Old timer at a job site in Boise told me to stop clearing the debris from under the canopy on every prune job and I argued with him until a client complained about the mess

He said leaving the small stuff on the ground helps the tree recycle nutrients and keeps the soil healthy. I was taught to leave it spotless every time. But after that call, the client wanted a full cleanup anyway, so now I'm stuck debating if he was right or if that's just lazy arborist talk. Anyone else get conflicting advice about how clean the site should be after a prune?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivangrant1d ago

I used to be on the same page as you, thinking a spotless site was the only way. But an old timer in Oregon showed me a maple he'd pruned for years, and under that canopy the ground was just covered in leaves and twigs. He said the soil there was way softer and richer than the bare dirt around it, and the tree looked healthier. So I started leaving some of the small stuff on a few jobs, and I'll be damned if the trees didn't look better the next season. Still clean up where people walk or sit, but I'm a believer in that nutrient cycle thing now. That old guy wasn't being lazy, he just knew what he was talking about.

barbararamirez1d ago

@ivangrant makes a fair point about the soil health thing, but here's what I keep coming back to. How do you tell the difference between a guy who actually knows his stuff and a guy who's just too lazy to rake everything up? I've run into plenty of both over the years, and they'll both give you the same story about nutrients cycling back into the ground. Seems like the real test is how the tree looks year after year, and that takes way longer than one job to figure out. You got any tricks for spotting the difference early on, or do you just have to wait it out and see?