Lafayette Tree Service Bringing Sexy Back Into Your Yards

Category: Certified Arborist

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Landscaping Trees: Choosing the Best Plants for Your Yard

Stump Removal

Written by Angie Bersin 

Landscaping provides the opportunity to accentuate the beauty of your home, while also delivering several other benefits. Choosing the right tree typically involves thinking about the reasons behind your decision to include trees in your backyard design. It’s also important to consider the environmental aspects of your outdoor area while complimenting the existing size, color, and shape of your home.

Craftsman home with landscaping trees and shrubs

Choosing the Right Landscaping Trees

A lot of factors go into the process of choosing the perfect tree for your yard. Not only must you consider the reason behind your purchase but you must also research the type of environment your landscaping trees are going to require for healthy growth. Evergreen shrubs and trees maintain their lush green foliage throughout the year, delivering a constant touch of color to your landscaping design. Deciduous shrubs and trees lose their foliage seasonally, creating a less colorful backyard design throughout the cooler months.

Determining Your Tree’s Purpose

Healthy landscaping trees have intrinsic value that goes well beyond simply looking nice. Depending on the type of tree you plant, you may be able to:

  • Enhance the beauty of your yard
  • Filter out pollutants
  • Reduce noise
  • Shield your home from wind
  • Shade your home from the sun
  • Create shady outdoor areas
  • Block unpleasant views
  • Increase the market value of your property
  • Reduce glare from surrounding structures
  • Minimize precipitation runoff

Selecting a Tree Size and Shape

Choosing a tree with the optimal shape and size for its desired location enhances the value it offers. For example, short trees with low-lying branches are ideal for areas with overhead power lines, while taller landscaping trees create excellent privacy dividers. The width of a landscaping tree’s branches determines how much shade it can provide, but also limits its placement in your outdoor design, particularly if you have a small or narrow yard.

In general, mature landscaping trees with long lifespans provide greater value over younger trees with less potential. Trees offering longer lifespans tend to grow more slowly, while varieties with shorter lifespans grow quickly. If your landscaping needs are time-sensitive, choosing fast growers is the best option. You simply need to realize that the trees may need replacing at some point in the distant future.

In addition to keeping in mind how quickly you need the tree to grow, you may want to consider its size at maturity before choosing its role in your landscape design.

  • Shorter landscaping trees are going to accentuate the beauty of your home without overshadowing its size.
  • Taller landscaping trees often add more value to the property by enhancing privacy without infringing on the home’s access to sunshine.

Choosing the Best Planting Site for Your Tree

It’s important to look into the soil and sun requirements of any trees you intend to plant. For example, the Western hackberry may be suitable for dryer climates such as Albuquerque. Site conditions are critical for the health and growth of your trees, enhancing both beauty and longevity, while also minimizing maintenance needs. A local arborist can assist you in selecting a spot to plant your tree where it is going to thrive.

You should consider each of these aspects during your selection of a tree:

  • Hardiness zone
  • Soil conditions
  • Drainage conditions
  • Sun exposure
  • Wind exposure
  • Space restrictions – below and above surface level
  • The possibility of pest infestation

Understanding Ideal Characteristics in a Tree

Even if you aren’t an arborist, you can still buy excellent landscaping trees to meet your intended goals. Look for the following characteristics when purchasing your tree to enhance the likelihood of successful growth:

  • Strong trunk
  • Firmly attached branches originating from separate points on the tree
  • A balanced spacing of branches
  • Lack of intertwined growth
  • Strong root system encased in an appropriately sized container or root ball
  • Absence of disease and/or damage

Considering Qualities Offered by Landscaping Trees

Choosing the right tree for your yard involves more than simply finding a healthy tree that looks as though it can provide the service you want. Some landscaping trees may prove to be more work than they are worth. For example, some trees drop nuts, seeds, fruit, blossoms, and twigs that you have to contend with to keep your yard neatly landscaped. It’s important to keep this in mind before you actually bring a tree home. Here are some examples to consider:

  • Ornamental trees deliver messy clean-up along with lots of colors.
  • Shade trees often outgrow their original placement.
  • Conifers provide steady growth along with year-round greenery.
Home with front yard design and landscaping trees

Embracing Feng Shui Tips for Trees

Incorporating the beliefs of feng shui into landscaping efforts is a popular trend, particularly with individuals who appreciate the ability to influence the flow of energy around them. You can easily do so as long as you put some thought into your tree placement before planting.

