Our Tree Pruning Service in West PA
Let Us Prune Your Trees
Masters of 10 Tree Pruning Methods
American National Pruning Standards
We Liberate 7 Tree Pruning Benefits
Arborist on Staff
Affordable and FREE Pruning Quotation
Tree Pruning Meaning
Based in science, tree pruning is the arboricultural practice of selectively cutting branches of a tree with a specific tree-related aim in mind, such as:
- managing your tree’s growth and vitality
- clearing rights of way of obstructive branches
- improving the structure of your tree
- enhancing fruit tree production
- improving appearance of your tree
- reducing risk of damage to persons or buildings
Our tree pruning service is focused on finding and pruning broken, diseased, dead or hazardous tree branches. These are the parts of your tree that will threaten either its health or the safety of nearby people and buildings. In this way, pruning is like tree trimming. However, from our range of ten pruning-related services described below, you can see that this is a more nuanced and detailed field of professional activity.
Our Professional Tree Pruning Services
Amongst the other tree services we provide, Beaver County Tree Service is a tree pruning company. We love being your preferred service choice to prune your trees. Between the seniors of our crew, we have more than 15 years’ pruning experience and a formal arborist certification.
You’re right to be selective on who cuts your trees because they are valuable. Mature trees in great condition can add 7% onto the value of your home according to clever people at Penn State Extension – https://extension.psu.edu/pruning-landscape-trees . On a property worth $400,000 without trees, that a handy boost of $28,000!
However, you’ll only realize this real gain if your trees are in great condition. To achieve this and 6 other key pruning benefits , Beaver County Tree Service offers a professional tree pruning service with 10 unique flavors to residents and business customers in Beaver County, Pennsylvania and nearby. All 10 are listed below.
It’s a win-win for you and your tree
Our arborist is trained to carefully inspect your tree’s condition prior to any pruning takes place. We are committed to the health and long-term vitality of your tree. Therefore, any pruning work you require will be enhanced by this key principle. You, the homeowner, wins with a higher property value and your tree wins by living longer.
Our 10 Tree Pruning Services
1. Thinning Pruning Service
We prune trees this way to help control fungal and other infections attracted by shade and moisture in a tree’s canopy. We will first remove dead, broken and crossing branches. This initial ‘cleaning’ stage may be sufficient to allow the ingress of both sun light and air flow into the tree’s crown. If not, we will then carefully select live branches for removal as needed.
There’s another reason that we may select additional live limbs for removal. Arboreal research reveals that thinning pruning a tree’s crown lowers the tree’s wind resistance by reducing its ‘sail effect’. This lessens the likelihood of storm damage to your trees.
2. Crown Raising Pruning Service
Branches low on the tree may need pruning to:
- increase light levels underneath the tree crown; or
- ensure the safe passage of vehicles and people on nearby roads, drives and sidewalks; or
- avoid damage or scraping of buildings or fences close-by
We will safely prune branches that hang over driveways, easements, public paths, power lines and other valuable structures.
3. Structural Pruning Service
Co-dominant, central leaders of trees can lead to problems later in the tree’s life. This is because a weak point develops where the stems join either through ‘included bark’ at the junction or by splitting or both as the tree grows and more load is placed on the branches.
The solution is to spot the problem before the tree becomes too big. The right pruning cut will create a single dominant stem. If performed when the tree branch is still of a small diameter, this will encourage faster wound healing and lower incidence of rot forming. This serves to improve the tree’s structural integrity and longevity.
Additional, selected tree branches can be removed to ensure proper spacing between main (scaffold) limbs as the tree grows over time.
4. Developmental Tree Pruning (or Formative Pruning) Service
This is very similar to structural pruning described above when applied to addressing defects in young trees. It helps young trees develop a strong, healthy branch architecture as they grow. It helps to avoid the need for more intrusive and potentially harmful tree surgery when fully grown. It also helps avoid the need for costly remedial action such as cabling and bracing.
5. Ornamental Pruning Service
Our certified arborist can create and maintain decorative tree styling such as pollarding, pleaching, and espalier (pictured).
6. Vista Pruning Service
This is the careful removal of certain branches to enhance a specific view. This is frequently done for customers with properties near mountains or lake shores. The strategic thinning of a tree’s branches creates improved views in specific directions towards lakes, valleys, or other attractive vistas.
7. Seasonal Pruning Service
This type of service can be beneficial for the health and vitality of your trees with one proviso; we do not recommend a relentless annual pruning program without regard to your tree species or age. For example, mature trees should be pruned only when necessary. This is because large branches take far longer to seal over, increasing the incidence of rot setting into the pruning cut wound.
