Our Philosophy

We aim to conserve natural resources and avoid environmental damage in a number of ways e.g. formative pruning at an early stage of tree development can save the expense of major surgery later on, whilst also considering wildlife habitats.

Formative Pruning of Young Trees

Hardwoods
It doesn’t matter if an Ash or an Oak is growing in a forest or as a group of amenity trees, the end result is wood fibre mass. It is our duty as professionals to encourage tree owners to look ahead to ultimately produce a useable resource as well as a biological mass which is a host to wildlife and a thing of natural beauty. Every tree will one day be mature and, if managed, can produce timber of quality and value as well as firewood and other by-products.

To have a sustained tree cover in the countryside there must be varying age classes which should entail the removal of over-mature trees for some monetary value which may pay for removal and re-planting in many cases. In forestry situations where trees are planted at close spacings, competition encourages straight stems with a minimum of side branches as shade destroys the chlorophyll in the foliage at low levels and branches die off and fall naturally with no wounds to introduce pathogens. Amenity trees must be pruned at an early age to select the strongest leading shoots and remove twin leaders and shorten side growth at pruning knife stage.

Certain hardwoods such as Oaks have what is called strong apical dominance but weak apical control. This means that the current year's growth is unbranched ie. a strong leader until dormancy. The ripened bud cluster at the shoot tip consists of a well developed whorl of buds surrounding a small weak terminal bud. When spring growth begins, the apical control is soon lost when the cluster of larger buds dominate. It is therefore important to select the strongest side shoot to become the new leader by removing the other shoots before they take unnecessary energy. This formative pruning should be done ideally around June. Young trees should retain shortened lateral shoots up the stem to increase girth and also shade the stem, particularly with Oak, Beech and Hornbeam. The lower spurs should be removed (termed legging up) with a sharp pruning knife as the tree grows.
There should always be two thirds of the total height feathered (unpruned), to one third bare stem as a general rule.

Once the desired stem height is reached, the crown should be allowed to develop naturally unless a twin leader forms.