On this episode of Ask Danny, arborist Billy Allen presents his skilled recommendations on planting and pruning.
Billy is an ISA Licensed Arborist, AUFA Licensed City Forester, an ALNLA Licensed Panorama Skilled, and plenty of extra.
He’s the proprietor and operator of High Notch Tree Care, the place he gives companies reminiscent of residential and industrial pruning and/or removing in addition to consulting companies for pre-construction preservation of bushes, illness prognosis and remedy, and well being and structural assessments. He additionally gives plant well being care companies reminiscent of tree fertilizing, pesticide utility, and soil compaction mitigation.
When to Plant
What’s one of the best time of the 12 months to plant?
Billy: For one of the best time to plant a tree, the overwhelming majority of the time it’s going to be because the tree goes into dormancy — late fall, early winter. If you’re planting a tree, you’re going to lose a number of roots, so that you need the warmth stress on the plant to be as little as it presumably will be.
The exception can be citrus bushes. You wish to plant these after the final frost of the springtime as a result of an excellent freeze will be detrimental to them.
The largest downside I see folks do when planting has to do with depth. Deeper is just not higher. Give it some thought this manner: Who vegetation a tree within the forest? The reply is nobody. A seed falls on prime of the bottom, natural materials covers it up, and it sprouts.
You need the topmost root of that plant, whether or not it’s a tree or shrub, to be at or simply above grade. In case you have a number of clay within the soil, incorporate one thing into the soil to mitigate that very fantastic materials. You wish to until out three to 4 occasions past the scale of the foundation ball and put together that soil so it’s extra advantageous for the roots to develop out.
When to Prune
When’s one of the best time to prune a tree?
Billy: You may prune any time of 12 months so long as you’re doing it accurately. I see a number of incorrect pruning, particularly on crepe myrtles, azaleas and reside oak bushes.
It’s necessary to make the cuts on the proper spot and never defoliate the plant greater than what needs to be achieved in a rising season needs to be thought of. When you try this, you possibly can prune twelve months a 12 months.
When you’re going to do aggressive pruning, like with crepe myrtles, you could do it through the dormant season.
With flowering vegetation, there are such a lot of issues it’s a must to think about, however there’s a factor known as the Could rule. In case your vegetation are blooming earlier than Could, prune them simply after they bloom. This consists of camellias and azaleas. For vegetation that bloom after Could, prune them through the dormant season.
After you’ve made your pruning cuts, don’t put sealant on it. The therapeutic course of happens chemically contained in the tree.
It’s really walling off that space of lifeless tissue and protecting that decay confined to that specific space. What you do to the surface has no bearing.
Tree Well being
How do you guarantee a wholesome tree/shrub?
Billy: It actually has lots to do with the preliminary institution of the plant, how that plant grows and thrives from the preliminary installment ahead.
My recommendation as an arborist is to verify the soil is prepped accurately and observe the spacing tips.
What are some causes for a tree’s failing well being?
Billy: Regarding tree well being, the primary factor I see is root injury, particularly in mature bushes. Whether or not it’s compaction, chopping of roots, grade adjustments, or adjustments within the path of the circulation of water, all of these issues will negatively affect a tree.
Mature bushes are lots much less tolerant than smaller bushes once you’re speaking about caring for his or her roots.
How a lot injury can a tree’s root system take earlier than it begins to hurt the tree?
Billy: It’s subjective. Individuals ask me on a regular basis “how a lot of those roots can I lose and nonetheless hold the tree?” The reply is, I can’t inform you.
The best approach to clarify it’s to consider a dinner plate. The dinner plate is the entire feeder roots of the tree. Then think about a wine glass with a stem. The pedestal of that stem is the structural root plate of the tree. You may lose a number of the dinner plate and the tree continues to be structurally sound.
Healthwise, it relies on how a lot of the dinner plate you lose as to how the tree will survive shifting ahead, and that may be a very tough query to reply.
I recommend having a professional arborist take a look at the tree and offer you an evaluation as a result of each web site goes to be completely different and each tree goes to be completely different.
My common reply is save as a lot as you possibly can.
Backyard Beds Round Timber
What are your ideas on placing a raised backyard mattress across the trunk of a tree?
Billy: You don’t wish to pile filth up across the tree in any kind. There are some tolerance ranges there, relying on what sort of soil you’re working with.
Sand is extra porous so you will get away with extra sand on prime of the foundation than you possibly can clay.
It’s all about air infiltration all the way down to the feeder roots. These must have oxygen and when you pile a bunch of filth on prime, they’ll suffocate after which the tree will decline.
Hold the foundation flare (the place the primary most important roots connect to the trunk) uncovered. If you see bushes that seem like a pencil approaching out of the bottom, meaning the foundation flare is buried.
The place to Discover an Arborist
There’s a science behind what we do. With out figuring out how to try this, it’s inconceivable to attain correct upkeep or well being methods. Go to treesaregood.org to discover a native arborist.
Additional Studying
