HOW TO USE PRUNERS: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO HAND PRUNING

Consider cutting the wood if it's thin enough (less than half an inch) and you're certain of the location of the cut. Pruning does not need any particular skill.

A few minutes of contemplation and a few recommendations may go a long way toward making the pruning process easier on your body and more beneficial for your plants, especially if you're dealing with a lot of shrubs and perennials.

 

Pruning Using Hand Pruners are used to cut soft materials like perennial stems, which aren't made of wood, with precision. Pruning Instruments

Bypass pruners need a precise cutting location: To get the most precise cut, align the blade with your cutting area. When you turn the tool, the exact area where the blade comes through moves by roughly a quarter inch because the blade goes to the side of the heavy base. It's typical to feel the desire to use the instrument "upside down" while cutting near the main stem.

Right-angle shooting is essential. The node should be clipped above the node if your plant has opposite-branching stems. Alternate-branching plants may be trimmed in a straight line, but cutting on an angle away from the node is much better. This prevents rainwater from accumulating on the stem or in the crotch of the bud, which encourages decay.

Cut the wood as deeply as possible using the pruners. Get your pruners all the way open and insert the branch all the way. Using your pruners like scissors, you may be tempted to "snip-snip" wood, but this sloppy cutting technique can wear out your hands and degrade the blade tip.

Make the necessary adjustments and get the job done. Close the loppers through the branch in a single smooth stroke after the wood is suitably positioned.

 

Pruning Tips and Warnings

Make yourself at ease when you're at your desk. When using pruners, the most important issue is that you're relying on your hand muscles to make several cuts. Fatigue and pain are possible consequences of this. Always cut from the deepest area of the blade to generate the most leverage to avoid these issues. Prune using the balls of your hands and finger bases, rather than tip-toeing around them. When a pruner cut fails because of the wood's thickness or density (ironwood is far more difficult to cut than pine), use loppers instead.

To make them more readily available, consider wearing a belt holster with them. Visit a botanical garden, for example, and you'll discover that every gardener has a pruner on his or her belt. Invest in a holster with a hole on the bottom that will hold your pruners securely in place. As a result, wood chips, dust, and other waste may fall out rather than accumulate within.

Don't sever the cables. You'll be tempted to use your pruners to sever a metal wire at some time. You'll permanently nick the blade if you do so, and every cut you make after that will be slightly more difficult. Some pruners, on the other hand, include a tiny notch in which the wire may be put and then cut with ease.

Keep 'em in tip-top shape. Pruning tools that aren't sharpened are worthless and may be replaced with new ones. With Marie Iannotti's gallery of step-by-step instructions on cleaning and sharpening pruners, you're covered.

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