What Are Water Sprouts On Trees & Shrubs?

by | Jun 22, 2020 | Trees in General

Water sprouts typically grow with mysterious speed, sometimes in bunches from a single point. Most gardeners have a natural wish to trim away these weird growths, which is precisely the correct move. 

These sprouts are the above-ground form of suckering shoots that come up around the bottom of shrubs and trees.

 

Water Sprouts Emerge

Water sprouts are the growth shoots starting from growth nodes either hidden in the old wood of a plant or on the surface. Like a sucker, the sprout wood is quick-growing and young, feeding on the nutrients and water offered by the traditional parent wood.

 

Preventing Sprouts

Orchard Park Tree Water Sprouts On Trees

Sprouts growing out of the trunk

Though some plant types are natural creators of these growths, most plants are liable to make them if they are pruned or stressed. Therefore, to diminish the possibility of sprouts, keep proper pruning methods for your shrub or tree. Things that can create water sprouts include: 

  • A heading cut on a big branch, where a short stump is left instead of slicing it flush to the trunk. You will get these growths close to its tip. 
  • Excessive pruning makes sprouts possible
  • Major die-back created by winter kill can make a plant overflow with water sprouts.
  • A wound to the trunk could cause sprouting around the wound. 

 

How to Prune Sprouts

Mainly, you’ll be eliminating sprouts as waste wood. If you capture the shoots early, you can snip them off with a thumb. 

Sprouts do need to be pruned at the bottom with the right cutting tools for their thicknesses. Remember, if the water sprouts are high in the tree, this is intricate work best left to arborists. 

 

Sprouts in Grafting

While they are harmful to mature, established plants where you want quick growth to happen just at the tips, these growths use the shoots as scions in grafting procedures. Using water sprouts makes it possible to obtain young cuttings from a tree without getting into the top of the crown. 

Young wood is usually the perfect material for scions. These sprouts come from juvenile wood, which is quick-growing and fast-healing. Also, it is flexible and slender, ideal for several types of grafts. 

Contact Orchard Park Tree Service when you need help getting rid of any sprouts or other growths on your trees and shrubs.