Did you know?

You may come across Pruning Seal or Pruning Paint at your local hardware store or garden shop and consider applying it after your trees’ next pruning. We highly advise against this! Your trees can recuperate from pruning wounds all on their own, and therefore a pruning sealer or pruning paint is not necessary. Sealer can even be detrimental! These concoctions are usually petroleum based, although some include ingredients such as asphalt, and more natural sealants contain aloe Vera gel. Applying these ingredients to a freshly pruned tree can trap moisture and cause fungi and decay. This halts the healing process and prevents and the tree from growing new and healthy wood. If you’ve already applied it, don’t panic! Simply make a new straight pruning cut to the branch big enough to remove the paint, a half-inch should be enough. The new cut will trigger the tree to form a new callus to protect the wound in a natural way. And as always, please make sure your pruning shears are sterilized before use.