Wow, can you believe it’s the last day of March already? It feels like this month just flew by, doesn’t it? Now that spring officially here and the weather will be hopefully turning warmer, it’s the perfect time to go out and check on your trees to see how they weathered the winter. Below are some tips that you can use to see how your trees are doing and help them transition from winter to spring.
Start Tree Care by Inspecting Your Trees to See If They’re Healthy
The first thing that you want to do for spring tree care is to inspect your trees to see how healthy they are. Here are two things that you should do early in the spring:
- Look for things such as lesions on their leaves, frostbite or dead wood.
- Prune away damaged, diseased or dead limbs.
Make Sure Your Trees Have Ample Water
Next on the spring tree care list is to check that they have enough water. Check the moisture of the soil once per week 4 to 6 inches beneath the surface. The soil should be moist, not wet. Deep watering is going to prevent weaker surface roots from being formed. It also will encourage robust roots to grow underground.
If you own one, check your irrigation system and make sure your spray heads and drippers aren’t clogged and that you don’t have any leaks.
You should give a tree around 10 gallons of water for each diameter of its trunk.
Check the Levels of Mulch & Replenish as Needed
Next on the spring tree care list is mulch. Mulch is useful for conserving water. Keep your soil covered with a mulch layer of 3-5 inches. This should start from around 3 inches from your trunk’s base and go out to 1-2 feet from your tree. This will also help to suppress weeds.
Remove the Weeds & Excess Debris from Your Trees’ Base
Removing the weeds and debris is so important in tree care. Weeds will compete with your tree for nutrients and water. Therefore, you want to make sure that you’re removing any weeds. Remove things like ivy, since these types of plants can hide decay. They also can trap moisture close to the tree’s root crown. This creates the ideal place for fungus to grow. Garbage can also collect beneath ivy and create a great place for rats to breed. The best idea is to remove all of the competing plants. Laying your mulch around your trunk but leaving its root crown uncovered will also help with keeping plants such as ivy from coming back.
These are four handy tips that you can use to help your trees have a good spring and summer. If you are worried about the health of your trees or you would like someone to come out and look at them, we offer a variety of tree services. Please contact us today and let us know how we can help you.
