Pruning Maple Trees

Maple is a kind of shedding tree that is planted as an ornamental tree for outdoor landscaping. Maple trees are popular because they are cold resistant and they grow extremely fast. There are many types of maple trees, each with a serene beauty of its own. Maples are known for their leaves that are of totally unequaled shape and make the landscape very awesome when they are fall on the ground during the shedding season. The planting of this tree is done for pure ornamental purpose as they enhance the beauty of both outdoors as well as indoor gardens. Japanese maple trees look great when they are cultivated as a bonsai too.

Pruning of Maple Trees
It is a common misconception that pruning is done only to stop the tree from growing to excessive heights. In fact, almost all trees, including the maple trees need to be pruned as a part of their maintenance, in order to avoid the fraying of the branches on each other. Pruning helps you remove the small unnecessary 'v' shaped crotches, making sure that the tree has a specific size and shape and cleaning up the excessive and damaged leaves and branches. It is important to decide upon the height of the tree, and then think about the pruning. Try to keep the height of the tree to the limit where the branches can be easily reached and pruned. Trees exceeding in height require a professional expert for pruning.

The next important thing is to get to know the 'plant psychology' of your maple tree. Different types of maple trees have their own tendencies to grow in a certain period of time. Knowing the tendency of your plant and applying a little bit of logical reasoning, you can easily do the pruning of maple trees on your own. Pruning young trees can affect the plant, as they bleed sap when they are not fully developed. The pruning of the maple tree should be done when the leaves are fully grown. Decide upon which branches of the tree you are going to prune, before you actually start pruning it.

Instructions
There are many opinions regarding the pruning of maple trees, many support pruning while many are against pruning. Early winter to late fall is the ideal season for pruning maple trees. Here are the maple tree pruning instructions:

• Cut off the branches from the lateral side of the tree near to the healthy part of the tree. Make sure that you cut at an angle just next to the bud, to help the new growth.
• Some people also prefer the process of completely thinning out the plant, which means removing the whole branch from its origin to make the plant grow well. This type of pruning is blatant and not so popular.
• Prune the larger branches that are on a verge of breaking. Make a cut to the large branch at least a foot away from the actual tree trunk making sure that you don't keep back any stubs of that branch.
• Always remove the dead and dying branches and leaves before giving the desired size to the tree. This action will give you the exact idea about the look of the maple.
• Pruning the tree at a single go might shock the tree, so do the it in a step by step manner. Also apply a quality sealant to avoid any kind of bleeding of the sap.

Use garden tools like a sharp pruning shear for pruning, and make sure that you clean the shear with a strong bleach solution to avoid any kind of disease being transferred from one branch to the other.

Maple trees look great when they are pruned and maintained with the proper TLC that they deserve.