Our tree-friendly guide to seasonal pruning is this:
Small/growing trees – annual inspection and prune at 1 to 5 yearly intervals.
Larger/mature trees – annual inspection to check for broken or damaged branches and then only prune at 6 to 10 year intervals.
Fruit trees and flowering trees – prune fruit trees and flowering trees annually
8. Restoration Pruning Service
Storm damage, failure of a major branch or unprofessional trimming practices such as topping or hat-racking can severely disfigure the shape of your tree crown. Rather than remove the tree entirely, it is possible to restore the tree back to its usual shape and structure through restorative pruning. This can only be performed by an experienced arborist using advanced pruning techniques. The aim is to encourage new, healthy growth in the right direction/s over successive pruning cycles.
Our own certified arborist can help! Call us for a chat about your trees.
9. Fruit Tree Pruning Service
Each type of fruit tree needs slightly different pruning care to achieve a consistent and productive harvest of delicious fruit. Get it wrong and you may have a feast and famine cycle of alternative years of abundance and no or very little fruit. However, there are some commonalities for pom and pit fruit trees.
There are 4 possible pruning objectives for your fruit trees:
- The usual 3xD’s – removing diseased, dead and damaged limbs.
- Open up the crown of the fruit tree to air and light to boost fruit production and reduce mildew like infections.
- Encourage growth of sturdy branches to hold all that fantastic fruit you will now grow in your yard. Thin, weak branches will bend and break when the fruits fill out.
- Further deter biennial fruiting phenomenon by hand thinning of fruit clusters in early summer.
Objectives 1, 2, & 3 can be performed in winter when the tree is dormant. We generally follow the actions described in this article: https://modernfarmer.com/2015/02/right-cut/
Aim #4 should happen in early Summer when the immature fruits are visible. The closest process we follow is described here: https://gardening.usask.ca/articles-and-lists/articles-disorders/disorder-alternate-or-biennial-bearing-on-fruit-trees.php
10. Oak Tree Pruning Service
Restraint and timing are very important when trimming oak trees. They should only be pruned between November and February when fully dormant in wintertime. This is because pruning an oak tree between the months of April and October can result in “oak wilt disease”.
Therefore, our prudent approach for oak trees less than 3 years old is focused almost exclusively on the three D’s – prune out dead, diseased or damaged branches. For oak trees 4 years old or more, we additionally prune branches that are growing towards the oak tree’s middle.
Oak trees of any age should not be pruned each year; we recommend every 3 years for younger oaks and no more than every 5 to 8 years for mature specimens, unless limbs are diseased, dead, or broken in some way.
Tree Pruning Benefits
Here are 7 of the many benefits professional pruning services delivered by Beaver County Tree Service provide to your trees and landscape:
- Aesthetics – Keep your trees and yard looking great.
- Increase the value of your property – By up to 7% according to the boffins at PennState Extension. And just one beautiful, mature tree is worth up to $10,000 says the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers.
- Fruit Production – Pruning can increase a tree’s fruit production in terms of both quantity and quality.
- Extend tree longevity – Reducing decay, removing diseased limbs, keeping tree pests under control and opening up the middle of the canopy to air and light can all help a tree live a longer, healthier life. However, pruning is a double-edged sword. Wounds take years to seal and can allow pests and rot to flourish if pruning is done without a tree focused pruning approach. Only use professionals.
- Reduce Risk of Harm or Damage – By protecting your home from the hazardous aspects of growing wonderful trees; and by protect your family and guests by removing weak, rotting or storm-damaged tree limbs.
- Help newly planted trees survive – By protecting your young trees from predators, from sun damage in winter and through formative pruning where required.
- Better fight insect and other infestations – By carefully pruning infected parts of the tree and by removing dead branches that encourage infestation. Call us if you notice something strange feeding or burrowing into your tree. We’ll identify the threat and freely share remedial countermeasures.
Call us or write to us. Use the buttons below. Our FREE estimates cost nothing.
National Pruning Standards We Follow
Thankfully, most of the latest pruning trimming research has been incorporated into simple industry standards for the tree care industry. The Approved American National Standard, ANSI A300 (Part 1)-2017 for Pruning was largely penned by the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA). This important standard countenances against practices harmful to trees. These include flush cuts, topping, hatting, hat-racking, lion-tailing and the use of climbing spurs/spikes, to name a few. The ANSI standard also provides examples of positive pruning objectives. And it highlights practical pruning methods that preserve the health of the tree.