  • Trees placed behind your home offer strong support, allowing you to manage essential aspects of your life.
  • Several trees should be planted along both sides of the house to maintain a harmonious atmosphere within the home.
  • Block negative energy by planting a row of trees in front of its source.
  • Avoid planting in the yard’s center to sidestep financial stressors.
  • Never allow trees to touch the house to avoid negative (yin) energy.
  • Remove dead growth immediately to minimize the risk of drawing energy from the home.

Many feng shui experts recommend planting tree species based on specific sides of the yard to maximize benefits. Depending on your desired tree’s purpose, you may want to also consider feng shui energy when selecting your tree placement.

Here are a few examples of suggested direction for different energy benefits:

Type of Tree Suggested Side of the Yard Feng Shui Benefit
Pine Trees Eastern Longevity for members of the home
Lime and Orange Trees Southeastern Financial wealth and success
Peach Trees Western Growth in personal relationships
Apple and Pomegranate Trees Southwestern Love and happiness

It is important to consider your purchase of a tree carefully, particularly because many varieties of landscaping trees can outlive the people who plant them. Your decision is likely to bring permanent consequences, including long-term maintenance costs and/or unpleasant results if you choose unwisely. On the other hand, selecting the right tree for your yard can provide years of happiness with positive results.

This article originally published at: https://www.redfin.com/blog/landscaping-trees

You can contact the author, Angie Bersin at [email protected]

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Can You Really Tell The Age of a Tree By Counting Rings?

Walnut Creek Tree Service

Trees are fascinating creatures, and learning about their ways can keep you entertained for a lifetime. Their symbiotic relationships with their surroundings are fascinating, as is photosynthesis and their reproductive systems.

One other fascinating thing about trees is that you can reliably tell how old they are down to the year by observing their bodies. With humans and most other animals and plants, this is impossible. But because of the annual cycles that trees grow in, and the solid structure of their trunks and branches, we can read the records of their lives.

Yes, you can tell how old a tree is by reading the rings when the trunk is cut in a cross-section. Actually, you’re able to tell how old THAT PART of the tree is. In a large branch you can also count how long it’s been there in this way. Skilled arborists can even gain other information from looking at tree rings. And arborist can gather fairly accurate info about whether there were droughts, disease or damage in the tree’s history.

What Makes This Possible?

The wood of a tree grows fast in spring, and is lighter because it consists of larger (more moist) cells, so the pigment distribution is less dense. In summer, it’s dryer and growth is slower; the wood forms smaller cells and looks darker. Fall and winter there is no growth worth noting. So when the tree is cut, the layers appear as alternating rings of light and dark wood. Each light/dark set is one year of growth, so either count dark or light rings, but not both.

The main drawback of using this amazing natural record-keeping system is that you have to cut down your tree. It is possible to bore a sample without killing the tree, but not without hurting it. So for highest accuracy, you really have to wait until the tree is removed or at least cut down to get it’s age.

What if The Tree is Still Standing?

There is a way you can take measurements and use some math to estimate tree age. It’s outlined here by the state of Michigan Athens-Clarke County Community Tree Program: Estimating Tree Age. Doing this tree age estimation can be just as fun and counting rings, and you get to keep your tree! This uses some math that is high school or college level, so get help if you need it!

Another interesting way to figure out the age of a tree is to look up historical photos of the property the tree is on. Or if it’s near a building, find out when the property was built and if the trees were put in at the same time. This tracing the history of the are usually can give you a ballpark idea, but not exact year of planting.

