Clients who demand a perfect clean cut on every branch drive me nuts

Last Tuesday I had a homeowner in Oak Park who wanted every single limb cut flush with the trunk, no stubs at all. I tried explaining that a proper pruning cut leaves the branch collar for healing, but he just kept pointing at his neighbor's tree (which looked butchered, honestly). After 3 hours of arguing and making micro-cuts on a mature silver maple, I told him I'd finish the job but wouldn't skip the collar on anything over 2 inches. Has anyone else had a customer who just won't listen to basic tree biology?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliverbailey5d ago

Yeah, tell em to look up the tree's own healing system on their phone instead of YouTube.

jana_miller315d ago

I read a study a while back that said trees actually take longer to heal from flush cuts because you're removing the branch collar's natural callus tissue. Makes sense when you think about it, but try telling that to someone who saw a perfectly smooth cut on a YouTube video. Your silver maple probably would have healed in half the time if he'd just let you leave an inch of collar.