Winter is the best time for light pruning and to inspect your hardwoods for dead wood and sucker-growth. While large green limb removal is not indicated for deciduous (lose their leaves in Winter), it is still the best time for light pruning and to inspect your hardwoods for dead wood and sucker-growth. While the trained eye can spot such hazards in any season, all the rain we had last year has produced thick, heavy canopies which can block widow-makers (scientific term for dead wood) from sight.
Removing “suckers” (very small “limbs” which grow in the middle of oaks, ash, hickory etc. which are not attached to the heart-wood of major trunk and branches, but do grow on them, getting nutrients from the cambium layer, just inside the bark and water from rain on their leaves), in addition to removing deadwood, will reduce weight and “sail” and produce a better view of the architectural value of the natural tree and is one of my specialties. It makes a HUGE improvement to the trees appearance and if you’re selling a home, can add value well above the cost of the procedure.
Last year we had record rainfall and deciduous trees canopies have grown faster thus bigger than usual. Some will be tempted to have their trees topped. Topping is NOT an approved or healthy pruning method and we do not do topping. We do, however, do “CROWN REDUCTION” via an approved, healthy method, called “DROP-CROTCHING.” Deciduous* trees (my spell-check is down, plz forgive) are trees which “decide*” to lose their leaves each fall.
Many people have lost their satellite signals. The best remedy is NOT topping, but drop-crotching or removal altogether (I will top a gum or poplar but it will cost more than removal. Topping conifers (pines and other evergreens which reproduce through cones) kills them. I will not remove a “Legacy” hardwood i.e.: oaks, ash, hickories etc. though I have been asked. A legacy tree is usually huge (6′ or more diameter at chest-level) and over a hundred years old.
MANY DON’T KNOW THIS, BUT THE OLDEST TREES ON EARTH ARE SWAMP CYPRESS TREES IN CERTAIN PARTS OF NC! Take THAT!, Pacific NW! Core samples reveal some to be 2,500+ years old! I AM A TREE HUGGER, so I know how and when and even IF a tree should be pruned as hardwoods cannot sustain great amounts of large-limb removal when they are running sap and growing (Spring thru mid fall or until they go dormant for winter). This is why you call me. This and I don’t break your stuff and do a meticulous clean-up, especially in manicured-lawn&garden areas. Today is June 20, 2019. I will update as needed or if I observe something tree parents (they would, should outlive us).
For a free estimate within 20 miles of UNC or a $35 estimate (credited to your estimate if you hire us) outside 20 miles + Don’t forget to mention, AFTER* you get your estimate, if you are a school teacher, military family or first-responder *Report your eligibility for discount after you receive your estimate to assure it is not “baked into the bid” as some businesses, in all industries, might do. Not saying my competition does this. Call my cell, Mark, 919-968-9469.