When should a weeping willow be pruned?
Prune in full dormancy in late winter; willow is one of the few yard trees that genuinely tolerates a hard pollard or heavy reduction cycle rather than just surviving it. The trap is decay — willow compartmentalizes poorly, so every cut over roughly 4 inches becomes a rot column, and a willow reduced once needs re-cutting every few years forever, which is the recurring cost that usually tips the homeowner toward removal.
Reading weeping willow before you cut
Purdue's forestry extension ties Indiana willow dieback to drought plus Cytospora, Botryosphaeria, and Colletotrichum cankers that race through drought-stressed wood, showing as chlorotic foliage, thinning branch tips, bark splits, and black lesions on green stems. Stress is a willow that yellows and sheds leaves in an August dry spell and refoliates the next spring; dying is dead scaffold limbs in the upper crown with cankered bark — and fungicides do not help, because the fungi live inside the wood where sprays can't reach.
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