 

 

 

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Protecting Trees During Construction

Berkeley Tree Pruning

When building new structures, existing trees are often the main features in your landscape design, and need to be carefully preserved. But how do we go about protecting trees during construction?

Unfortunately, many times pre-existing trees have difficulty surviving construction. This can lead to unsafe or hazardous conditions and expensive post construction removal costs. With planning, communication and cooperation, existing healthy trees can be preserved with minimal effort and expense. Trees need their roots protected during the construction process.

 

Plan With an Arborist

Always have a professional arborist involved in the planning (and maybe execution) of the project. Small changes in the placement or design of buildings, driveways or utilities can make a difference in protecting trees during construction. Alternative construction methods are generally easier than growing a new 20 year old tree. If utilities can’t be routed away from trees, tunneling or hand dug trenches are worth considering, to place the utilities directly below the trunk, where they do the least damage.

 

Inventory Your Trees

Map the location, species, size, and health of each tree on the development site. This can help you decide which trees to keep, which to remove and which to put limited effort into keeping. Your arborist can tell you which trees probably shouldn’t be selected for preserving. These should be removed prior to construction. Be sure to prune trees that need additional clearance to make room for future structures and construction equipment.

 

Tree Protection Zones

You’ll want to erect sturdy fencing around each tree that is to be preserved before construction starts. For each inch of trunk diameter, the fence should be about one foot from the trunk. So a ten inch diameter trunk gets fencing 10 feet from it. A three inch layer of mulch should be applied to the area within the TPZ. This provides your tree with both above and below ground protection.

Mount Tree Protection Zone (TPZ) signs to the fences and ask all construction personnel to keep fencing intact. No trenching, digging or soil disturbance of any kind should happen in the TPZ. No building materials, waste materials, excess soil, paints or supplies should be within the TPZ. The area should be considered off-limits.

 

Before Construction Starts

A healthy tree is more likely to survive the construction process than one that’s stressed. Be sure trees are receiving proper irrigation in addition to rainfall if needed. Prune dead, diseased, or hazardous branches. Also remove branches that will interfere with construction equipment and machinery.

 

Stay Engaged: Protecting Trees During Construction

Visit the construction site and inspect your trees on a regular basis. An arborist’s presence alerts workers that trees are important and their careful treatment is important. Should damage occur, begin repairs as soon as possible. Immediately inform the builder/contractor of any violations in the tree preservation plan and photograph any damage. All protective fences should remain in place until all construction workers have left the site.

 

Minimize Soil Compaction

Construction equipment and vehicles are a common cause of soil compaction. Have your project manager limit access points and designate routes on and off of the property. The fewer, the better. They should also designate areas for parking, storage of equipment, construction materials, excess soil, etc.

 

Grade Changes

Grade changes directly affect the roots of a tree. This happens either by removing roots when lowering the grade, or suffocating the roots when raising the grade. It can also change drainage, creating excess water in some areas and not enough in others. Except where absolutely necessary, do not change grade within the Tree Protection Zone. If raising the grade is necessary, we recommend not adding more than two inches of fill each year. Lowering the grade removes important roots and your rich topsoil. If a lowering of the grade is necessary, have your arborist root prune at least four to six months before construction starts and use a regular irrigation schedule before during and after root pruning.

 

Post Construction

It can take several years for trees to overcome and adjust to the injury that occurs during construction. These changes can be stressful, and trees that are suffering from stress are naturally more prone to insect and disease infestations than healthy trees. It is important to establish a long term maintenance program with your arborist to monitor and maintain the trees.

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Sycamore Tree Care and Illness

Tree Care Concord

An American Sycamore tree is most notable for its exfoliating bark. People love the peeling patches on sycamore trunks.

Healthy Sycamore Trees

The bark of the trunk and its larger limbs tend to flake off in large, irregular masses, giving the surface a mottled look. The bark can be of many colors due to this, from grey to brown to greenish white. The smaller limbs often look whitewashed.

