Winter Christmas tree Shearing. With a hedgetrimmer?
Rob here from east fork christmas tree Farms and the flanigan homestead I’m out here we finished our christmas Tree sales last week and i’m going to do Some winter shearing Now you normally don’t sheer this time Of year but if you can see behind me Most of the trees of any size are gone In this section of the field so if There’s a tree still here there’s Something wrong with it There’s a reason people didn’t want it So for instance this tree right here Uh has pretty decent size but it’s empty Here there are some branches in here That will Fill out so i’m going to take a hedge Trimmer I have my steel hedge trimmer this is a Little overkill with this length But i could extend up for there’s some Taller trees out there that i’m going to Shake Shape but what we’re gonna do here is i Cannot swing a knife through this time Of year or i won’t be able to Next year if i let this grow out so a Lot of trees today I’m going to use a hedge trimmer with a Motor on it To take off some of the woody stuff now And by doing that one i’ll be able to Get a better shape And two instead of the energy wanting to
Go out In the end tips which it normally wants To those will be gone So this tree will have a lot of energy To send out in these Other gaps and the other branches so That i will this will fill in And then the tips that are out i will be Able to Shear down with a knife a lot of trees I’m going to take their shape that’s Really wide today And narrow them down and then the tips Will start Filling back out and i’ll be able to Swing a blade on them next year If i don’t do that now with a hedge Trimmer I won’t be able to swing a blade on them Next year so one thing that i’m going to Do with this tree there’s got some Decent branches here but a little bit Run i’m gonna shorten it a little bit I’m gonna take this bud And that’ll give this tree more time to Fill in here I’m gonna bring the woody branches in On the wide side i’m going to bring this To a tighter Angle and then all this energy will be Pushing out in these other branches and This tree will fill in Really nicely next year [Music]
[Music] Okay now i’ve just created a narrower Angle that this can fill in And the tree won’t be sending out energy Everywhere out here it’ll be sending it Through these Inner buds to fill this in and this will Be a nice shaped tree next year Okay here’s three trees right in a row That give a good example of why you need To do Winter shearing and you need to do it With a hedge trimmer My crew did a horrible job on this one You could see the trunk of this tree Right here and it sticks out about a Foot and a half on this side And three and a half feet on that side So this tree is not balanced at all So i’m going to get in there with the Hedge trimmer and i’m going to really Cut out that right hand side Over there and it’s it’s going to lose a Lot probably Over a foot of branches over there this Side is not going to lose a whole lot But the tree will be balanced again this One Just has a body that will grow into Some decent branches that will fill in Up here But uh it needs to be the bottom brought Back in And then the rest of this will fill in
Equally and then this thing over here This thing is just a bush with no shape It’s going to be hard to save actually Because the top comes back over but i’m Going to try to create Some true sharp lines that will get it Back in shape And uh then next year we could shear off The new growth With a knife To be clear it would have been much Better if we had never gotten to this Point It would be best if we had kept good Straight lines and kept the shape of the Trees In this summer shearing season but As i said before sometimes when you’re Doing thousands of trees You miss something or your lines get bad And using the hedge trimmer in the Winter And getting through the woodiness then Creates Nice lines that you can swing through The new growth Next summer and hopefully don’t allow This to happen again Easier to have a skinny tree grow out Than it is to have a tree that you let Grow too fat Come back into shape so as the trees are Younger and smaller Try to make sure you don’t let them get
Too wide and turn into a bush So Oh Okay not perfect trees yet but they have Lines That will be sheared and work well for Next year Okay you can see the above picture which Was before and the after of the same Trees Three trees that looked like they would Never sell as christmas trees Now have the chance to grow into good Form this coming spring To be clear you can cut do this hedge Trimming Uh in the summer with your normal Shearing but then you’ll just be leaving Scars and cutting off the new Good looking fresh growth if you do this In the winter Now then the scars will be covered as The new growth comes out next spring and You just do A lighter cutting and the tree will look Really good the following year Uh i haven’t done it yet today on video You haven’t seen it but one of the Things i like about this still heads Trimmer on a stick is Uh on this head at the end you could Actually pull this back And pivot the head at many different Angles
