Just realized my pruning cuts were too flush this whole time

Honestly, I been doing tree work for about 9 years now and never questioned how I was making my final cuts. Last month I was trimming a big maple in a client's backyard in Akron and the homeowner, who used to work for the city parks dept, stopped me. He pointed at a cut I just made and said "you're leaving no collar, that's going to rot out in a few seasons." I thought the flush cut looked cleaner, so I always went that route. He showed me on a older branch stub where the bark had died back and started peeling right where the flush cut was made. Since then I've been leaving a proper collar on every cut, even small ones, and the callus formation is way better. Has anyone else been taught the flush method and had to unlearn it, or is it just me? Maybe my old boss was just lazy and I picked up his bad habit.

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rivershah28d ago

Wait, your old boss taught you to cut flush and you just never questioned it for 9 years? That blows my mind because I feel like even the basics of pruning say leave the collar. I get it tho, if that's how you learned you just keep doing it without thinking. The part that gets me is the homeowner catching it in the moment and actually showing you the dead bark, that had to sting a little. At least now you know and your cuts are healing up right.

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