DIY Pruning Practices That Could RUIN Your Plant

When it comes to the health of your plants, pruning is key. However, it also happens to be one of the more misunderstood aspects of plant and tree care. For example, many people often confuse pruning for trimming or vice versa. While seemingly innocent, in certain situations, these types of misunderstandings can lead to unintended consequences.

To help shed light on common misconceptions related to pruning, we’re highlighting several DIY pruning practices that could harm your plants. Among these practices are pruning your plants at the wrong time of year, over-pruning your plants, and not tailoring pruning to the specific needs of each plant.


Pruning at the Wrong Time of the Year

Plant being pruned in winter snow in Lakewood, CO.

Although pruning sounds straightforward, there are some nuances property owners should be aware of before attempting DIY pruning. Anyone who lacks awareness of how timing impacts pruning runs the risk of unintentionally damaging their plants.

While professional tree and shrub pruning professionals are trained to know when best to prune a particular plant, many property owners don’t know when to prune or hold off until later. For example, some plants only benefit from pruning once a year at specific intervals. Other plants need multiple prunings per year.

With all of the different plant types and their specific pruning needs, it’s easy to make a mistake. We highly suggest hiring a professional for the job.


Cutting Back Too Many Branches Can Leave Your Plants Exposed

Although it may not cause immediate damage, pruning too many branches of your plant can drastically reduce its food intake. Most plants compensate by growing more foliage. They do this to improve the photosynthesis process. However, over-pruning can also expose the stems of your plant to too much sunlight.

The exposure coupled with the lack of nutrition could make your plant particularly susceptible to illnesses that target weakened plants. One way to avoid these sorts of outcomes is to prune with a specific purpose in mind. For example, you can prune to improve your plant’s blooms. In doing so, you’re less likely to cut back too many branches.


Not Tailoring Your Pruning to the Specific Needs of Each Plant

Pruning plant in Aurora, CO.

Instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach when pruning your plants, it’s best to take your time and learn how and when to prune every plant type on your property. Since some plants respond to pruning differently than others, these details can often mean a lot to your plant’s health. For example, some needle-bearing hedges of the evergreen variety produce little to no new growth when they’re older. If you happened to over prune this type of plant, it might not recover.

An example of properly tailoring pruning to the specific needs of your plants is how pruning a plant in its younger years could make your life easier later on by reducing the need to prune them as they grow. Likewise, some flower-producing plants that bloom perform best if you prune them in the winter.


Give us a call today to take advantage of our trimming and pruning service.

Ensuring your plants get the pruning they need is critical. However, not everyone possesses the know-how to produce positive results consistently. In situations like these, it’s often best to entrust the work to a professional trimming and pruning service. At Tree Keepers, we are experts when it comes to trimming and pruning plants. So, if you have branches that may need to be cut back, you can count on us to get the job done.

We work with businesses, homeowners, and HOAs, so if you’re in Littleton, Golden, Broomfield, or a nearby area in Colorado, we’d like to help. Contact us today at  (970) 465-2474 to schedule our services.

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