- Planting and pre-planting advice
- Formative pruning
Formative pruning is specific pruning undertaken when the tree is in juvenile form, usually in the early years after planting or at the nursery prior to lifting and onward sale to the end user – a supplier or client.
It is undertaken to produce a tree with desired form, which will influence the final shape and form of the mature tree and has the purpose of removing unwanted features that may cause long term problems for the development of the tree.
Examples of formative pruning include removal of competing stems (co-dominance); removal of crossing or poorly formed limbs and the creation of a sound structural framework of limbs throughout the canopy.
Investment in formative pruning can reduce long term management costs as it is better and more cost effective to be pro-active in tree management terms rather than reactive.
- Crown lifting/raising
Crown lifting or crown raising is carried out to increase the vertical distance between the ground level and the lowest branches (bottom of the canopy). This is to undertaken to achieve a number of goals:
- To allow access below the tree
- To comply with Highways Act (clear height on footpaths and roads)
- To improve views
- To increase light incidence to low growing shrubs
- To produce good quality timber for processing or conversion
- Crown cleaning
This is the removal of dead, dying, damaged, diseased and dangerous limbs throughout the crown for aesthetic reasons and/or safety.
- Crown reduction
This is the most significant pruning method available whereby it is the intention of the competent arborist to make the crown of the tree smaller without unduly spoiling the overall shape. Each pruning cut is made to a suitable fork, side limb or branch and stubs should be avoided. It is undertaken for a number of reasons:
- To reduce the weight of potentially dangerous limbs
- To re-balance a mis-shapen tree
- To prevent a tree obstructing or damaging a building or property
- To reduce the overall size of a tree
- Crown thinning
Crown thinning is carried out where the density of the canopy is reduced without changing the overall dimensions or shape of the tree and is normally undertaken in conjunction with crown cleaning. It is undertaken for a number of reasons:
- To allow more light through the canopy to property or for better ground level shrub and tree growth
- To reduce wind resistance and therefore reduce the likelihood of limb, stem or whole tree failure
- To reduce the overall amount of foliage and thus reducing the water demand by the tree therefore reducing internal stress
- To reduce the volume of water absorbed out of the parent soil and therefore reducing the effect the tree may have on building foundations and property
- Pollarding
The technique, more commonly seen in use in France, is a positive management pruning regime whereby the tree is deliberately cut to specific points from which vigorous new growth will appear forming a tight, dense new crown. This new growth is then repeatedly pruned back to those same pruning points (pollard pruning sites) over a number of years. The first initial prune is often seen as drastic but it has the benefit that once the cyclical pruning regime has been established, the new growth is limited by design and as such a tree can be maintained in a location, where if it were to be left to its natural growth pattern and design, would need more drastic and severe pruning at a later stage.
- Felling/Sectional Dismantling
Felling is where the tree is removed completely in one specific cutting method. It is the most dramatic and rapid method of tree removal but some with some significant safety concerns. Once the final cut has been put in and the tree starts to fall, unless undertaken by a trained operator, it could fall in any direction with obvious consequences.
Sectional Dismantling is a skilled process whereby the tree is dismantled in a safe controlled manner, literally piece by piece or limb by limb. It can either be undertaken in hand held sections of by using aerial rigging and lowering systems to remove larger sections. This method is employed where space is limited or where obstructions are present such as buildings, power cables etc.
- Brushwood chipping
All arisings (the products of tree surgery) are usually processed through a brushwood chipper. Depending on size of machine wood up to 6” in diameter can be chipped for removal from site or for retention by the client for paths, weed suppression or for mulch for later use, once it has been broken down.
- Stump grinding
Stump grinding is the process of mechanical cutting out of the resultant tree stump from a felling or dismantling operation. We have a range of machines to cope with all types and sizes of stump. The arisings are usually left on site for incorporation into the soil as part of a landscaping option, but can be removed and replacement topsoil imported to replenish and backfill the stump site.
- Hedge Cutting
- Aerial Inspections and Surveys
- Dangerous Tree Works
- Highway Street Tree Maintenance
- Management Plans
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