arborist

[arbortr]

I'm an arborist in maine and have a customer that wants a mature black locust pruned. Mostly I'll be taking off deadwood, but there will be some live material that I will have to thin. It's been a long time since I've pruned a black locust, and that was when I lived in Idaho. I've no idea what time of the year it was. I've two seperate sorces: an out-dated book called "How to Prune Anything" that says prune summer/winter; a sorce on the internet that says best time to prune is september/october. It's the beginning of march and has been very cold this winter. The temperature is just starting to warm up. Does anyone know it I can prune it now? My bat sense says no.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Robinia is a pretty sturdy plant, they have very few pest problems, at least here in SE WI.

The only caveat is to avoid when the bark is slipping, they tend to be thin barked on young wood and ropes and feet can cause separation

 

[md_tree_dood]

In this economy, if the guy is willing to pay you, prune it whenever you can get the work. Timing in my opinion is really only important for fruit tree pruning, transplanting, and maybe, young tree pruning. If it's a mature tree, it's not going to make enough difference when you prune it to pass up the work.

 

[green leaf]

When we had an October snow storm in southern Ontario a few years back we had to trim a lot of locusts from October until summer. Living in the same area I have had the chance to monitor all the trees over the past couple of years and I would have to say that locusts have recovered the most quickly out of all the tree species in our area. Hope it helps.

 

[tomtrees58]

you can prune them aney time thear a hardy tree tom treesopcorn:

 

[LTREES]

you can prune them aney time thear a hardy tree tom treesopcorn:

 

[arbortr]

Green leaf

Even though Robinia pseudoacacia is a tree that is quite resilient and can take pruning any time of the year, many are not. Would you prune an elm tree any time of the year? I am very careful when I prune any kind of tree. I take great care not to cause the tree any more stress than I have to. There are times when there is no choice, but most of the time there is a choice. The less stress, the less problems you will have in the long run. It is even more crutial on mature trees to prune them at the right time of year. They do not have the same recupritive powers that young trees have. Customers will start to take notice if trees that you are pruning begin to decline, and you will actually loose business and that money that you made by making the quick buck on a improperly timed tree pruning. I Know because I have my own business, and I have plenty of work, even in this economy. The minute you put integrity on the back-burner you "fly by night" Sorry Greenleaf, I mean MD Tree Dude