Hey friends, Ken Lain, The Top 10 Gardener! Storms happen, and sometimes our beloved trees take a hit. But don’t despair! With a little know-how, you can help your tree thrive again. Pruning for recov-ery and repairing broken branches isn’t rocket science, but it does require a touch of care and the right techniques.
Here’s the skinny: first, safety! Wear gloves and grab sharp, clean pruners. Next, assess the damage. For smaller, clean breaks, a prune just above the branch collar (that bump where it meets the main branch) encourages healthy growth. Bigger splits? Consult a pro. Remember, clean cuts heal faster, so aim for a diagonal slice, folks.
And hey, even if your tree looks rough, don’t give up! With proper care, nature’s resilience can amaze you. So grab your pruners, channel your inner green thumb, and give your tree a helping hand. Happy gardening!
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🪴Ken Lain, the Top 10 Gardener
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Welcome to the top 10 Gardener with Master Gardener Ken Lane gardening can be challenging but with Ken’s tips tricks and top 10 advice you’ll reap huge rewards now welcome your garden host Ken Lane and welcome to this week’s edition of the mountain Gardener your host Ken Lane here every week talking about the
Landscapes of Northern Arizona and we’re getting close so my I see that my roses have heavy buds on them large I mean as soon as this Tha happens they’re going to start leafing out I mean within days literally so it’s a good time to plant roses especially uh
Uh pre-rooted type of roses this is when you get your most most exotic or new varieties of roses so they’ve landed at the Garden Center this week and available for planting even in the cold as soon as this snow thaws the ground is going to be so easy
To work because the ground didn’t freeze the snow lighted on it wasn’t there was there was no frostline no Ice Line in in the soil and so the snow came and it’s we had a foot and a half at the Garden Center here in Prescot and so that has
Been slowly melting there’s a little bit left my backyard there’s a lot left my front yard that’s more Sunny is just about melted so we’re in the Shady spots it’s going to stick around for a while but as it melts it permeates it just just penetrates deeply into the soil and
So it makes it real easy to plant a new tree real easy to plant roses and these big spruce trees larger things that need a big hole this is your chance and they’re going to like planting the soil is is moist you’re G to add some compost
To that so it’ll keep the soil from compacting back down it’ll keep it hydrated it’ll attract the worms there’s a lot of benefit to it so then they waake when they do finally wake up they’re going to go whoa hey just what look at this this soil is nice and Rich
It’s moist you know I think I should bloom and grow here and so lilacs your big hedge RS of Arizona Cyprus junipers uh your your uh H roses panies are in you can put all those things in right now oh but Ken it’s winter it’s cold out
They don’t care they’re cold they love the cold they like that that’s why you’re planting that’s why you live in a four- season climate you’ve got plants that like growing in Four Season climates including cold Winters and that’s the time to plant those things I did notice quite a bit of damage from
That snow so the Snows from this point through March first part of of April it’s kind of when we we can see a snowy wet cycle the Snows are extremely heavy like this last storm that’s very common and so it lighted on top of some of these branches and they just snapped and
So I I’ve seen a lot of damage on Elms especially the wild um the the Siberian or Chinese Elms those are kind of a trashy tree because they break so easy they’re easily get diseased they throw seed everywhere we don’t even sell them at the Garden Center but they grow
Naturally throughout the area um the ones I had in my yard I cut them down first thing and then I I keep them from coming back because they’re such a weedy tree they’re also called a Widowmaker and so they tend to break branches in wind and heavy snow the same thing can
Be said about Willows uh Globe Willows or or weeping willows they’re very soft wood and so that snow lights up on there and and the the branch gives way cottonwoods especially your your big ones the suan cottonwoods those those ginormous ones I’ve personally nearly had one tried to kill me huge branch in
A wind storm came down and just smacked like 10 feet right behind me right where I’d walked it’s kind of I don’t I don’t do that anymore I walk underneath trees that big soft wood trees uh that’s where you’re better off planting Maples they don’t have they’re not prone to that
They’re harder stiffer the branch structure is such that they don’t break uh Ash Locust bradford pears these are all stronger bigger trees with stronger branches that are less prone to break if you did have some damage not to worry uh if you see that Branch you got obviously
You gota you got to cut that out you’re going to have to prune your way out of that damage so if it’s sitting there limp laying down not quite broken into two but it’s obviously splintered you got to get up and go to the next next y
Or next Branch structure and just cut it off if it’s really a big hole that it’s left in that canopy in that tree well then you fertilize fertilize like fertilize right at right now fertilize so you’ll have to grow your way out of that damage uh it is time to you should
