Standards of Excellence- Pruning
Tree pruning
This standard requires the use of pruning standards identified by the Utah Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture, specifically as they relate to the appropriate types of cuts to be made.
- · All cuts shall be made at a branch node or union
- · This standard requires the removal of branches that touch another branch, cross over another branch, basal sprouts, water sprouts, branch attachments with included bark and branches that are growing in a direction that is not appropriate to the correct form of the cultivar of tree.
- · The removal of branch unions with included bark shall be accomplished on a case by case basis. Factors for the decision will be made upon the health of the tree, the potential for branch failure, public safety and the future shape of the tree.
- · Pruning shall cease for the current season if continuation would require the removal of more than 1/3 the total crown surface of the tree, public safety concerns to be the exception.
- · Pruning shall be avoided during leave emergence and leave abscission
- · Spring flowering trees shall be pruned after flowers are spent.
- · The use of wound paint is prohibited by this standard.
- · Dead branches must be removed in the current season.
Shrub pruning
It is the standard for all shrubs to be pruned if needed to their natural form. Flowering shrubs must be pruned to the timed response of its growth / bloom cycle. The following are the general standards:
- · All shrubs shall be pruned to their natural form.
- · The use of hedge cuts shall be prohibited. Stub cuts or hedging cuts will only be used when cutting the shrub to the ground for shrub renewal processes.
- · All cuts shall be made at a branch / bud node or union.
- · Thinning cuts shall be employed to reduce the size and dimension of a shrub.
- · Spring blooming shrubs shall be pruned after their blooms are spent
- · Summer and autumn blooming shrubs shall be pruned before the growth cycle begins in spring.
- · Dead wood can be removed at any time preferably in the current season where the dead portions were observed.
- · Hedge cutting standard under this provision of exception shall have the top of the shrub pruned narrower than the base.