Content
- Does the horse chestnut have to be cut regularly?
- When is a cut necessary for the horse chestnut?
- How should I proceed when cutting?
- The essentials in brief:
- Tips
The horse chestnut should be cut at leaflet time
Does the horse chestnut have to be cut regularly?
When asked if you should prune your chestnut regularly, there are many different answers, depending on who you ask. Weigh the benefits and risks of a cut and then decide for yourself.
Cutting injuries can certainly form a portal of entry for various pathogens. The horse chestnut is just as the sweet chestnut quite sensitive to diseases and various pests. A special focus is on fungal diseases or the horse chestnut miner moth. The latter occurs mainly in the ordinary horse chestnut. In other chestnut species it hardly causes any significant damage.
When is a cut necessary for the horse chestnut?
It is definitely recommended to cut off sick or dry branches of a horse chestnut. Also a very dense growth with many water shoots is a reason for the pruning, as well as an inharmonious form.
How should I proceed when cutting?
So that your horse chestnut gets as little damage as possible by a cut, you should select the time carefully. Ideal for pruning is the time from October to the end of February or early March. If possible, the temperature should not rise above 4 ° C in the days thereafter, which minimizes the risk of fungal infection enormously.
Use only well-sharpened and thoroughly cleaned tools for pruning your horse chestnut. Thus you contribute to a healthy keeping of the tree. Because the horse chestnut does not have a particularly good wound healing. Unclean cuts heal even worse.
Prune your horse chestnut especially when she is still quite young. The branches to be cut should not be thicker than about five centimeters. For older trees, this measure is difficult to maintain. In addition, an early pruned tree later only rarely needs a major pruning. Merely a relaxation is perhaps still necessary.
The essentials in brief:
Tips
The more carefully you prune your horse chestnut in the early years, the less cutting you have with the older tree.