The leaves of these trees are pale green in color. When fully grown they become a bright yellow color on top and a paler yellow underneath. They become a brown color in autumn and wither just before falling away.

A sycamore tree can grow to quite massive proportions. American sycamore trees tend to be divided nearer to the ground into many secondary trunks that are free from branches. The limbs spread out at the top to make an irregular, open crown. The roots are fibrous and it’s noteworthy that trunks of the larger sycamore trees tend to be hollow.

Threats to Your Sycamore

Sycamores are vulnerable to diseases and also insect parasites, similar to almost every category of trees you could plant. As first line of protection, you should keep your tree healthy with good prevention and maintenance care. If your tree is very healthy, it’s much less likely to struggle with health issues. Of course, well irrigated and fertilized sycamore trees can be affected by diseases and pests, too.

Lace Bug

Lace bug is one of the most common and harmful sycamore tree parasites. The lacy pattern on the adult’s chest, wings, and head earn it’s name. The insects eat the under sides of the tree’s leaves.

While the sycamore lace bug’s damage is not always serious, a heavy infestation will slow the tree’s growth. You should wash off bugs with a hose. Insecticides are also readily available for this. 

Sycamore Anthracnose

Sycamore Anthracnose is a fungus that winters on twig tissue and causes leaf spots. It’s also called leaf and twig blight, and can kill American Sycamore trees while doing only minor damage to other types. A frequent clue is crinkling and browning of the leaves. Symptoms include tan to red-brown lesions extending along the veins and edges of the leaf.

Considerable defoliation, sometimes with complete leaf loss, occurs on many trees by late spring in cool, wet years. This sycamore tree disease is more likely to strike in wet weather. Rainfall and wind spread the fungi’s spores.

For Sycamore Anthracnose, we use an Arborjet treatment called PHOSPHO-jet applied in the fall following leaf coloration or early spring prior to twig infection. Propizol applied in the fall will slow the spread of infection the following spring and help the tree to grow leaves more normally.

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What Are Mycorrhizae And Why Should You Care?

Berkeley Tree Care

Fungi are an incredibly important part of soil health. You may hear the term Mycorrhiza Fungi used referring to beneficial fungi. So, what exactly is this stuff? Basically, “myco” means fungus and “rhiza” means root. These special fungi establish a beneficial connection with plant roots and aid them with the uptake of water and nutrients. Mycorrhizae fungi have been in existence for more than 460 -million years since the first plant life appeared on dry land.

How Do Mycorrhizae Work With Roots?

After the mycorrhizae colonize and begin to multiply, they effectively increase the root area and volume by acting as extensions of the roots. The symbiotic cycle between roots and mycorrhizae results in improvements to not only the root system but also the color, foliage and overall health of the tree. Mycorrhizal fungal filaments in the soil are truly extensions of root systems and are more effective in nutrient and water absorption than the roots themselves.

More than 95 percent of terrestrial plant species form a symbiotic relationship with  mycorrhizal fungi and have evolved this symbiotic relationship over the past several hundred million years. These fungi predate the evolution of terrestrial plants, and it was the partnership with mycorrhizal fungi that allowed plants to begin to colonize dry land and create life on Earth as we know it.

Types of Mycorrhizae

There are two major groups of mycorrhizal fungi: ectomycorrhizal and endomycorrhizal fungi.

Endomycorrhizae

Endomycorrhizal fungi penetrate the plant cells where direct metabolic exchanges can occur. Endomycorrhizal fungi colonize trees as well as shrubs and most herbaceous plants and do not form visible structures.

Among the types of endomycorrhizal fungi, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are the most prevalent in soils. Their name is derived from arbuscule structures they form within the plant root cell.

Ectomycorrhizae

Ectomycorrhizal fungi are also found in natural environments, mainly in forests ecosystems. Ectomycorrhizal fungi develop exclusively on the outside of root cells. Ectomycorrhizae are found on trees and form visible structures.

