What are some reasons why dead branches should be cut off a living tree?

[NathanH83]

Is there any reasons to get rid of them?

 

[Josiah]

Because they're dead.


.

 

[Fritz Kobus]

Dead branches will begin to decay. You want to cut off dead braches to live wood so that the wound can heal over by new growth. Otherwise the decaying brach can introduce decay into the good part of the tree. Also, they don't look so good if it is a landscape tree.

 

[Jazzy]

Dead branches are less stable and more likely to fall. This may occur without warning and result in injury to you or a family member or damage to your home. If the tree branch is dead when it falls, the insurance company may not cover the resulting damage. It may assert that you failed in your responsibility to prevent the accident by having the dead branch removed.

 

[Lamb]

Cutting the dead off will encourage the tree to continue growing.

 

[Andrew]

Makes me wonder if this is what made the tree of knowledge of good and evil so appealing to Eve as it must have been noticably large in stature. I've read somewhere, maybe in an encyclopedia, that the tree in a center of a garden was not to pruned or touched.. perhaps that's because of the story in Genesis, but either way, it implies that the fruits of the forbidden tree in Genesis was not to be eaten because it was a hybrid fruit, both good and evil. And the saying "You are what you eat" is a very practical one, it introduced evil into them.
Interesting.

 

[NathanH83]

Dead branches will begin to decay. You want to cut off dead braches to live wood so that the wound can heal over by new growth. Otherwise the decaying brach can introduce decay into the good part of the tree. Also, they don't look so good if it is a landscape tree.

What do you do with a branch that has been decaying for 2000 years?

 

[Lamb]

What do you do with a branch that has been decaying for 2000 years?

You trust God to do the pruning.

 

[NathanH83]

You trust God to do the pruning.

Besides trusting God, wouldn’t you also want to take some precautions, so as not to let the living part of the tree get infected with whatever diseases the dead branch might be carrying?

 

[Lamb]

Besides trusting God, wouldn’t you also want to take some precautions, so as not to let the living part of the tree get infected with whatever diseases the dead branch might be carrying?

With most trees the pruning will prevent anything worse from happening.