If you have just acquired a beautiful residence in the middle of a wooded park or an orchard, you will have to, fairly quickly, carry out the maintenance of your new trees. I say "new", but they are probably older than the house you just bought, sometimes even a hundred years old. Where the pruning saw comes in...
Do not rush to the first chainsaw that comes along. Once maintained, these trees that seem sick to you could well spring from their ashes, like the Phoenix. A nice cut, a studied pruning, can be much more effective to give them a second chance.
If your trees are a little too shady, you might want to prune too drastically, which would involve cutting very large branches, or even pruning the tree. Again, let's take the time to study the state of the tree.
If a tree has a condition that I would describe as infectious (bacteria, fungus, etc.), wounds caused by too drastic cuts, even if you use a clean pruning saw and coat them with lacquer fungicide, would risk making the problem worse by not healing. The tree would end up rotting a little more from year to year.
The chainsaw should only be used as a last resort, when your tree is dead or risks contaminating its fellow trees. If this is not the case, you will carry out a maintenance pruning to adapt your tree to its environment.
A tree should not be dangerous. With the pruning saw, you can remove dead wood, all branches that threaten to fall, diseased or poorly implanted ramifications. The cut you are going to make must allow it to develop in its environment without disturbing neighbors, humans or plants.
Ideally, only cut branches with a diameter of less than 5 cm. If you cut branches that are too big, you increase the risk of infection and scarring is less obvious. Place your pruning saw, well sharpened, perpendicular to the branch to be cut, as close as possible to the parent branch. Leaving a piece of branch would contribute to the development of diseases.
Sharpening the saw is essential to make a clean cut. Same thing for disinfection, to be carried out between each tree. Don't forget that your tree is a fragile little being, even if it is 3 meters high or more. The cut parts are no longer protected, so they must be covered:fungicide, antiseptic, see your favorite garden center to find the right protection. Also be careful not to remove more than a third of the head. Otherwise, your tree will develop many suckers that will use up all its reserves and weaken it.
You can quickly find a beautiful ornamental garden if you remember one thing:you can always keep a tree in good health, with a good pruning saw, as long as it has not been felled by the storm or split by lightning.
