave a proper collar and now my friend says he hears that guy's voice every time he makes a cut.

fiona_carr262mo ago

That story about "gonna make that tree hate him" really changed how I look at pruning.

blair702mo ago

Three summers ago I watched a guy nearly kill a 50 year old oak by cutting the collar clean off on a major limb. That tree still has a wound you could stick your fist in. @fiona_carr26 probably already knows this but the old timers really did have this stuff figured out through watching trees die from bad cuts over decades. My buddy tried the "flush cut" method once on a sugar maple and the next spring the rot was already working its way down the trunk. Guess that farmer's voice was right all along.