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Question from Michelle, Florida (received 8/1/20) -

Greetings from Florida!

Good afternoon Dr. Kuhns. I saw one of your videos on youtube in regards to pruning a tree. I need to prune my Cassia Bakeriana tree but I am not able to find any videos on this specific tree. Are you able to look at the attached pictures and maybe circle or make an arrow on what branches you think I should prune? My tree is growing branches but it doesn't seem to want to grow upwards.

You will see in one of the pictures i had placed an arrow by one of the branches I want to trim off but Im nervous about it. What do you think?

Thank you,

Michelle

Casie Bakeriana with arrow point to tree limb to be purned

Answer from Dr. Mike Kuhns, USU Extension Forester and Professor (sent 8/3/20) -

Michelle, Nothing needs to be pruned off of this tree unless you want it to have one trunk instead of 2. If 2 trunks then don’t do anything. If you keep the trunk that branches close to the ground, of course, you will have what is essentially a multi-trunked tree, and you may have more trunks as other stems emerge from the roots. You can decide what you want in this regard, though. There is no right answer.

There is no need to prune off any of the upper branches, though you can if you want.