Be careful not to damage the bark or the trunk as you are pruning. When you cut off a tree branch, the tree forms a callous tissue that covers the wound and seals it to keep out disease and decay.

Once fungal spores get into an open wound where a faulty pruning cut was made, the interior of that branch could rot, weakening its attachment to the tree. In the particular case of the carob tree ...

Where pruning cuts in a tree are improperly made, these cuts cannot properly heal and present an open invitation to pathogenic fungi. Once fungal spores get into an open wound where a faulty pruning ...