By Nancy Penrose
Proper care of your trees during the summer months results in a healthy landscape for your yard. Summer is a great time to follow these five tree care tips.
1. Mulching:
Mulching trees is an important action because it cuts down on weeds, stabilizes soil temperatures, and helps conserve soil moisture. It’s best to mulch trees with 3-4 inches of shredded hardwood mulch. Be sure to keep the mulch 4-6 inches away from the trunk. Placing mulch all the way up to the trunk can suffocate the roots and promotes disease and insect problems.
2. Irrigation:
During the hot summer months, watering trees may be needed, especially if your trees are young or newly planted. Newly planted trees need an average of one inch of water per caliper (trunk diameter), per day. IE: a 4” caliper tree needs 4 gallons of slow drip per day.
3. Fertilization:
Another important step in caring for trees in the summer is making sure they have adequate nutrition to support leaf growth, and resist pests and diseases, and that means fertilizer. Trees growing in urban or suburban areas often need more fertilization than trees in rural areas.
4. Pruning:
While most tree trimming should happen during the dormant season, there are some times when summer tree pruning is necessary. Any diseased, dead, or damaged branches should be pruned out for the health of the tree and for safety reasons. Also, spring flowering trees are best pruned in the early summer, after they finish blooming.
5. Tree pest inspections:
Examine trees for pest infestations regularly throughout the summer. While most insects are not harmful to trees, discovering any potential tree pest problems early gives you a better chance of controlling them.
Nancy Penrose is the owner of Big Trees Inc., located in Snohomish, WA in the Seattle area. The company is one of the largest tree nurseries in the Seattle area with over 120,000 trees available in over 300 varieties. They not only deliver young trees, but also mature trees in a wide range of sizes. Some types of trees available include spring flowering, deciduous, evergreen, and privacy trees. The company also does tree transplanting including large trees. Their blog can be seen at https://bigtreesupply.com/blog/ or http://arboristblog.com/. They can be reached at 360-563-2700.
Big Trees Inc.
10928 Springhetti Rd
Snohomish, WA 98296
360-563-2700
https://bigtreesupply.com/blog/
https://arboristblog.com
https://bigtreesupply.com