What kind of tree and what aspect of pruning? What are your goals?

I am in TX. I had one of the tree companies tell me that it need trimming. So, wanted to make sure. The tree is an oak, i believe. i am not a tree expert. thank you for your responses. sorry for not including the details

The one on the left in the bottom shot is having some kind of problem causing discoloration of the foliage and premature dying of some branches. The thing to do is find out what the problem is rather than merely pruning out the dead branches and leaving it at that. If there doesn't seem to be an arborist or consultant available who can tell you what is happening to the tree try your nearest USDA Cooperative Extension Service branch office. They will need samples of affected parts. And you will need to be able to get there when they are open during weekdays.

While the tree on left looks like the leaves are turning, whether it is sick or not depends on the tree. If the pictures are current, it is fall and leaves do turn. My poplar has started to take on the brown of the fall leaves. My maple is actually turning color. As I look at the trees in the area they all have turned to some degree.

So before calling in help it would be good to know what type of tree it is.

The one on the right looks good and is doing what trees have done for centuries, provide a place of a swing. I would do nothing to it unless a limb gets damaged.

i would recommend hiring a certified arborist ... it will be worth the money.. TO FIND OUT IF THERE ARE ISSUES ...

i suggest adding your city to the link below ....

and do report back.. if you do .... we are always curious ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ISA+arborist+TX&t=ffcm&ia=web

>the tree is an oak<

>it is fall and leaves do turn<

Photos not adequate to tell but I'm assuming these are evergreen oaks such as Quercus virginiana that do not color throughout the tree and drop all leaves in autumn. And there is still the problem of the large section of dead branches on the one, whether these are deciduous trees or not. And for that matter even if they are deciduous oaks there is still the fact that the other two are greener and have larger areas of foliage than the one on the left. At the same time of the year.

With it being pretty early in the season for an oak to color and shed. Especially in the southern part of the country.

You have to have a vision for where the tree is going insofar as its final destination is concerned. Given that it's a live oak, it's going to be a big boy. It will "eat" the trees to the right and left of it. It's going to, by and large, cover the house. You don't want limbs hanging down on the house or into the yard, so it's best to keep the trunk profile relatively narrow during it's young life. Unfortunately, it's already been let go a good bit to spread wide beginning only 10' off the ground. After a point, it becomes hard to rein in without major, temporary disfiguring. I'd still go for eliminating the widest spreading, lowest limbs, and keep branches from hanging too low off of the other limbs. The places to be concerned about now are mainly within the red triangles. There might be a little lower defoliation from shade, but it looks to me like the dead limb/branch mentioned might belong to the left-side neighboring tree. Please confirm.

Beware of “trimming” done by tree companies that do not have an arborist on staff. The owner of a house I used to own had some trimming done on the beautiful mature trees on the property and this is what she ended up with. I can’t believe it.

Doubtless they were thought "too big". And is likely to be what the customer asked for - having a tree service go through all those trees and do all that work is not likely to have been cheap.

At this point most of them should now be given the coup de grace and cut down, ground up.

The Plant Amnesty membership organization's 4 Don'ts are:

Don’t Top/Don’t Shear/Don’t Strip/Don’t Overplant

https://www.plantamnesty.org/4-dont-s

So how long have you had those straps wrapped around that branch?

Rhino, I wondered about that too.

The grouping of branches that the branch with the straps belongs to is all coming off the trunk at the same height. And crowded together. As though the tree has been topped, and these are what grew from the point of topping afterward.

There is one I would look into. Whatvs the average mature size of these in your neighborhood?

@Yardvaark, The dead branches in on neighboring tree

@rhizo_1, @Saypoint - The straps are there for an year now

I would gently remove some of the built up dirt that is smothering the trunk roots. They need to be exposed so they can breathe.