Late Winter-Early Spring Pruning
By Vernon Quam, Jamestown City Forester Late winter and early spring can be one of the safest times to prune many types of trees and shrubs. Fireblight is a bacterial disease of apple, crabapple, mountain-ash, pear, and cotoneaster shrubs. The best time to prune these trees to prevent spread is now. The tell-tale sign of fireblight are dead leaves and the curved branch tips called ‘the Sheppard’s Crook’ are still visible to identify the diseased wood. Check the stem for the cankered area which appears as if someone took a torch and scorched the branch. Follow the cankered area to healthy wood back about 10”and cut the branch at that point. It is important to dip your saw or pruning shears into a 10% chlorine bleach and water solution after each cut. After you complete pruning for the day, rub some oil onto your pruning tools to prevent corrosion.
Other diseases that should be removed during the month of March are dead or dying branches of Colorado spruces due to Cytospora canker. These are identified by dieback in lower branches and a presence of a bluish white sap from the lower sides of the branches. These branches should be removed back to the trunk. Cytospora is fungus disease that invades the lower branches and moves back to the trunk but does not infect the trunk of the tree. The spores are released in the bluish sap which carried to other branches. Trees infected by this disease for several years are characterized with dead lower branches at the bottom of the tree gradually moving up the tree.
If you have shrubs or hedge that is getting ‘leggy’, over grown with few lower branches, this is the best time to rejuvenate these. Rejuvenation begins with a severe practice of cutting the shrubs or entire hedge down to the ground. By doing this time of the year, most of the nutrients are stored in the roots and not up in the stems. The following spring as the shrub comes out of dormancy all the nutrients go to new growth. This growth will be faster because of a mature root system requires foliage for food production. Before long you shrub or hedge will return to its original height but denser.
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