Month: January 2021

You may not think it to look at them, but trees actually have quite a bit in common with us! They need food and nutrients, which they receive in the form of sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and the soil around them. Just like humans, this nourishment allows them to grow strong and healthy. Unfortunately, trees are like us in another way—they too can experience illness and death. 

The trouble is, it’s much more difficult to spot when a tree is sick or dying. You or I may run a fever, cough, or sneeze when we’re under the weather, but unless you’re an expert on trees, it can be hard to tell if they’re in poor health. There are still symptoms you can learn to spot, however! When you’re armed with this knowledge, you’ll be better able to gauge how your trees are feeling. This will help you know when it’s time to call in the pros with Red’s Tree Service.

How to examine your trees

You don’t need to be a doctor to examine your trees! You can get a good idea of how healthy they are by periodically checking the trunks, branches, foliage, and above-ground roots. You’ll be looking for anything that doesn’t seem right, as this could be a sign of deterioration. We’ll outline what to look for in the most important areas below. 

Trunk and bark

The bark is a tree’s first line of defense, just like our skin is. If it shows any signs of damage, the tree could be decaying below the surface. Vertical cracks can be one indication of poor health. A lack of new bark is another. As trees age, the outer layer of their bark falls off and is replaced with a fresh layer. If a tree’s health is declining, however, it won’t be able to replace the stripped layer. Fungal growth is one more thing to look for when inspecting your trees. Large clusters of growth can be a sign that the tree is suffering from internal rot. 

In general, trees showing signs of decay or instability should be removed as soon as possible to prevent them from falling and possibly causing damage. As experienced arborists, we can help you decide whether or not a tree should be removed. We also have the professional skills and equipment to safely and efficiently remove trees from your property if needed. 

Roots

Discerning the health of a tree from the roots can be difficult since most of them are hidden underground. The good news is, roots are the least vulnerable part of the tree. Under the surface, they’re protected from winds, wandering animals, and other dangers the more visible parts of the tree are subject to. 

They can still experience illness, though! Nearby construction, soil compaction, and other stressors can lead to damage you may not be aware of. One visible sign of this is small branches sprouting from the base of the tree. Roots that have been broken off, injured, or damaged are another.  

If you’re not sure what you should be looking for, our team is happy to help! A tree health and risk assessment by Red’s Tree Service can help you spot any weaknesses in the roots before they become major problems, saving you time and money. 

Branches and twigs

Branches and twigs can give you some insight into how well or how poorly a tree is doing! A healthy tree will boast plenty of new leaves or buds, have a normal leaf size, and show signs of twig growth, among others. 

In fact, you can check a tree’s condition by removing a small twig from a branch, breaking it open, and checking the color inside. If the color is bright green, chances are good that everything’s fine. A duller green could be a sign of aging. Black or brown could signify serious damage or even death. 

What to do if a tree is showing signs of illness

If you believe your tree is deteriorating, the first thing you should do is identify what the underlying problem is. There are several possible reasons for a tree to be in poor health. It may be receiving too much or too little water. It could be suffering due to soil compaction or recent excavations nearby. It may require pruning or fertilizer. It can be hard to know where to start to find the source of sickness!

A professional will have the training and knowledge to identify and diagnose the root of the problem. Here at Red’s Tree Service, we have many years of experience in multiple aspects of the tree business, allowing us to offer you a wide variety of services. It will be much easier to find a solution for your sick tree with an expert arborist on your side!

Keep your trees healthy and your property safe with Red’s Tree Service 

Trees come with significant benefits to our properties and our lives, but when they become ill or die, they can be a real liability. While it’s smart to brush up on what to look for when it comes to the health of your trees, a tree health and risk assessment by Red’s Tree Service can help you spot any weaknesses before they become major problems! This can save you a great deal of time and money in the long run. 

It may save your tree, too! Understanding and addressing the risks associated with your trees is important, and a team of professional arborists can help you do just that. If you’re looking to keep your trees in good shape, get in touch today and let our team here at Red’s Tree Service ensure they live a long and healthy life. 

This post first appeared on https://redstreeservice.com

Prevent your nutrient-depleted soil from weakening and killing your trees, shrubs, and plants. Knowing how to keep your soil fertile will drive robust growth in your yard and garden.

toddsmariettatreeservices.com gathered information on how to Identify, enrich, and maintain your soil.

Types of Soil

Your soil is much more than dirt that you dig a hole in to plant something. Before attempting to improve or enrich your soil, identify what type it is:

Sandy Soil – This type of soil is usually formed as rocks like granite, limestone, and/or quartz fragment and breakdown. Sandy soils are poor soil types for growing plants because it has little to no nutrients and poor water holding capacity, which makes it hard for plant roots to absorb water and establish themselves.

