Customer Reviews

Illustrated Guide to Pruning

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 178 page book is one of the best I have seen so far. It is published by a web based educational company that has a broad educational scope. It is slightly textbookish but not at all difficult for anyone who is serious about having more than a magazine article knowledge about pruning. Pruning is presented as a horticultural science not as someone's idea of what might be best. The book is well organized and about as comprehensive as a 178 page book could be. It is a serious little book. For example, on page 61 there are 24 tree drawings showing different limb configurations and the required pruning cuts to develop a dominant leader. You can learn a lot from that one page.

This book was just what we needed to be able to show our nursery employees the PROPER way (not just they way they thought it shoud be done) to prune our newly planted trees. The illustrations really help, also. I am going to make this text part of our orientation process for new hires.

This is a good TEXT book. Very Good.

I cut off the spine, punched holes in it and put it in a binder because it is a TEXT / Workbook. It is also a terribly expensive paperback book for those of us working in the trades and not IN higher education or funded research.

This book seems to be written as a classroom instruction manual. As such, it is very comprehensive. I've got several pruning books, but this one is by far the best at providing instruction you can really go out and implement in your yard.

i am very pleased to have purchased "An Illustrated Guide To Pruning". The book was written with very descriptive language that easily explains the correct way, time and type of pruning to perform. The text also explains common incorrect pruning methods which i found to be very beneficial. Equally as helpful are the countless drawings and actual photographs of pruning done correctly and incorrectly. Lastly, the end of chapter quizzes are an excellent idea and are easily used as quick refreshers.

This book provides a very thorough coverage of its subject. I have years of experience pruning trees and on my first review I found little to quibble with and I learned a couple of new things. One expects to pay a good bit for a book like this as it is very specialized; it will never becomes a NYT bestseller. At xvii + 330 pages I would expect it to be at least 3/4" thick and perhaps even an inch but it is only a half inch. The paper is very light weight and feels flimsy. Drawings and text show through from the back side of the page. The paper covers are also light weight. I'm expecting to make repairs if I use it very much. In short, the content is very good but the construction of the book is decidedly inferior. For the money I expected better quality.

An Amazon review by Charles Laird apparently addresses a different book on the same subject. He refers to it as a "little book" of 178 pages, while this book is close to double that. The described content does not apply to this book. From the review, "on page 61 there are 24 tree drawings showing different limb configurations and the required pruning cuts to develop a dominant leader." Page 61 of my copy is entirely text with no drawings.

After I got this book, I was at a trade show and while looking at an arborist's booth, I saw they has this book displayed. So far, I'm very pleased with this book and how easy it is to glean infomation out of it. I recommend it!

I have not recieved my book yet but I thought I would share (due to some of the comments) that this is a text book used for collage classes. That's why it's written, desigened, and priced the way it is. It is required text for "Tree Maintenance" at, at least, FLCC. If you don't like text books or don't want to overpay then don't buy this book.

Got this for my son. He loved it and will keep it at his desk at work. He's an arborist.

I ordered several books on arboriculture from Amazon Recently. I anticipated the arrival of The Illustrated Guide to Pruning more than any other. I felt that 300+ pages of pictures and explanations on pruning would serve as an exhaustive reference that I could use to fill in the knowledge gaps. I read the book in the course of a week. It was OK. There is LOTS of repetition. There was no a-ha moments...
Arboricuture 4th edition by Harris, Clark, and Matheny touch on pruning as only a part of their excellent book. They are succinct in what they say and are able to transfer as much good information in less than 50 pages.