These fungi can form visible reproductive structures (mushrooms) at the feet of trees they colonize. Ectomycorrhizal fungi grow between root cells without penetrating them. Their hyphae grow externally, forming dense growth known as a fungal mantle. These fungi form symbiotic relationships with most pins, spruces and some hardwood trees including beech, birch, oak, and willow. 

How Mycorrhizal Fungi Help Soil Health

Trees can only take in nutrients from the soil within their rhizosphere (the area surrounding their roots). This area extends only about 1/10 of an inch from the roots.

Beyond that 1/10 inch, all the fertilizer, compost, water and whatever else you add to the soil would be wasted without this web of fungi, the tree is simply not able to reach it.

That’s where mycorrhizae comes in. They spread out from the tree roots in long, root-like stringy webs call hypha and bring any needed nutrients or water back to the rhizosphere for the tree. In exchange, the tree provides carbon and sugars to feed the fungi.

In effect, the fungus provides a secondary “root system” that is considerably more efficient and extensive than the tree’s own root system, allowing it to access more nutrients. One tablespoon of healthy soil can contain several thousand of mycorrhizal filaments!

Benefits Of Mycorrhizae-Rich Soil

• Increased yield from fruit trees

• Enhanced  plant and tree growth

• Healthier root development

• Increased disease resistance

• Improved transplant success

• Increased drought tolerance

Why We Should Care

So, why do we need to know about this? Many of the regular practices we use to augment our soil actually kill the organisms in healthy soil including Mycorrhizae. This is one of the best reasons low/no-till gardening has become more prevalent over the years.  Inoculating plants with multiple varieties of Mycorrhizae and providing food that will support plant health is a necessity. Be very careful with poisons and weed killers, they can destroy healthy symbiotic relationships.

If you have questions on how to create or foster healthier soil for your trees, contact Sexy Trees today.

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Arborjet Therapy for Oak Tree Care

Concord Tree Care

People love oak trees. They’re majestically broad and protective feeling, with dense green foliage spans.

 

About Oaks

Oaks grow naturally across the Southeastern USA. They can be found on the east shore from southeastern Virginia to Florida and west to southern and central Texas. They grow naturally in the sandy soils of low coastal areas.

Oaks have male and female reproductive systems on the same plant. They flower every spring from March through May and acorns mature in September and fall off by December. Live oak acorns are long, dark brown to black.

They seldom grow over 50 feet tall, but the crown of the tree can have a span of 150 feet wide. That’s why it’s an incredibly popular shade tree! Oak tree wood is so sturdy that they were used for shipbuilding years ago, but today they’re mostly decorative trees.

 

Oak Wilt and Fungal Infections

Oaks tend to grow in huge groups with interconnected roots, which makes them extremely vulnerable to contracting oak wilt. The fungus travels from one oak to another through the linked roots and insect activity. Oak wilt destroys hundreds of trees just in Austin, Texas every year because of how rapidly they expand in groves.

Symptoms of oak wilt are otherwise healthy leaves developing yellow veins, turning brown and falling off the tree outside of autumn. The crown of the tree thins and weakens till it dies. Oak wilt can be costly to treat and regulate. An accurate medical diagnosis is critical. You’ll need to consult a certified arborist to guarantee proper medical diagnosis and treatment.

Unfortunately, oak wilt is quite infectious. Without the proper treatment, the death of the tree is inevitable.

 

Arborjet Therapy to the Rescue

Avoidance starts with expertise. To treat this fungus effectively, you need to seek the services of an expert.

Once diagnosed, we advise a trunk shot of the Arborjet Treatment, Propizol. It contains a systemic fungicide that reduces Bretiziella fagacearum, and specifically to combats oak wilt. Because oak wilt is spread through roots and insects, we advise Arborjet therapy of non-infected oaks near the contaminated trees. This can slow down and stop the spread of the condition.

