FAQ

Mel's Tree Service
717.792.4433

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FAQ

How often does my tree need care?
The type and frequency of tree care depends on the specie, age, location, climate, and other factors that affect the tree’s growth. The first step is to educate yourself about your trees and understand their needs. It is imperative to understand that proper tree care is a life long process, and that planting and caring for a tree is a long-term commitment, not just a one time deal. Contact your local tree care professional for proper assistance.

What is pruning a tree?
Pruning is the cutting or removing branches or parts of trees or for improving the shape or growth of trees. This is the most common tree maintenance procedure. Usually, trees are pruned preventative or as a corrective measure to remove dead branches, crowded or rubbing limbs, eliminate hazards, and increase light and air penetration. Since each cut to a tree has the potential to change the growth, it is important to educate yourself, considering no branch should be removed without any reason.

What is topping a tree?
Topping is the indiscriminate cutting of tree branches to stubs or lateral branches that are not large enough to assume the terminal role. Other names for topping include “heading”, “tipping”, “hat-racking”, and “rounding over”.

Topping is perhaps the most harmful tree pruning practice known. It is usually done to reduce the size of the tree. Often, homeowners top their trees because they feel they have become too large for their property and are a hazard. However, topping will make a tree more hazardous in the long term and is very harmful to the health of a tree.

Can trees be hazardous?
Trees are essential to our world, offering a wide range of benefits to our environment. However, trees become hazardous liabilities if they fall and injure people or damage property, Proper constant maintenance will help prevent and identify when a tree becomes dangerous. Evaluating the seriousness of a trees condition is best done by a professional ISA Certified Arborist.

What is stump grinding?
After we cut down a tree you have a choice to a) leave the stump 2 feet tall, b) flush the stump to the ground, or c) grind the stump below ground level. We also put in new lawns & top soil after we take out the stump. Stump grinder grinds the stump approximately two feet below ground level, this procedure creates mulch. The mulch is left behind. Most of the mulch will settle within a short period of time. You may need to remove some of the mulch depending on the size of the stump, but for the most part you can leave it alone or use the mulch for your garden area.