Tree Trimming & Pruning in Shreveport, LA

Tree trimming and pruning is how most big trees around Shreveport get to stay. A water oak with one heavy limb over the bedroom, a pecan with a tight V-shaped fork, or a pine dropping dead branches on the carport can often be made much safer with the right cuts instead of a removal. Good pruning takes out dead and weak wood, reduces the weight on long limbs, and opens the crown so wind passes through it rather than pushing against a solid sail of leaves. Bad pruning, especially topping, does the opposite: it leaves big wounds that rot and sends up a mass of weakly attached sprouts that break in the next storm.

How we prune

We follow the ANSI A300 pruning standard, which is the industry's reference for how and where to cut. In practice that means cutting just outside the branch collar instead of flush with the trunk, taking long limbs back to a lateral branch instead of stubbing them, and not removing more of the live crown than the tree can afford in one visit. Climbing spikes are not used on trees that are being kept, because each spike wound is an opening for decay. Most shade-tree work is a mix of four cuts: cleaning out dead wood, thinning, raising the lower crown, and reducing limbs that are too long or too close to the house.

The Shreveport trees we prune most

Water oaks and willow oaks get the most attention, because they grow fast, carry long heavy limbs and are among the less wind-firm trees in Louisiana according to LSU AgCenter. Pecans tend to form included bark in tight forks and drop limbs in summer storms, so we look closely at their unions. Live oaks, which hold up well in wind, mostly need their long lateral limbs reduced and lifted off roofs and drives. Pines need little shaping, but dead lower limbs and broken tops are worth removing before they fall.

Crape myrtles

Crape myrtles are everywhere in Shreveport, and they are among the most badly pruned trees in the South. Cutting every trunk back to the same height each winter, often called crape murder, leaves knobby stubs and weak shoots. Extension horticulturists in Texas and Arkansas recommend keeping three to seven well-spaced trunks, removing suckers and crossing branches, and taking off seed heads lightly if you like, rather than topping. If a crape myrtle is simply too big for its spot, it may be better to replace it with a smaller variety than to cut it back hard every year.

Timing

Late fall through winter is a good window for most shade trees here: the leaves are off, the branch structure is easy to see, and the work is done before spring thunderstorm season. Spring-flowering trees are best pruned right after they bloom. Dead, cracked or hanging limbs over a roof or a play area are handled whenever they show up.