For Immediate Release:

Friday, September 2, 2016

How to properly treat a tree.
Many folks seem confused about “Tree Treatments” and how it is properly done.
Folks get the picture that they must be pro-active in caring for their trees. However, they apparently do not understand what being proactive means, as opposed to re-active. Re-active is just that: you see something, and you react to it. Pro-active is doing something before it becomes an obvious problem.
When you see a sick tree and then try to do something, that is reactive. When you realize that what you are doing to your tree is bad and make changes for the betterment of the tree, that proactive.
Same goes for the human body.
Usually, it is too late when you see something is wrong. This rule is especially true for trees since these things do not happen overnight. Ok, sudden death in trees is an overnight thing, but there are many “signs” that foretell of it happening.
There are always “signs” that point to the upcoming problem.
What are some of the signs in trees that there is a problem?
First off the weather and its environmental effects are the first sign that changes made in adjusting for this change. In our case, we have two signs of change: High Heat and an ongoing drought. Both of these combined can put lots of stress on a tree’s ecosystem.
Some folks believe that it is natural for a tree to die of these conditions and just let nature do her thing, while others are more involved as gardeners, and they realize that we are nature’s gardeners and if we want these trees to survive, that we must be pro-active in their care.
Humans have a strange way of disassociating themselves from nature. We have to realize that what we do affects all living things.
Back to trees.
Trees do best when the soil they live on is also properly cared.
When folks ask me to “just Treat the tree and nothing else,” I reply that trees are connected to the earth, and it is the ground that needs to be addressed first. The health of the tree will naturally follow the health of the soil.
If you are willing to let that one tree die, then you will also have to let all of the trees on you’re properly die too, as they are all connected by the same earth.
So to properly treat and take care of your trees, you must pay attention to how you treat and take care of the soil.
I have been telling folks to bury the drip line (soaker line) as deep into the ground as possible and cover that with a layer of rock dust, organic fertilizer, compost, and then mulch over with a deep layer of azalea/gardenia mix and then have that covered with wood chips or bark. Just applying wood chips or bark will do nothing to the soil structure. What you are doing when you add these layers is to protect the ground from the heat and to keep the water below ground. Keeping water below ground is essential to allowing trees and other plants the ability to survive the drought and high heat we are having.
This is the time of year to apply these layers and allow it to settle down during the winter time as well as to absorb any rains that we may get.
When treating a tree, you are doing two things; 1. You are providing essential nutrients and minerals to the tree as well as water. This is best done thru foliar spraying which gets these important nutrients immediately into the tree, Then what you apply to the roots (some of which is available, most is not till roots are working correctly). 2. You are attempting to bring the soil back to life. What this means is that you understand that the roots systems of the tree must be working properly. To do this, the soil must have the proper systems in place. This means proper amount of humus, microbial life, nutrient sources and aeration and circulation.
The ph of the soil is also important as certain microbes only live within a certain ph range (6.5-6.8), the closer you are to this ph range the more minerals are available to the plants because the proper microbes are present which eats minerals and converts to assimilated nutrients.
That is why I always recommend using azalea/gardenia mix as a mulch. This will help bring the ph of our soil (7.2-7.4) down to a more natural ph or even lower.
You must take into account the whole of the property and not just a small part. When working on the finger, a doctor must also look not just at the hand but at the whole body and treat the whole body accordingly, which will then help the hand also.
The saying “You are what you eat” holds true for trees and plants and the earth as well. Feeding the earth with junk only produces more junk. It is this junk that will kill us all; it certainly will kill your trees. Avoid using chemical fertilizers, pesticides and anything that that will not return the earth to its natural state. Learn to use a water garden filter to clean the city water of chemicals which only hurt the soil and not help it. Just like we humans need clean water, the earth needs clean water too. Learn to catch the rain, and recycle your food wastes back to your garden, learn to make compost and use gray water. The coming years will test our strength and skills as good earth gardeners.
Let us all be Invisible Gardeners of the Earth.
Any questions? Email me andylopez@invisiblegardener.com
Andy Lopez
Invisible Gardener