Guide to manual telescopic pruners

Guide to manual telescopic pruners

A yard full of greenery with tall trees and hedges is a dream for many. They provide a sense of serenity, a connection with nature and a greater level of privacy for your home. However, hedges and trees will require regular, ongoing pruning and maintenance to retain their appearance and continue to fit within the constraints of the house and land size. Pruning tall branches and shrubs requires considerable physical effort, which can be dangerous if working on ladders and using the wrong tools. A better solution is using tools specifically designed for high reach pruning, such as telescopic pole saws and extendable loppers, which enable you to undertake these tasks while standing firmly on the ground.  We will discuss why and when you should prune trees and shrubs, and how to choose the right pole saw or lopper for your needs.

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Why prune?

Trees and shrubs naturally want to grow to their genetic limits, choosing the shape, form and size for the environment they are in. In simple terms, pruning is undertaken to change a plant&#;s shape, form, fruit bearing potential, maintain its health, for safety or to restrict its growth.

Pruning for health
Pruning for plant health focuses on removing dead, dying or diseased branches. Disease in trees often enters through tree wounds and dead tissue, where branches have broken or become damaged. Disease can often spread throughout the tree unless measures are taken to remove the diseased part. If your trees or shrubs have any dead, diseased, damaged or dying branches it is important to remove these as soon as possible. Pruning is also important to maintain an open structure which allows free airflow, reducing the risk of pests and diseases taking hold.

Pruning for safety
Often larger trees will experience dieback on some older branches which, depending upon the species, can create a safety issue with falling branches (many Eucalypt species are renowned for this). There may also be instances where branches grow across or close to power lines or houses. It is important to be preemptive in removing these branches before they cause a risk to life or property.

Pruning for tree shape/form
Formative pruning, particularly in early years, will result in a tree or shrub with well spaced, well defined branches and stems which will reduce the possibility of future breakages. It is also easier to care for and manage trees later in their life if early stage pruning has been undertaken.

When to prune trees?

If you are looking to stimulate new growth then pruning in late winter/early spring usually encourages the tree to produce lots of new shoots. Delaying pruning until mid-summer can reduce the amount of growth a tree will have over the growing season. This can also have the benefit of encouraging fruiting/flowering for the next season.

How often should trees be pruned?

For home gardens regular pruning is recommended to limit growth, maintain form and, if desired, to encourage flowering/fruiting. It is much better for tree health to undertake regular, smaller pruning than larger ad-hoc pruning.

Telescopic Pole Saws

Telescopic pole saws are ideal for pruning hard-to-reach branches and palm fronds. They offer a safe, quick way of removing branches from 3cm in diameter right up to large 30cm diameter limbs, and eliminate the prospect of falling off a ladder while holding a saw or lopper.. The telescoping nature of hand operated pole saws make it easy to extend out to the desired length whilst maintaining a safe distance from the branch being pruned.

At Forestry Tools, our recommended pole saws include the Barnel Telescopic Pole Saw (three different sizes), and Silky Hayate 7.7m Telescopic Pole Saw. Both pole saws feature an oval shaped aluminium pole for the best balance between weight and rigidity. The Barnel comes with a quick release, push button pole and toggle pin, enabling a solid position locking and fast installation/removal of the blade from the pole. The Silky Hayate is one of our best sellers and is perfect for professionals pruning large branches at higher positions. It is one of the most robust and fastest telescopic pole saws available due to the thickness of the pole section and the blade construction.

High Reach Pruners & Loppers

While telescopic pole saws provide excellent results for pruning branches and palm fronds they are not as suitable for pruning smaller branches (<30mm) and soft, new growth. For this type of pruning it is best to use a long reach lopper or telescopic pruner, depending upon the task.

At Forestry Tools, we recommend the Nishigaki Futomaru 2m Lopper and the Bahco ATP-230-410 Top Pruner for cutting smaller branches and the Barnel B188Z6-10 Telescopic Pruner for cutting soft, new growth (up to 10mm diameter). The Nishigaki Futomaru can reach places ordinary loppers can not, cutting up to 40mm diameter branches. It features one fixed and one movable handle providing significant leverage for cutting thick branches. The Bahco Top Pruner is made of lightweight aluminium, making it easier to manoeuvre with its extensive six-metre reach. Cut up to 32mm diameter branches with the Bahco lever slicing system that makes cutting easy work. Both telescopic loppers are extremely strong and durable. The Barnel Telescopic Pruner is a light weight, trigger operated pruner that is easy to position and use.

Regular maintenance of trees and shrubs will enhance your garden, assist in maintaining healthy plants and provide safety. Our range of pruning tools are designed to make your garden maintenance efficient and safe.

When it comes to pruning trees and cutting down dead or low-hanging branches, I&#;ve always been fond of hand tools. Not that a chainsaw isn&#;t convenient for making quick work of large projects. But a hand saw and pruning loppers are my go-to tools for much of my tree-trimming work.

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Now I&#;ve added another tool to my arsenal: a combination pole saw and pruner. I&#;m excited to give it a try and can think of many instances where I&#;ll put it to good use.

Read more: What kind of pruning loppers are right for you?

A Simple Tree Tool

A pole saw and pruner is exactly what its name implies. It&#;s a combination of a handsaw and pruning loppers mounted on the end of a pole for reaching high branches without need for a ladder. My pole saw and pruner measures about 5 feet long at its shortest. But it can be lengthened to 10 feet by loosening a locking mechanism and extending a telescoping inner pole from within the outer pole.

The saw portion of the tool is simple. It&#;s a curved blade that can be mounted in several positions at the end of the pole. Raising the pole up and down pulls the saw blade back and forth to cut through high branches.

The pruner portion is more elaborate and quite pleasing with its clever design. A rope with a wooden handle runs up to a series of pulleys and levers at the top, which work together to operate a bypass pruning blade.

The pulleys and levers increase the strength of my pull on the rope. This makes it easier to cut through branches, and the stationary jaw of the loppers is designed to hook over the tops of branches. That way, when I pull on the rope, the loppers won&#;t slip off the branch.

Read more: Pruning fruit trees is a great task to resolve for this year.

Changing the Pruning Game

The pruner is going to come in handy when I prune my young fruit trees this winter. Some of them (particularly an Early Gold pear tree) have grown vigorously to impressive heights. I was going to need a ladder to prune the highest branches, but my pole saw and pruner changes the equation entirely.

By eliminating the need to haul around and constantly shift the position of a ladder, pruning my trees will be much faster, simpler and easier.

The saw is going to be similarly useful. There are many coniferous trees around my farm that grow long, sagging lower branches. The branches hang down low enough to interfere with walking and lawn mowing. But often these sagging branches attach to the trunk at a considerably higher point, out of reach from regular tools.

Cutting off the hanging ends of these branches looks messy. But it can be difficult to safely position a ladder to cut them off at the tree trunk. My pole saw should make quick work of these low-hanging branches, tidying up the appearance of the trees.

The list of possibilities goes on and on. A flowering crabapple tree near my house often tries to grow upper branches too close to the wall. No longer will I need a ladder to keep it under control. I want to gather scion wood from high in a few of my old apple trees.

The pruner will be perfect for this task.

Truthfully, I can&#;t believe it&#;s taken me this long to add a pole saw and pruner to my selection of tools!

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