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My neighbor told me my pruning cuts were all wrong
He showed me how I was leaving stubs instead of cutting to the branch collar, and after fixing my technique on one maple the tree actually looks healthier this season. Has anyone else had a random neighbor give them a tip that totally changed their approach?
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the_sandra4mo ago
A random neighbor knows about branch collars? That's wild.
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jakegarcia4mo ago
A random neighbor knowing about branch collars is pretty unusual. Most people just hack stuff off. I learned the same lesson from an old guy down the street who saw me butchered a cherry tree. He taught me to look for the ridge where the branch meets the trunk and cut just outside it. My trees stopped getting those ugly oozing wounds that attract bugs. Sometimes the best advice comes from people who have been doing yard work for 40 years, not from a book or a YouTube video.
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alice_wilson733mo ago
Wow, I'm going to disagree hard here! Leaving a stub actually helps the tree compartmentalize faster because it gives the callus tissue a head start on sealing things off before rot spreads too far. I've been cutting flush to the trunk for years and my trees are fine, no rot, no bugs, no issues at all.
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