Tucson Aleppo Pines

How to maintenance your Aleppo Pine tree

What are pine trees?

Pines are trees with whorled branches. Their "leaves" are clusters of two to five needles, but they occasionally have more or less needles per cluster. The trees bear cones and have a seed under each scale of the cone.

How are pines trimmed?

A pine may be trimmed at any time of year. When trimming a large branch or shortening the trunk, leave a stub and do not cut deeply into the trunk. This will prevent overgrowth and thick callus formation. The residual stub may be cut off in three or four months and smoothed over without excessive overgrowth.

Branches should only be shortened back into the needled portions. Never trim past the green needles as the branch will probably not resprout. Pines will not only grow reliably from existent buds or from latent buds hidden in the green needle clusters. Most pines will not sprout new buds from wood older than five years.

Never to trim off more than 20% of the tree's needles or more than one large branch a year. If you exceed this limit you may have a dead pine or one whose growth is retarded so severely that it should not be styled for several years or until its vigor returns.

Pines grow most strongly at the tips of branches and towards the top of the tree. Thus to balance the tree's vigor and appearance, it is necessary to discourage the to top the tree and the tips of the branches while encouraging the inner and lower buds. This is easily accomplished by pruning the top of the tree and tips of branches more than the other areas.

Over years of cultivation, remove whorled branches and ultimately leave only one or two branches from each whorl. In the bottom one-third of the pine do not remove any branches until there is good taper, and/or there is strong "knobbing" occurring. By knobbing I refer to the development of significant bulge from the trunk where several branches emanate

Some pines knob easily and early and should be watched carefully to prevent this development. Leaving one branch per whorl usually will eliminate knobbing.

Aleppo Pine Tree      

General Tree Trimming