No matter if you possess a collection of simple maple trees adorning your front yard or an assortment of vibrant greenery covering both your front and backyard, it is imperative to provide your plants with the necessary care and attention to ensure their robust and flourishing growth.
Refer to our comprehensive tree maintenance guide to effectively maintain your trees during the scorching summer season, allowing them to bestow your family with natural beauty, shade, and pleasure for countless years ahead.
Know What They Need
You must be aware of the types of trees that are present on your land in order to provide them with the right care. Investigate the following points after conducting the necessary study to identify the trees you are working with:
- What level of water does your tree require?
- What kind of groundwork is ideal for its roots?
- Is your tree at risk from drought?
- Has your tree a sensitivity to anything, like strong winds?
Call our Burbank tree service experts if you need help recognizing the trees that are present on your land.
Pruning them correctly
For your trees to remain robust and healthy, pruning is essential. However, improper pruning can actually harm your plants, causing instability and the spread of disease.
Using our tree pruning advice as a reference, you’ll want to prune your trees correctly to maintain them healthy throughout the season. Watch out for the following indications of improper pruning:
- a top-heavy or bottom-heavy tree
- the cuts are jagged
- a tree that leans too much to one side
- a tree that is shaded by another tree from the sunshine
- Guard their roots
Healthy soil is necessary for healthy roots, which in turn require healthy trees. You should make sure that the soil surrounding your tree is healthy enough to support its greens and that it is not compacted, as this inhibits water and oxygen from reaching the tree’s roots.
Make careful to safeguard the soil and roots in your tree’s essential root zone, which is indicated by the drip line of the tree. Imagine a circle around your tree on the ground that corresponds to where the branches extend to identify the drip line. In this crucial, sensitive area, you must be careful not to alter the soil’s slope or compact it, as doing so could harm your tree.
Water them effectively
Effective watering is one of the most crucial ways to care for and preserve the greenery on your lawn and yard since water is food for your trees and plants.
A few times a week during the summer, you should be sure to give your trees a thorough watering. A once-in-awhile soak is far more efficient than a regular water misting.
Your trees often don’t need watering in the winter, unless they were just planted.
Apply mulch
Mulch is a fantastic technique to give your trees stress protection while also improving the appearance of the whole property. However, mulching should not be done carelessly since this could hurt your trees’ roots and do more harm than good.
You should begin your mulch around 6 inches from the base of your tree and continue it all the way to the tree’s drip line, where it should terminate just below the tree’s end of canopy. Use one inch of mulch at the tree’s base and four inches (but no more) at the circle’s outermost point.
You can help ensure that your lush greenery will continue to grow healthy and strong all year long by identifying your trees, understanding their needs, caring for them with the proper watering, pruning, and mulching practices, and safeguarding their priceless roots.
How do you save a stressed tree?
Water should be given at least twice per week to plants growing in sandy soil, new transplants, and trees with damaged roots. New plantings should have their watering directed towards the root ball. The suggested amount of water should be applied to established crops on clay or loam soils at least once per week.
What is best food for trees?
Typically, fertilizer applied to trees in ratios of 2-1-1 or 3-1-1 produces the best results (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium). The ratios of the fertilizers 18-6-12, 12-6-6, 10-6-4, 10-8-6, and 10-8-4 are typical or similar.
What is the best time to fertilize trees?
During the spring, it is essential to treat trees and shrubs. If conditions are favorable for plant growth, a small fertilizer application can be carried out in the early summer, considering reasonable temperatures and soil moisture. It is advisable to avoid fertilizing trees and shrubs that are experiencing drought stress during the summer. Check out our guide on how to take care of a tree in a drought.
How often should I fertilize my trees?
Young trees that are expanding quickly should be nourished annually to encourage rapid growth. Last but not least, older trees only require tree fertilizer every two to three years to preserve their vitality and brilliant foliage color.
Do you need to water after fertilizing?
Yes, it is generally recommended to water trees after fertilizing them. Watering helps to ensure that the fertilizer reaches the roots of the trees and allows the nutrients to be absorbed effectively. Additionally, watering helps to prevent the fertilizer from causing any potential damage to the roots or surrounding soil. It is important to provide adequate moisture to support the tree’s growth and overall health, especially after applying fertilizer. However, the specific watering requirements may vary depending on the type of tree, soil conditions, climate, and other factors. It is best to consult local gardening guidelines or seek advice from a horticulturist or arborist for specific recommendations regarding watering and fertilizing trees in your area.
Do you apply fertilizer before or after rain?
Fertilizing before or after a heavy rain is not recommended because the fertilizer can be washed away or leached out of the soil, making it inaccessible to the roots. According to our tree experts, it is best to fertilize the lawn right before a light to moderate rainfall. This allows the fertilizer to be properly absorbed by the soil and utilized by the root zone.
If you have more questions regarding tree care, don’t hesitate to ask us or give us a call and we’ll handle it for you. From tree trimming in Irvine to Pasadena and San Fernando Valley, we cover the entire LA region and provide complete tree care services ranging from tree care to emergency tree removal and land clearing.
If you have a palm tree that you’d like to prune yourself, check out our detailed guide on how to safely prune palm trees.
