Had a chat with an old timer yesterday that made me rethink my whole approach

He told me I was wasting time with fancy pruning cuts on these city oaks when a clean stub cut gets the same result in half the time. Anyone else ever get told they're overthinking something they thought was gospel?

2 comments

2 Comments

victor_adams1mo ago

Got a buddy who does tree work up in the suburbs, been at it for twenty years. He told me he used to spend all day making those perfect collar cuts on every limb, thinking he was being all professional. One day a client watched him do a whole maple and just laughed, said the old guy down the street chainsaw hacked his trees into shape last fall and they're still growing fine. My buddy tried it on a few jobs, just clean stubs on the big stuff, and he said he cut his time by almost a third with no dieback issues. Now he only does the fancy cuts on the expensive landscape jobs where people actually care.

grantadams1mo ago

Stubs will die back some, just usually not enough to cause real problems on big cuts.