Growth slowing: the last safe window for structural work

As growth slows into late summer, the wood has hardened enough to hold a shape without snapping, and there is still enough season left for a cut to callus before winter. This makes it the last comfortable window for heavier structural work — a branch removed here has months to close, one removed in autumn does not. It is also the point where feeding shifts to a low-nitrogen mix, so the season's late growth hardens off rather than staying soft into the cold. Anything pushed later belongs to next spring, not this one.