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London Ontario Tree Care Tips



Tree Care Tips.

At Olympic Tree Care, we can assists you with all facets of tree care. As an ISA Certified Arborist we have the skills and the knowledge to ensure the best possible care for your trees.

Tree Selection

Good tree care starts at the selection stage. The tree selected must be suitable for he soil and environment. Olympic Tree Care can assist you in selecting a tree that will thrive in the environment and have the attributes you are looking for.

Planting

The most common pitfalls are at the planting stage.When planting a tree, keep the following tips in mind:
Roots need space to grow. Always remove any burlap, twine or nylon from the roots before planting. Dig a hole or spade an area 2 to 5 times the width of the root ball. The hole should be the same depth as the root ball.
Trees need space to grow. Too often trees are planted too close to each other, power lines and/or buildings. Before planting, consider how much room the tree will need when mature.
Don’t over fertilize. Depending on the soil that you are planting in, you will need little or no fertilizer or other organic products in the backfill soil. You can use the loosened soil that came from the hole for backfill.
Roots need to get established. Stakes can be used to provide stability and support for new trees. However, not all trees require staking. If you stake a tree, the stake should be removed when the tree is strong enough to support itself, usually after a full year of growth.
Don’t water too little or too frequently. Infrequent but deep watering of the entire root system (from the trunk to the edge of the crown) will benefit the tree the most.

Mulching

Mulch has a number of benefits: discouraging weeds, conserving moisture during dry periods, maintaining uniform soil temperature, protecting the trunk from being injured by equipment, such as lawn mowers, and decreasing competition from grass for nutrients and moisture. A common pitfall is piling much too high and too close to the trunk. Mulch should be applied in a 3 to 4 inch layer and spread out away from the trunk.

Fertilizing

A tree’s natural environment is the forest. In the forest, trees have the benefit of nutrients from leaves, animal droppings and other materials falling and decomposing on the forest floor. In an urban setting, trees are often deprived of these nutrients. Fertilizing is necessary to replace the nutrients that urban trees are lacking. Surface fertilizers do little to help trees, as most of the nutrients are absorbed by the grass before they reach the tree roots. Deep root fertilizing injects the fertilizer deep into the soil so that it can be absorbed by the tree roots. Depending on the age of the tree, fertilizing should be done in the spring and/or fall.

Pruning

There are many reasons for pruning trees, including: clearance pruning (i.e., clearing branches from pathways or buildings), pruning dead and/or broken branches to reduce the hazard of falling branches, and pruning crowded branches to improve the overall structure of the tree. Pruning can be a highly technical exercise – both in terms of selecting the proper branches to prune and pruning in a proper manner. Improper pruning can hamper a tree’s growth.

Protect Your Trees From Disease

Protect these valuable tree benefits by learning to identify and treat common tree diseases in your area.