Horticulture/Pruning
Pruning is the removal of plant material in order to improve the shape and/or health of a plant.
Herbaceous plant pruning:
Woody plant pruning:
- Terms:
- Leader: A main branch, generally vertical and with side branches (laterals).
- Lateral: A horizonally held branch coming off a leader.
- Sucker: New stems or trunks emerging from therootstock of a tree or shrub.
- Water sprout: Vertical branches arising from a lateral.
- Crotch: Where two branches are connected at the base
- Included bark: Bark that is squeezed between two branches within a narrow crotch.
- Branch collar: A (generally raised) area on a large branch where the xylem and phloem go around a smaller branch.
- Cambium: The growing tissue between the bark and the wood.
- Dormant bud: Buds on branches or trunks that are not active and generally are not obviously visible on the bark.
- Bleeding: Loss of sap due to unhealed cuts and/or diseased tissues.
- Stub: Part of a branch that remains after the main part is removed by pruning or other causes.
- Types:
- Coppicing: Cutting a tree or shrub to the ground or nearly so.
- Thinning: Reducing the density of branches to allow air or light to penetrate the canopy.
- Fine pruning: A pruning technique where cuts are "hidden" as much as possible in order to leave the tree or shrub looking as if it naturally grew to the resulting form.
- Shearing: Cutting all the branches of a shrub or hedge back to a set line.
- Topping: Cutting the branches of large trees back to a set line
- Pollarding:
- Limbing
- Candling
- Order of business:
- Deadwood
- Damaged and diseased branches
- Rubbing branches
- Crossing branches
- Branches in the way
- Reduction
- Aeration
- Symmetry and form