What Are Common Tree Care Mistakes to Avoid?

Common tree care mistakes include topping trees, over-pruning, piling mulch or soil against the trunk, damaging roots during yard projects, and wounding bark with mowers or trimmers. Most of these are easy to avoid once you know what to watch for.

Pruning Mistakes

• Topping: chopping main limbs back to an arbitrary height
• Over-thinning: clearing out the inside of the crown so foliage remains only near branch tips
• Taking off too much of the canopy at one time
• Pruning oaks during the high-risk oak wilt season
• Leaving stubs, or cutting flush against the trunk

Texas A&M AgriLife’s Earth-Kind pruning advice warns that topping produces weak, bushy regrowth and may shorten a tree’s life. Grapevine’s posted tree preservation ordinance also lists topping as unlawful as a normal practice.

Timing mistakes count, too. Texas A&M Forest Service cautions against heavy pruning of living branches right after the spring flush of growth, when it’s especially hard on a tree.

Mulch and Soil Mistakes

Mulch helps, but piling it high against the trunk, sometimes called volcano mulching, can keep bark wet. A wide, shallow ring with a gap at the trunk works better. The same goes for soil: adding fill over roots during a landscaping project can smother them.

Fill soil is a common culprit in new construction, when yards are leveled around existing trees. Ask builders how they plan to protect the root area.

Root and Trunk Damage

• Trenching through the root area for irrigation or utilities
• Parking vehicles or storing materials under the canopy
• Hitting the trunk with mowers or string trimmers
• Tying wire or rope around the trunk and forgetting it

Damage like this may not show for months or even years, which makes it easy to overlook until the tree starts to struggle.

Hiring mistakes are worth mentioning as well. Choosing someone who suggests topping, or who recommends heavy cutting without explaining why, can cause lasting damage. Ask what will be cut and why before work starts.

Reacting Too Fast or Too Slow

Some homeowners take a tree down at the first sign of trouble, while others ignore obvious problems for years. Both can be mistakes. A bare branch after a freeze may still leaf out in spring, while a crack in a main fork shouldn’t be ignored. Good tree care means looking at the whole tree before deciding what to do.

Staking young trees too tightly, or leaving stakes on for years, is another easy one to miss.

If you think one of these mistakes may have affected a tree in your yard, call 817-587-4286 and tell us what took place.