Silt Soil – Composed of broken-down rock and mineral particles, smaller than sand but larger than clay. This soil retains water better than sandy soil and is the more fertile of the soil types. However, silt soil is easily stripped away by moving water currents, adding to potential erosion problems.

Clay Soil – This soil has the smallest and most tightly packed particles, leaving little to no airspace. Smooth when dry and sticky when wet, clay soil is the densest soil and does not drain well or provide sufficient space for roots to thrive.

Loamy Soil – Often referred to as agricultural soil, loamy soil is a combination of sand, silt, and clay soils. This soil presents a better ability to retain moisture and nutrients while having higher pH and calcium levels.

Watch this video for three ways to easily test your soil and determine its type.

Soil Enrichment

Grow more healthy, vigorous, and productive plants and trees by enriching your soil. Every soil type can be improved. Here’s how:

To Improve Sandy Soil – Sandy soils contain little to no clay or organic matter, they don’t have structure, and particles won’t stick together, even when they’re wet.

• Work or till in 4 to 5 inches of organic material like compost or well-rotted manure
• Grow cover crops in the offseason
• Mulch around your plants, shrubs, and trees with organic material like hay, straw, bark, leaves, or wood chips. Mulch regulates soil temperature and retains moisture.
• Each year, add a minimum of 2 more inches of organic material to the soil

Tip: Cover crops may include buckwheat and/or phacelia in summer and vetch, daikon, and/or clovers in fall.

Read Proper Mulching Techniques Around Trees for more information about applying mulch properly.

To Improve Clay Soil – While most clay soils are rich in minerals, they lack a porous quality for roots to push their way through. These soils are also easily compacted by foot traffic and garden equipment. Here’s how to reduce compaction and enrich clay soils:

• Work or till in 3 to 4 inches of organic material like compost or well-rotted manure
• Grow cover crops in the offseason
• Mulch around your plants, shrubs, and trees with organic material
• Each year, add a minimum of 1 more inch of organic material to the soil

Note: The addition of organic material to clay soils provides better results when applied in the fall.

To Improve Silty Soil – While more fertile than sand or clay soil, silty soils are generally more dense, poorly-drained, and prone to the effects of erosion. Here’s how to help silty soils:

• Add 1 inch of organic material like compost or well-rotted manure
• Grow cover crops in the off season
• Eliminate foot traffic, resting garden equipment, and till only when necessary to avoid soil compaction
• Each year, add a minimum of 1 more inch of organic material to the soil

Note: The addition of sand and clay to silty soil can have disastrous results when done improperly. You would be better served by allowing the organic material to slowly modify the soil.

How To Improve Soil

Every soil has a unique texture and physical characteristics. However, all soil types can suffer when neglected and abused or be significantly improved with the right management techniques. The following serve to evaluate and improve all soil types:

Test Your Soil – You can find home soil test kits ranging from $15 (basic kit) to $900 (professional kit). Such tests measure the pH (acidity/alkalinity) and nutrient content of your soil.

You can send your soil samples to a North American Proficiency Testing Program (NAPT) participating laboratory by visiting naptprogram.org/about/participants and searching by laboratory name or state.

Also, most state universities provide soil testing services through their Cooperative Extension Service. Likely, they will provide soil testing and fertilizer/amendment recommendations based on test results.

Tip: Contact your state university or search for their extension for pricing and available services.

Watch this video to see how soil is tested in a laboratory.

Increase Soil Biodiversity – Organisms like nematodes, amoeba, fungi, bacteria, and earthworms are essential for the healthy growth of your plants, shrubs, and trees. Soil management practices that increase a soil’s organic matter and its biodiversity include:

• Amending organic material into the soil regularly
• Moisture control (watering)
• Careful selection and application of fertilizers
• Mulch barren soil and around shrubs and trees, including gardens
• Minimizing or eliminating soil tillage
• Retaining and improving plant cover and using cover crops to shield the soil

Note: If adding manure to enrich your soil, use composted or aged manure. Fresh manure can “burn” growing plants and grasses.

Tip: Add earthworms to your compost pile. This will significantly enrich your compost, and when adding that compost to your soil, the worms go with it.

Watch this video from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations about soil biodiversity.

Control Soil pH Levels – Soil pH preferences vary between grass, plant, and tree species but most prefer soil pH between 5.8 and 7.2. You can safely adjust your soil’s pH to accommodate your grass, plant, or tree’s requirements by:

• Lowering soil pH or making it more acidic, amending aluminum sulfate, sphagnum peat, elemental sulfur, iron sulfate, acidifying nitrogen, and/or organic mulches
• Raising soil pH or making it more alkaline, incorporating limestone, agricultural lime, wood ash, and/or hydrated lime

Tip: Before planting anything, be knowledgeable of your pant’s preferred soil pH and make necessary adjustments to the soil. Frequent soil tests will help you maintain optimal soil conditions for what you are growing.

