How to Use a Pole Pruner? A 4-Step Guide

Pruning had been a gardening and lawn maintenance 101 for ages. Ancient gardeners used to use extremely handy scissors, while we are lucky enough to get several handy tools like pole pruners to do it in a much easier manner.

But is pruning with a pole pruner as easy as it sounds?

Well, the answer depends largely on how skillful you are on using this tool. In case you are just beginning your days as a pruner, this article is something you must need to read until the end.

Throughout this basic guide on how to use a pole pruner, we broke down the definitive discussion, classification and a 4-step guide on it. Hopefully, it will be the last piece that you’ve to go through before starting to prune like a pro.

What Is A Pole Pruner?

The word ‘Pole Pruner’ quite expresses the combination of two tools in one. The first one is the pruner, which is often used to trim down tree branches. And the second part is the ‘pole’, which is usually meant to be a handle with a length of 6-10 feet.

So, whenever you would like to prune some tree branches that are quite out of your reach, you get to use this pole pruner instead of the regular hand pruners that gardeners often use. And that’s the only purpose of this gardening tool.

Here is a quick list of features that a pole pruner sports-

1. It helps gardeners to reach tree branches and deadwood that’s quite high.
2. Saves the use of a ladder to prune trees, which is quite risky as well.
3. Ensures comfort and ease in use while pruning with this hand tool.
4. Comes with adjustable height, to reach different levels of tree branches to be pruned and trimmed.

Taking all those factors into consideration, you need to find the quality pruners that check all the boxes. Once done, proceed with the steps next on-

How to Use A Pole Pruner- 4 Actionable Steps

Step 1: Choose The Right Pruner

Before going forward with the action, it’s imperative to choose the right pruner for your hob. As a matter of fact, there are a number of cautions and considering facts to make the right choice of a pole pruner.

Here are some of them-

1. Select the right head metal. The best tree pruners head come up with drop cast metal or die-forged metal. Don’t go for heads made of weaker steel.
2. Make sure that the pruner weight is under the tolerable limit. Usually, wooden poles come up with a much more weight compared to the high-end fiberglass poles. On the other hand, the price goes high with better quality, lighter kind of poles.
3. Ensure the right length to help you reach out to the desired tree branches. Usually, pole pruners come up with lengths within 6 to 14 feet. You can choose anything in between based on the demand of the situation.

Once you have found the perfect match that checks all these boxes, it is time to choose the right time to get into action. That’s all our next step is about. Keep reading-

Step 2: Choose The Right Time To Prune

Pruning itself has a number of classifications of it. It mostly depends on what time of the year it is, and then, what condition the branches are at. In fact, these two factors are quite related to each other.

However, based on the timeline and branch-factors, there can be three kinds of pruning. Have a look-

1. Minor Pruning
   The most frequently done pruning is the minor pruning, which involves thinning the new growth of the edges of a mature tree. With pole pruners, it would take quite some time to do. So, many of the gardeners go for hand pruning while using the support of a ladder.
2. Trunk Pruning
   The next kind of pruning is called trunk pruning, which quite expresses itself. You might have noticed that mature trees often come up with some sprout and epicormic growth. And that happens right from the trunk of the tree. With trunk pruning with a good quality pruner (i.e. Fiskars pruner), you will usually trim those growths down.
3. Tidying Up
   Some other kind of pole pruning is all about tidying the tree up. There are some kind of climber trees like Clematis and Trumpet Creepers that are the sole target of such kind of pruning.

Step 3: Hold The Pruner On A Proper Manner

Now, we are actually going to start some poling with the pole pruner that we have got. For that to happen, you need to ensure that you have got a firm and comfortable hold on the pruner itself. If the pruner is lightweight enough, this becomes quite easy.

However, some of the pole pruners come up with a folded blade for the sake of safety. Before you raise the pole, make sure that it’s unfolded. Once done, tighten the bolts to keep the blades in their places.

Also, achieving the right height is imperative. For telescopic kind of pole pruners, you will be provided with a height adjustment feature. Make proper use of that to reach the desired height.

In case you are going to tidy up some brushes, you can use pruning shears instead. This will make your job quite easier.

All set? Start pruning the primitive targets and narrow down your working objects.

Step 4: Aim The Blade Of The Pruner

Aiming the blade makes quite some difference between good quality gardening pruners and a bad one. Usually, the blade is housed in a hook and attached to a rope. To prune, you have to place the blade closer to the branch and pull the rope to cut the branch right away.

Make sure that the blade is razor-sharp, otherwise, it will give you a jagged edge instead of a clean and smooth cut. In case you want to shorten a tree branch instead of small ones, you need to start pruning inside the node area. While executing, don’t cut too close to the tree.

Bottom Line

When it comes to an actionable task like pruning with a pole pruner, your experience is the biggest learning occasion. So, we would rather suggest you to maintain the safety cautions, and keep pruning until you become used to this awesome gardening tool. One day, you would be master on how to use a pole pruner. Fingers crossed!