While you should always rely on a licensed arborist or professional tree trimming service in San Jose to handle the more complex tasks on your property, the average DIY’er can usually handle the simpler pruning or trimming tasks on smaller trees. In the San Jose area, the best time to prune trees is during winter or the dormant season. If you’re a first-time homeowner, you may be wondering what tools are required for this for pruning and trimming your trees.
Before you start a DIY tree trimming project, do some research and familiarize yourself with the proper way to cut branches off your trees. Once you are ready to start trimming and pruning, the following are the 3 tools that are most recommended by arborists or tree trimming specialists in San Jose:
Hand pruners or pruning shears – these are ideal for the cleaner, simpler cuts on shrubs and thinner tree branches (1” diameter maximum). Bypass pruning shears work best for touching up smaller, live branches. Similar to scissors in appearance, the tool is recommended for trimming smaller twigs that are positioned at awkward angles. On dead branches and twigs, anvil shears are recommended because they have a straighter, knife-like edge.
Loppers – one of the more common tools that tree services use are called “loppers.” They have the same type cutting mechanism that pruning shears have except that the handles and the cutting blade is much sturdier. These can prune and trim branches that measure up to 2” in thickness. Just like hand pruners or pruning shears, you can find loppers in anvil or bypass varieties. You’ll use these in much the same way as you would anvil and bypass hand pruners. In other words, use anvil loppers to remove dead branches and limbs and the bypass variety to cut those that are still living.
Pole pruners – tree trimming professionals in San Jose use pole pruners on a frequent basis because they were designed for removing branches and limbs that are much harder to reach. These tools typically extend anywhere from 10’ to 15’ which makes it possible to reach most of the deadwood in any variety of tree. When you purchase a pole pruner, be sure it has a bypass type cutting blade as well as a pruning saw. The bypass blade can handle any branch or twig up to 2” in diameter while the pruning saw will help you remove branches that are slightly larger.
On a precautionary note, avoid climbing a ladder to trim growth that is too high up in the tree and don’t try to prune or trim growth that is situated near power lines. These tasks are best left in the hands of a professional tree trimming service in San Jose.