And lock it in and so when i am working Around trees that are really tight I don’t um i have a lot of open space Here so i could just walk around it but When there’s Big trees in the way i could change the Angle Of my trimming head and so i could reach Around the tree And not need as much distance so when i First got this tool it was actually a Gift And i didn’t think i was going to use it That much on the christmas trees But uh both in the summer and i have These 10 11 12 foot trees i don’t want to get up on A ladder it’s been fantastic for that I’ve been being able to get this woody Stuff off Angle the head and work around the tree This has actually been a very valuable Tool Here’s another tree that really has no Real shape to it it’s just a bush A blob i should fire the guy that worked In this row this last year Just kidding but i’m gonna have to be Really aggressive and just Cut this way back tighten it down it’s Short enough now that It’ll grow back out some good branches Before We need to sell it in a year or two so
This one’s really got to come back in [Music] [Music] Okay that has a christmas tree shape now On the bottom there you saw is probably Cutting back Almost over a foot of branches uh i was Really woody that’s why you got to have The machine To do it but again now that i’ve got it Back into shape The new tips will grow out i could swing A blade I’m actually thinking this one’s a lot More promising than i thought it was Before i started shearing You can see the pile of branches That i left around this one that i had To take a ton off Never get through all this woody stuff You’d never get through all this woody Stuff with uh A blade well you would but you just ruin Your blade And have to really hack at it Okay so this is what i was talking about This is really woody probably two years Old Lots of wood in here but by coming Through here with a hedge trimmer Getting this all off Instead of having branches growing way Out here And trying to swing a knife to get shape
Again i’ve got this off and now These little branches in here their tips Are going to grow out And they’re going to fill this out and This tree Is actually going to be a pretty nice Sell this next year i’ll probably Want to come in here and this stuff just Isn’t going to heal up good enough And so when we get this right here These branches where it’s just a knuckle On the tree Get rid of those now and uh Everything will look great next year Here’s an interesting one when i first Came up to it i thought for sure we’re Gonna have a Bent trunk or something in here but Actually the trunk is straight We’ve got a top coming up here with a Terminal bud straight out the top and Several buds around the side to create a Whirl so this tree has a lot of promise Nice color Everything somehow it just turned into a Bush that has absolutely no Shape so this is one that i’m going to Have to be aggressive on But we do have a good top a good leader We do have good color We have a straight trunk we can get a Christmas tree out of this It’s probably going to be two years from Now
[Music] Hmm [Laughter] [Music] So [Music] Okay that’s a pretty good start to a Tree that came out of that bush This is going to be nice Here’s another example of a tree that We’re going to just keep really skinny Shorter than the 40 to 45 degree that a Lot of people want Because we always get people coming out Here saying oh you don’t have any Skinnier trees So i could just fit it in the corner of The room so this tree naturally is a Little skinnier I’m going to even make it skinnier but Then it’ll allow this branch to fill out And fill in this hole and this will fill In and this will be a nice full Tree as far as filled in with branches But it’ll be tighter And it can get fit into a room and if it Gets even taller It’ll fit into a room even at 10 feet Tall i do have an interesting decision To make here It’s got so many nice buds on here that I’m tempted to want to leave it But if i this is going to be really full Through here
And then we’ll just have thin branches Out here it won’t Look as nice so and it doesn’t have a True terminal bud So you know i always like to have that Bud right on top to get the next year’s Leader But it doesn’t have a true leader anyway So i’m not as hesitant to cut this top Off So i’m going to cut it down to here Leave this bud And then i’m going to shear this nice And skinny and This will grow up another eight inches This year It’ll be nice and tight and someone will Love this tree that doesn’t want To take up all the space in their living [Music] Room So [Music] Okay this will fill in this will fill in And this will still not take up your Whole living room this is a nice tree We love working hard growing stuff Blessing our customers And sharing our videos please consider Liking subscribing and sharing Thanks again You
