Why Weight Reduction is Essential for Trees
Is your tree canopy becoming dense? While it may look full and lush, it is important to have your tree pruned by a professional arborist for weight reduction every two years. Here’s why.
Weight reduction is a pruning technique that involves the gentle reduction of lateral branches on a tree.
By reducing your tree’s spread through selective (selective being the key word!) branch removal, you are maintaining its good health, natural form and structural integrity.
Care needs to be taken not to remove branches that are the critical to the support structure of the tree. Like walls in a house, some branches form the foundation of the tree and if they are removed will jeopardise your tree’s stability.
It is also important not to remove large sections of the tree at a time as this will affect how wind passes through and will make it more susceptible to storm damage – removing about 10 to 15 per cent is optimal.
Performing tree weight reduction every two years means you will:
- Minimise storm damage by allowing more wind to pass through
- Maintain tree health and appearance
- Reduce interference with nearby power lines and property
- Introduce more sunlight for other vegetation, and you!
Weight reduction is the main preventative measure to ensure your tree isn’t damaged in a storm. This is because weight reduction allows wind to pass through the tree, rather than pushing up against branches and foliage with such force that strains, and sometimes topples, the tree.
A professional arborist is trained to know what branches to remove in order to increase your tree’s core stability and allow for wind to pass through.
Also, if there’s one thing we know about trees, it’s that they don’t always grow how or where we want them to.
Particularly in urban areas, trees are competing for sunlight, so branches tend to grow further out than they normally would, becoming weak and unstable over time.
Removing unwieldy branches via weight reduction pruning will help keep your tree looking great and in good health – putting its energy back into branches that are critical to maintain its core strength.
This corrective measure means you can continue to live harmoniously with your tree in the urban environment for many years to come.
Always use a qualified arborist for weight reduction and ensure they adhere to the Australian standard “AS 4373-2007 Pruning of amenity trees”.
Arborcraft Tree Services are specialists in Melbourne tree pruning.
Here are some perks when you choose Arborcraft:
- 100% satisfaction guarantee
- 100% no-damage guarantee
- We help you get the appropriate insurances and certificates, if required
- We have all the appropriate safety documentation for large-scale commercial work
- All by-products are recycled in our log-disposal facility. We can take the debris away, cut it for you for firewood or produce mulch for you from your job!
- We also have a stellar reputation…take a look at the Brands That Trust Us and our Testimonials
Ready to prune your tree? Contact us for your free quote today.
