Pruning My Dawn Redwoods at the Farm
We're getting lots of outdoor work done around my Bedford, New York farm despite the hot and humid summer weather.
My outdoor grounds crew has been very busy pruning, shaping, and cleaning some of the groves and allees. Proper pruning is necessary to maintain the health of the plants, prevent disease, and to encourage good growth. It's also important for any surrounding specimens that may be affected by overcrowding or over-shading. Now that I am spending so much time at home, I can work more closely with the crew to develop an ongoing list of tasks - there's always so much to maintain around a farm. This week, the team limbed up many trees along the carriage roads including the dawn redwoods near my chicken coops.
Enjoy these photos.
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- The crew has been trimming many of the trees along the back carriage road leading to my tennis court and chicken yard. Yesterday, they tackled the grove of tall dawn redwoods, Metasequoia. The branches had grown so fast over the past year that I could not see the chickens or the coops as I drove by.
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- Dawn redwoods grow faster than most trees. A natural dawn redwood that grows in the ground requires little trimming, as it forms a natural triangular shape throughout its life, but the lower branches need occasional pruning to look their best.
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- Here is a small dawn redwood that was planted not long ago. This was about the size of the trees when I first planted this grove.
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- And look how tall those trees are now. These trees thrive here at the farm.
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- The dawn redwood has feathery, fine-textured needles that are opposite each other and approximately a half-inch long. Don’t confuse them with the bald cypress needles, which grow alternately. These dawn redwood needles will turn shades of red and brown before falling – it is one of the few deciduous conifers.
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- Pasang is an excellent pruner – he’s had a lot of experience with trees. Here he is with all his equipment. I always remind the crew to bring everything they may need to every job, so they don’t have to run back and forth to the Equipment Barn.
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- For pruning these dawn redwoods, Pasang uses this telescoping pole pruner from STIHL. It has a quiet, zero-exhaust emission, and is very lightweight. Plus, with an adjustable shaft, the telescoping pole pruner can cut branches up to 16 feet above the ground.
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- For larger tree branches Pasang makes two cuts to safely remove the limb without stripping any bark. The first cut should be about a third to halfway down the branch.
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- Cutting in sections also prevents splitting and allows the large portion of the branch to fall and not tear into or damage the tree.
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- Pasang cuts off the remaining branch by cutting back to the branch collar.
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- Here is what is left – clean and undamaged.
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- Here are two cuts. The cut above was just made, while the cut below was made last year. The bark of the dawn redwood becomes deeply fissured as the tree matures.
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- Pasang also uses a telescoping pole saw. This tool is lightweight and has a very sharp blade for making smooth cuts. It is ideal for pruning higher branches that are not too thick.
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- Pasang looks for dead or crisscrossing branches. Here is one of the dead branches – it is very woody and quite brown.
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- This is a live branch, which was growing too low on the tree. Notice the difference – it is very light in color with an almost pink-brown center.
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- As branches are removed, they’re gathered and placed into a tidy pile, so they can be cleaned up easily and quickly.
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- Then, Domi gathers all the branches and takes them to the chipper where they are cut up and recycled for use in other beds – nothing is ever wasted at the farm.
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- Domi carefully feeds them into the mouth of the machine, so the sharp moveable blades can cut them up into small pieces. These chips are then sprayed back into the woods.
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- By the afternoon, all the redwoods are properly limbed-up and all the cut branches are chipped.
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- Look how clean and clear it is in this area – and yes, I can now see the long chicken yard and all my gorgeous and productive chickens, Guinea hens, and geese.
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- Here’s another great view of the newly limbed-up dawn redwoods in front of my chicken coops. It is all well worth the efforts to have well-manicured, healthy trees.
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