After Care

Infected trees are highly susceptible to nitidulid beetles, which also carry oak wilt fungus. You’ll want to schedule tree trimmings at appropriate times to avoid nitidulid beetles, planning your trimming around the beetles’ off period. The active period for nitidulid beetles varies throughout the USA, so consult with your arborist.

A wound dressing that’s not toxic to plants is important on injured oaks, including those those that have been trimmed. Painting the wounds of an oak after cutting it will shut the wound off to prospective infection from nitidulid beetles. The county may penalize you for not repainting the wounds of a tree that’s just been trimmed.

When treating several trees, your arborist must sanitize drill bits and also injection devices between trees. Sexy Trees is an expert in controlling the spread of infection, with industry leading sterilization and sanitation. Don’t assume every arborist is as careful as is necessary when dealing with oak wilt and beetle infestations. Always ask.

Get in touch with Sexy Trees if you believe a stump or a tree on your property may be influenced by oak wilt.

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Healthy Trees Increase Property Values

Lafayette Tree Pruning

All homeowners want their home to increase in value. In fact, no matter how long you plan to live in your home, you want it to increase in value as much as possible. You might be looking to make your home more appealing to a buyer, you want to make it the most valuable property you can for when you leave it to family. Maybe you want to use it as collateral for a loan. In any case, property value matters.

Healthy Trees

Perhaps everybody wants to have a shady spot. Children love to play in shade, adults love to lounge in it. This is one of the major offerings that healthy trees bring to the family, but not the only one. Trees can protect your outside areas from wind and provide shelter for more delicate plantings. They bring a harmony with nature to your property, allowing your home to “fit in” to the landscape more gracefully. And trees offer places for birds and other wildlife to live and raise their young.

Your shady space, your wind-protected cove, the benefits your trees bring to you: they need to be healthy to do this. Your family can’t enjoy the shade under a tree that’s threatening to drop branches. The look of your home is not improved by scraggly, sickly looking trees. Delicate plantings below a sick tree will suffer and be exposed to pathogens and parasites attracted by decay. No space is useful under damaged or dangerous trees.

It’s important to do everything in your power to keep existing trees healthy. A mature tree can have an appraised value of between $1,000 and $10,000, according to the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers. With multiple healthy trees, this can be significant when selling.

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” -Unknown

Useful Space

The value of your property is increased with the presence of useful outdoor space. Trees are one of the most attractive, functional ways to increase the usability of your landscape. Using existing trees and even incorporating new trees can help you create distinct areas, manage the wind and sun in those areas, and can even host a tree house or swing. All of this raises the value of your property.

Curb Appeal

“Curb Appeal” is the first impression your home makes when a guest pulls up. You must give attention to both home presence and landscaping to make the best presentation. Stand in the street across from your home. Do your trees look well maintained? Welcoming? Do the plants look inviting? Overgrown? Crowded? Bare? Keep the trees at the front of your house looking strong, full, healthy and your home will look better for it.

Maximize Property Values

The trees are already there. The key now is to foster their healthy growth. This could mean getting nutrient injections, having sickly trees removed, pruning trees, mulching, or any number of things. Have our Certified Arborist guide you towards what your trees need to bring them to their best possible health and beauty.

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Our Newest Service: Arborjet Tree Injections

https://youtu.be/RbKiYnqbcnw

 

Sexy Trees cares about the health of your trees, the ecosystem they need to thrive, and the larger ecology. We’re always looking for more effective ways to protect and benefit your trees and the larger ecosystem they rely on. Our values are why we’re now offering Arborjet tree injections.

 

What are Arborjet Tree Injections?

First and foremost, they are effective! Arborjet nutrient injections get what your tree needs to thrive directly into the tree’s circulatory system, and quickly distributed. The injection is delivered through the trunk, so none of it is wasted in the soil or drained away with water.

Maybe your tree is having any trouble absorbing nutrients through the roots, or your soil just doesn’t have the right balance. Arborjet trunk injections are a highly effective solution to delivering proper nutrition for a lush, strong tree. Injection is faster than any other method for immediate delivery of elements your tree works to extract from the ground.