Feel the pressure to get done with your pruning you are down to the wire at this point so if you’re cleaning up opening up your your your fruit trees trying to get the the shape of your shade trees better getting your Vines back cutting back your perennials your ornamental
Grasses you should feel the pressure so a second you can get out there start heavy just start pruning the the uh uh concern I’ve had several customers have is they’re worried about making a mistake you cannot make a mistake while pruning you can you’re more prone to
Under prune you make the mistake by not pruning enough than to prune too much because fertilize if you simply throw a handful of all-purpose plant food at 744 mix underneath it’s G to shoot up it’s going to take that same root structure and use all those nutrients and just
Grow grow like crazy so you can literally grow your way out of it because it’s got it doesn’t have to support as much top growth anymore so you can put all that energy from The Roots up to the trunk and grow even even more that’s the reason that you prune
Back so heavily grapes berries these kind things that put on new fruit on a big New Cane that’s why you’re cutting back so it forces all at the same route pushes more energy creates more new canes or stems or branches and so you get more fruit um so that’s that’s kind
Of critical actually you need to do that your fruit trees need to be opened up if not you’ll get disease and spots and things that happen so they need to see the sun and the air in between a peach tree an apricot a nectarine they want to
See the plums or you’ll get this some the most famous is called shot hole it looks like you took a shot kind of Po right through it and you see little holes through it it’s a bacterial thing that’s eating the sugars in the leaf of that of that tree doesn’t kill it just
Makes it look a little rough it grows its way out of it typically but if you simply prune and open up those that Branch structure you get less you get less it can just breathe better so you should feel the pressure start doing that if you had a major Branch at the
Trunk level that’s a hard one so if you let’s say you had a double branch and it split in two maybe didn’t fall to the ground but it’s kind of there a little Insider tip I fixed a couple trees that have done that and this is kind of sound
Funky it’s just bear with me for a second so you head down the hardware store and you get a piece of all thread so they make this big long it’s like a nut a bolt with thread all the way through it and you can put a nut with a
Washer on both sides so I’ll literally just take a drill usually it’s about a half inch drill it all the way through the trunk put your all thread through the tree and then take some big nuts with some washers on I just simply crank it down until it brings that thing back
Up back together I’ve actually had some trees go decades in fact the all thread finally disappeared because the tree kept growing around the all thread you got to remember you don’t want to take a chainsa through that area or they’ll be bouncing around you see Sparks but but
It’s a easy way a good way a viable way it doesn’t hurt the tree way to drill a hole through it trees don’t feel that in fact the only living tissue on a tree is that outer cambian layer just underneath the bark it puts on a new ring of wood
Every year and so that’s the new the new uh the new living piece of that so to put a little bit little pinhole through that it’s not even a big deal the plant doesn’t even feel it the rest of the inside of that tree is pretty much dead
Material really what it forms is it it as that material uh fades it puts on that new new set of wood those the interior really turns into straws it’s this carbohydrate kind of stuff that just Wicks water up and down the length of that tree it’s made to be a it’s not
A spongy thing but it just actually I just think of it as a whole bunch of straws put together so that water go up and down the tree that’s what the inside of the tree is it’s not actually living material it’s last year’s material left over to take water up and down or
Nutrients up and down the tree it’s trees are fascinating just fast how they’re designed that’s why bark Beetle are so dangerous in a pine tree they get underneath the bark and they’re only focused on the living tissue part they’re eating just underneath the bark and if they eat all of that they girdle
The tree the tree dies it just literally you cut off a lot of the nutrients just underneath the bark the living material can’t get up and down the tree so the tree Fades all at once like in may just like in in a few days C clapsis we have
A lot in store for you that’s how you take care of trees pruning I’ll be right back with Lisa Waters Lane right after this hi Waters with the plants of the week and our double pink Linton Rose stunning double pink flowers dangle from this amazing perennial this flower
Stands apart from the rest for its tremendous color impact that starts in midwinter and then holds its blooms right through spring so tough it’s rarely bothered by bugs and completely deer proof Waters Garden Center 1815 Iron Springs Road in Prescot where people who love new pink perennials they love to
Shop you’re listening to Garden Master kin Lane owner of waters Garden Center in presca join his daily podcast for timely Garden advice seasonally right for the gardens K can be found throughout the week at Waters Garden Center in Prescot or through his website at top 10 gardner.com