How to use loppers, and where to make the cut

Loppers are the tool between secateurs and a saw

A pair of secateurs will handle anything up to about the thickness of a pencil, a pruning saw handles a limb, and loppers cover the awkward middle where the branch is too thick to squeeze through and too small to be worth getting the saw out for. The long handles are doing two jobs at once, giving you the leverage to get through the wood and the reach to get in past whatever is scratching your arms, and most of the trouble people have with them comes from asking them to do the saw's job.

Bypass or anvil

• Bypass. The two blades pass each other like scissors, so they slice rather than crush, and this is what you want for anything alive. If you only own one pair, own this one.
• Anvil. One blade closes onto a flat bed, which crushes as it cuts. That is fine on dead or dry wood and it is a poor idea on green wood, because a crushed stem heals slowly and gives disease a way in.
• Ratchet and telescopic. A ratchet takes the cut in stages so your hands are not doing it in one go, and telescopic handles extend your reach by half a metre or so. Both are worth it if you have fruit trees or a big shrub you keep losing arguments with.

Where the cut actually goes

There are two different cuts and they get confused constantly. When you are shortening a stem you cut about 5mm above an outward-facing bud on a slight angle sloping away from the bud, which stops water sitting on the bud and sends the new growth outwards rather than into the middle of the plant. When you are removing a whole branch you do the opposite of angling, because you cut just outside the branch collar, which is the slightly swollen ring of bark where the branch meets the trunk. That collar is where the tree seals the wound from, so a flush cut that takes it off leaves a wound the tree cannot close, and a stub left too long dies back and rots.

Getting a clean cut

1. Sharp blades first. A blunt lopper tears bark and crushes the stem, and you can feel the difference straight away. A few passes with a sharpening stone before you start is ten minutes well spent.
2. Use the base of the jaws. The leverage is greatest closest to the pivot, so push the branch right into the throat of the tool instead of nibbling at it with the tips.
3. Do not twist. Twisting to finish a cut is how blades get bent out of alignment, and once they are out of alignment they will never cut cleanly again. If it will not go through, it is a job for the saw.
4. Know the limit. Most loppers are rated somewhere between 30mm and 50mm, and it is printed on the tool. Past that you are damaging the lopper and the tree at the same time.
5. Clean between trees. Wipe the blades down with metho if you are moving from a plant you suspect is diseased to a healthy one, because you can carry a problem around the garden on a blade.

When to prune, and the stone fruit rule

Apples, pears and most deciduous ornamentals get pruned in winter while they are dormant and you can see the shape of the thing without leaves in the way. Apricots, cherries, plums and the rest of the stone fruit are the exception that catches people out, because winter here is wet and an open pruning wound in wet weather is how bacterial canker and silver leaf get in, so those are better done in dry weather in late summer or early autumn once the fruit is off. Flowering shrubs get cut back straight after they finish flowering, which is the only way to avoid removing next season's flower buds, and evergreens will take a light tidy-up in the growing season.

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Stretching for a cut. If you are on tiptoe with your arms above your head, the branch is going to come down somewhere you did not plan. Telescopic handles or a pole saw, or get somebody in for anything over head height.
• Leaving them wet. Wipe them down and put them away dry, because a spot of rust on the cutting edge ruins the blade far faster than the cutting does.
• Sealing the wound. Pruning paint and tar dressings went out of fashion for good reason, since they trap moisture against the cut. A clean cut outside the collar seals itself.

Shop related products

• Brunnings White Oil RTU 1L. For scale and mealybug on the wood you have just opened up.
• Multicrop EcoPest Oil Insect Spray. Another oil option for the same job.
• Seasol Seaweed Concentrate 1L. A tonic for a tree that has just had a hard cut.
• Neutrog Seamungus 500g. Feed the root zone once the pruning is done.

Did you know we stock loppers in the shop and none of them are on the website, from a small bypass lopper up to a heavy-duty telescopic and a Cyclone ratchet telescopic, along with bypass and anvil pruners, Razorsharp secateurs, a curved pruning saw and a bench sharpening stone. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf, or come in and get a feel for the weight of one, because that is the part you cannot judge from a photo.

More from the garden centre

The tools and the sprays are all in the garden centre, and if you tell us what you are cutting we will point you at the right one rather than the dearest one.

Keep reading

• Bypass, anvil or ratchet? Choosing a pruner
• How to sharpen and look after your garden tools
• How do I plant a tree?

I own more pruning gear than my garden strictly justifies, and I still end up going back for the saw about half the time.

Candeece