Talked to an old timer in Asheville about pruning cuts, now I second guess everything

Ran into a retired arborist at a job site in Asheville last week. He watched me make a flush cut on a red maple and just shook his head. Said I was leaving the tree open to rot and that I should leave the branch collar every single time. I've been doing it the textbook way for 7 years, but he showed me a tree he pruned 15 years ago that healed completely. Made me wonder how many of my trees will have problems down the road. Has anyone else had their whole approach flipped by a random conversation like that?

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fiona3301mo agoMost Upvoted

That old timer might have saved you a lot of headaches. The textbook stuff works, but it doesn't always match what trees actually do in the real world. I used to make flush cuts all the time too, thought it looked cleaner. Then I saw a couple of trees I worked on years ago starting to hollow out right where I cut, and that changed my whole mind on it. Leaving that collar is such a small thing, but it makes a huge difference for how the tree seals itself up. Good on you for listening, most folks would've just shrugged it off.