"Pruning" Maple trees

[Marty Oehlbeck]

Any past discussion or webinars on how to address the various types of undesirable limbs on maples and when to do it?  I have multi-trunk trees, Trees with a smaller shoot coming out near the base, trees with a large branch coming out horizontal for a couple feet then climbing up parallel to the trunk, etc.  Some are obvious candidates to cull but others just need TLC and I'd like to do it correctly.

If it hasn't been covered and you want to come up and shoot some photos while you educate me look me up. Haha

[jerry saab]

I'd suggest you contact your county forester and get him or her to do a woods walk with you. I'm in Erie county  NY  which has cut all kinds of services but still retains a county forester. I've had them out twice over 30 years and their advice is invaluable, not to mention free.  I would think that after he says cull this one prune that one enough times you would get an  idea as to what you can do with which trees, and how to do it. The big plus is that you get a professional giving opinions not just about your questions, but suggestions regarding overall management of your woods. I've attempted similar prunings with less than wonderful results. Sometimes when I take the saw to an undesirable branch it opens the cut to bugs or rot which have a bad effect on the remaining tree, but sometimes it works fine. I'm looking at some front yard maples where I cut off horizontal branches years ago; they're doing great. The power company has been hacking away at these trees' limbs since electricity came to town.

I also have some maples in the woods where I cut one trunk and left the other, results are not so uniformly good. I wonder if the difference is that the roadside trees get good sun and air circulation while the woods trees don't get as much.

[Marty Oehlbeck]

Jerry, Thanks for the reply.  Brett  from Cornell offered to come up in the summer and sample mark an acre for thinning, so I can get some help by picking his brain then.   I was hoping this was an old often-covered topic that I had missed, or a chance to add some value to others.  I always wrestle with how to do my best for the trees.

[Rebecca Hargrave]

Marty, there are a couple of factors to consider when pruning maples. I'm assuming you're considering this purely to increase the volume of clear wood in the tree. With any tree, the ideal time to prune a branch is when it's still small, the smaller the wound the better. With sugar maples, if you're planning on tapping for syrup don't do it in the winter/spring, if you're not planning on tapping- winter is really the best time to prune as there are few microorganisms out that can get into those wounds and cause problems.

Another factor is how well the tree will wall off the wound and start to seal it over. Healthy trees do this faster. Sugar maples are inherently good at this; red maples are not. Pruning a lead off of a multi-stemed red maple could lead to butt rot if the wound is of any good size. Butt rot doesn't do much for value. With any tree you have to weight the size of the potential wound with the potential benefit and time line for your harvest. If Brett's coming out, he can really help you identify which trees are good candidates and which aren't- then there will be a whole bunch of "maybes". My guess is that if the branch is more than a few inches in diameter, you won't see the benefits of pruning it off. In my pruning experience- if I prune off a 4 inch branch, on a healthy tree, it will take 5 or so years to seal over. Then you still have to wait a few more years for clear wood to grow over top of the callused wound until you can't see the pruning scar, which could be a while.

This image is of an oak 5 years after the branch was pruned (8 or so inch branch).

A couple good links that talk about how to decide and how to make the cuts (VERY IMPORTANT TO MINIMIZE DECAY)

Iowa State Cooperative Extension's Pruning Forest Trees: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/pm1133.pdf

and

Missouri Extensions: Pruning Forest Trees: http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G5160

[Marty Oehlbeck]

Rebecca, Thanks for the reply and the link.  I think I'll probably scout out and mark representative candidates for the common types of issues I'm facing and ask Brett's advice on how to handle.