Pruning the Pin Oaks

November 18, 2022

Time for some pruning and maintenance on the trees at my Bedford, New York farm.

As the owner of a working farm with many gardens, groves, and allées, I am constantly looking at all the plants and trees, making sure they are in perfect condition. Pruning is one of our biggest and most important tasks. Proper pruning improves the health of the plants, prevents disease, and encourages better growth. There are different pruning strategies for different times of the year, but overall the goals are the same - to control the shape, to keep bushes and trees fresh and open, and to allow for better air circulation through the center of the specimen. This week, my outdoor grounds crew "limbed up" the majestic pin oaks and pruned back the low branches to keep them from hitting any cars on the carriage road and to allow enough light to filter down to the plants below.

Here are some photos, enjoy.

: The pin oak allée is the first allée guests see when entering my farm. These trees are tall and impressive. Pin oaks, Quercus palustris, are popular landscape trees because they are fast-growing and easy to maintain. This is a photo of the pin oaks in June.

: And here they are in September just as the leaves start to turn. On the pin oak, the lower branches tend to droop, the middle branches are horizontal, and branches in the upper part of the crown grow upright.

: Pin oaks have leaves that are three to six inches long, bristle tipped, deeply lobed with wide circular or U-shaped sinuses.

: The bark on the straight, erect trunk of a pin oak is relatively smooth. Shallow fissures develop as it matures, creating a distinctive diamond-like pattern running longitudinally on the trunk with a reddish-brown color in the crevices.

: This is the allée in October. The lower branches are turning golden yellow.

: A couple weeks later all the trees are yellow-bronze in color. Pin oaks are known for the gorgeous fall color they produce.

: In winter, the trees are completely bare. The pin oak is deciduous, meaning it will abscise, or shed, its leaves each fall after dropping its zygote-bearing acorns. The pin oak does so to conserve water and nutrients for the next year.

: But here they are just this past week with some trees still holding strong to their leaves. The last time these trees were pruned was three years ago – they were in need of a good pruning.

: Pasang Sherpa is our resident tree pruner and groomer here at the farm. He oversees a lot of the smaller tree pruning projects. In this photo, he is assessing where he has to cut. The first to go are any dead, damaged, or diseased branches.

: He also looks up to see which branches may be crisscrossing. I instructed them to “limb up” by cutting the lower branches that are hanging too low over the carriage road.

: As he works, Pasang makes sure the branches that remain are in perfect line with those of the other pin oaks in the allée.

: Here he is cutting one of those lower branches.

: Pasang uses a STIHL in-tree saw, which is made especially for those who need lightweight and powerful equipment that can effectively prune and shape high above the ground. I always remind the crew to bring everything they may need to every job, so they don’t have to run back and forth to get equipment.

: Pasang moves from tree to tree in the cage of our trusted Hi-Lo. Because this allée is on a carriage road, it is easy to maneuver the Hi-Lo up and down the road.

: There are a lot of branches to cut, but already there is more light and air circulating through the allée, and one can see more clearly underneath the trees.

: He also uses a STIHL battery powered telescoping pole pruner. It has a quiet, zero-exhaust emission, and is very lightweight. Plus, this telescoping pole pruner can cut branches up to 16-feet above the ground. For larger tree branches Pasang makes two cuts to safely remove the limb without stripping any bark. The first cut should be about a third to halfway down the branch. Cutting in sections also prevents splitting and allows the large portion of the branch to fall and not tear into or damage the tree.

: Then Pasang cuts off the remaining branch by cutting back to the branch collar. Here is what is left – clean and undamaged.

: As branches are taken down, they’re gathered and placed into tidy piles, so they can be cleaned up easily and quickly. After the job is done the crew will chip the branches and use the wood chips as top dressing in another area of the farm. Everything is always reused, repurposed or recycled when possible.