For example, the pruning standard states that a maximum of 25% of a tree’s canopy should be removed in any one growing season. These ANSI standards form the foundation for our own internal training. In this way, it helps to provide a quality pruning service to our customers across Beaver County including in these nearby cities:
Tree Pruning Cost
Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Forestry says they’re more than 130 native tree species and over 60 non-native tree types in our State. We believe them as we’ve worked on the majority of these.
Each tree is also in its own unique site, elevation and could be growing (or dying) next to valuable buildings. Access to the tree could be difficult or it might be easy. Is your tree close to a power line, for example.
And then there’s the size, age and health of your tree – all unique. Naturally, the larger the tree, the more branches it may have to trim and prune.
These aspects themselves are not cost factors. However, the amount of time we need in order to reach the site, prepare our equipment, mitigate any risk to your property or ourselves and complete the pruning work is a key factor.
We are unable to provide a large enough table matrix of cost options to relay all the variables we are likely to encounter with your tree/s. One promise we can keep though; before we leave your property, we will dispose of all the pruned branches.
Simply share details of your tree and about the pruning work required. In this way, we can use our experience and share a broad cost estimate with you. We may follow up with a visit to in some situations. Your pruning cost quotation is proved free of charge. Write to us using the green form below or call us by hitting the red call button.
Tree Pruning Frequently Asked Questions
What time of year is best to prune a tree?
Pruning trees does NOT have to be an annual ritual unless they’re fruit or flowering trees. Dead, diseased, damaged branches can be pruned at any time of the year on any tree. Otherwise, these seasonal timings apply:
Deciduous trees e.g. oak, black cherry, hemlock:
November to February when dormant. Without a clear pruning objective, do not prune.
Exceptions: Walnuts recover faster if pruned end of summer. Call us for other examples.
Coniferous trees (Evergreens mostly) e.g. white pine, fir, hemlock, white pine:
End Feb to early April i.e. before growing season. No pruning necessary without clear pruning objective.
Exceptions: Prune Arborvitae and Yew trees in late Spring. Call us for other examples.
Early Flowering Trees e.g Forsythia, Lilac, Chokeberry
Prune AFTER they bloom in springtime every year.
Late Flowering Trees e.g. Crape Myrtles, Hawthorne, Catalpa:
Prune early Spring to improve flowering later in season every year.
Fruit Trees
Prune in November to February each year. Hand-thinning fruit clusters early summer to curb alternate bearing.
What is the Best Tree Pruning Method?
We list the 10 pruning methods at our disposal for customers above here . Each is best applied to a particular pruning objective. For example, you wouldn’t say that ornamental pruning is better than oak tree pruning when pruning ..an oak tree. However, we can safely say that all 10 methods we use are better for the health of your tree than the 3 we don’t use; topping, hat-racking and lion-tailing.
Call Us: (724) 613-4144How Much Does it Cost to Reshape a Tree?
The average we have charged over the last 3 years is $479. However, this number is meaningless as the cost range is so broad. The reasons that the price range is so wide are detailed here.
How Often Should a Tree be Pruned?
Young trees should be inspected and trimmed every 1-5 years. Mature trees may benefit from a yearly inspection with perhaps a five- to 10-year cycle of trimming and pruning. Fruit trees and flowering trees benefit from being pruned annually.
What Month Should Trees be Pruned?
There are different timings for deciduous trees, coniferous trees, fruit trees and flowering trees. They are each covered in this answer here .
What is the Difference Between Tree Pruning and Trimming?
When either trimming or pruning is performed to the common ANSI A-300 Pruning standard, there is no difference. More prosaically, they are interchangeable terms. Purists attach more weight to pruning as there is a considerable body of horticulturalist and arboriculturist science that has been devoted to different pruning methods and practices over the years. Tree trimming is more often used by consumers as it is a service more often provided and sought commercially.
How Much of a Tree Can You Prune Without Killing It?
Nothing happens fast in a tree so you probably won’t kill a tree immediately even if you ‘top’ it i.e., removal all the canopy and all small & medium sized branches. BUT you will consign the tree to a long death sentence. In our experience, a tree which has been severely pruned will die within 7 or 8 years maximum.
More positively, the American national standards for pruning (ANSI A-300) recommend that tree pruners take no more than one quarter of the tree’s canopy in any one growing season. Any more than that and you risk killing it sooner or later.
Other Services
Our full range of tree services in west Pennsylvania is detailed on our home page here.
We have dedicated service pages for the detail you want on our:
Tree Removal Service
Tree Trimming Service
Land Clearing Service
Tree Cutting Service