 

What Trees are Good Candidates for Arborjet Injections?

Not all trees are good candidates for trunk injections. Your arborist will tell you if your tree can benefit from them. If your tree is actively fighting an infection or parasite, your arborist may recommend taking another course. This may be either combining the injection with another solution to the tree’s active problem or postponing injection until after the tree has completed treatment. And there will be some trees that simply are dead or in the process of dying.

 

If you ‘re in the San Francisco wider bay area and are wondering if your tree or trees can benefit from Arborjet trunk injections, contact Sexy Trees today. We love trees, and we’d love to help your trees thrive.

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When is Best to Transplant Trees?

Tree Removal Lafayette

 

Maybe when you moved into your dream home, you noticed that beautiful tree in your backyard and thought, that would look so good if I could put it in my front yard. Or your tree has flourished to the point of outgrowing its current location. When is a good time to move/transplant your tree?

As with most things, it all depends on the type of tree. However, the biggest rule of thumb is to try to move it when it is dormant and not freezing. You want to move it before the colder weather hits or before the tree starts sprouting new foliage.

What is dormant?

During the winter months, trees go into their form of hibernation, called dormancy. While they may seem like they are sleeping or even dead, they’re doing quite a bit to keep going. They drop their leaves and fill their cells with water. Upon the arrival of winter, some of this water goes into the spaces between the cells. This water then becomes the barrier for the trees to protect against possible freezing.

Why transplant trees when they’re dormant?

During the non-dormancy period, trees are heavily reliant on the steady water flow coming to their roots. If this is cut off during the critical period, the tree maybe harmed and have a hard time adapting to its new environment. It would be similar to being in a nice warm shower and having someone dump ice cold water on you.

Dormant trees do not rely on water as much. They’ve lost their leaves and any fruits. They have time to establish their roots and get acclimated to their new environment before the new water supply becomes essential.

However, a critical warning. Do not move trees during extreme cold spells. This could dramatically damage the roots and prevent proper transplantation.

The following are some general rules of thumb for transplanting:

Pine/Evergreen: Fall

Oak: February/March

Maple: Late Fall

Fruit: Early

If you are wanting to transplant your tree, talk to our certified arborist at Sexy Trees. He can provide you key details to avoid damaging your tree.

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What Should You Ask a Tree Care Specialist?

Berkeley Tree Service

Many of us either ignore our trees, do some self-tree care, or simply ask the gardener to do the tree service. Is this best way? Usually these are not the right approaches to ensuring your trees thrive. The following are some key things to ask you Tree Care Specialist:

  • Please give me your experience level

When speaking to tree care specialist, their experience level is critical. They may have seen many situations and been around various tree scenarios. Among their experiences should be becoming a certified arborist. Certified Arborists go through extensive testing to ensure they are familiar with the nuances of caring for trees. Sometimes the difference between a healthy tree and a sick one could be hard to identify differences in how it was pruned or cared for.

  • What things should I do regularly to care for my tree?

Whether it’s watering, pruning, or adding supplements, caring for a tree is very individualized. Each tree will be getting a set of nutrients from the soil, but it does have other needs. An oak tree will have different needs than a peach tree, and those will also vary according to terrain and climate. Each has to be cared for appropriately to ensure maximum health. Get specific recommendations about level of watering, sunlight, etc. A certified arborist has this knowledge to evaluate the tree and make quality recommendations.

  • What is your approach to pruning a tree and why?

As you are speaking with a tree care specialist, some will recommend some pruning or even tree removal. Always ask the essential question of “why?”. If they give you a very generic answer, it’s important to follow up and ask again for the basis of their recommendation. Hacking a tree shorter or removing it without a true need could permanently damage this living being.

Sexy Trees has a certified arborist with years of experience. We do offer tree evaluations. If you have questions about planting trees, feel free to reach out at Sexytrees.com.