Watch this video to see how to adjust soil pH.

Enriching Your Soil

In this article, you discovered how to identify your soil type and composition, How to enrich your soil, and how to maintain its health.

Enriching your soil will help you grow healthier grasses, plants, shrubs, and trees, making them less susceptible to disease and insect infestations.

Ignoring your soil’s composition and biodiversity will lead to your landscape’s poor performance, plant death, and difficulty growing anything healthy.

Sources:
environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/land-and-soil/soil-degradation/soil-biodiversity
hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/1994/4-6-1994/ph.html
whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fundamentals/benefits_benefits.htm
ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=28605

Prevent diseases on your tree’s bark from killing it. Knowing what type of disease is growing on or in your tree will help you take appropriate measures to treat it.

72tree.com gathered information on diseases that affect or appear on tree bark, how severe they are, and what actions are needed to prevent the disease from spreading.

Tree Bark Diseases

Tree bark completely covers a tree’s trunk, branches, stems, and twigs. It could be seen as a protective skin that repels insect infestations, shields against pathogens, and resists physical damage. Frequently, however, a stressed tree will likely develop one of the following:

Cankers on Trees

Cankers are dead areas of bark on a tree’s trunk or branch. Multiple factors can cause bark death, like damage caused by an impact, bacteria, or fungi. Pathogens such as bacteria or fungi are usually unable to penetrate healthy bark, but if the tree is stressed or the bark is damaged, infection is more likely. Consider the following types of cankers:

Wound Canker – These cankers, sometimes referred to as annual cankers, are most common at or near the base of a tree. They are typically caused by a lawnmower, vehicle, and/or maintenance equipment strikes or repeated abrasion.

Cankers resulting from impact wounds are severe threats that need to be prevented. Allowing conditions for these wounds to persist can result in the girdling and death of the tree.

Prevention: Create a safety zone using organic mulch or gravel around the tree.

Tip: Existing wounds should be carefully trimmed (without widening or deepening the wound), so the tree can properly seal the wound. Point out these wounds/repairs to your tree professional.

Perennial Canker or Cytospora Canker (Target-Shaped) – This canker is one of the more common diseases of shade and fruit trees. It is caused by one of several Cytospora fungi (Nectria, Strumella, Eutypella, etc.) and attacks multiple hosts, including:

• Apple (Malus domestica)
• Apricot (Prunus armeniaca)
• Ash (Fraxinus)
• Aspen (Populus tremuloides)
• Birch (Betula)
• Beeches (Fagus)
• Cherry (Prunus avium)
• Elm (Ulmus)
• Hickories (Carya)
• Maples (Acer)
• Peach (Prunus persica)
• Poplars (Populus)
• Walnuts (Juglans)
• Willow (Salix)

Cytospora infections can occur via bark wounds, at junctions of dead and live branches, or at poorly cut pruning wounds. The fungi slowly grow through bark during the tree’s dormancy (late fall and winter). Then, in the growing season, the host trees respond by compartmentalizing the affected areas. This alternating growth of the fungus and the tree forms a distinct elongated, target-like appearance.

Identification: These cankers will appear sunken on branches or trunks and present the following:

• Colors vary from off-brown to gray shades
• Black fungal structures (pycnidia) embedded in small bumps around the wound
• Brownish to orangish masses of spores being extruded from pycnidia
• Oozing sap and/or a wet appearance

Tip: These cankers slowly expand over time and can eventually girdle the branch or the whole tree (when located on the trunk). Ask a professional tree service to evaluate your tree and recommend a course of action.

Diffuse Canker – With these highly lethal cankers, necrosis spreads so quickly that the host can’t compartmentalize the area fast enough to stop its progression. The differences between these and other cankers are:

• No callus rings are formed, the affected area appears dark, sunken, and often moist
• Diffuse cankers continue expanding during the growing season
• When these cankers occur on a tree’s trunk, the tree will likely die

Some of the pathogens responsible for diffuse cankers are:

• Phytophthora dieback
• Cytospora canker
• Botryosphaeria canker
• Hypoxylon canker
• Chestnut blight

Identification: Diffuse cankers appear as sunken, dark areas similar to other cankers, but with no callus rings. It is common to see sap oozing from these cankers.

Note: Diffuse cankers move fast enough to completely girdle and kill their hosts in a single growing season.

Managing Pathogen-Driven Canker Diseases – As with nearly all tree problems, prevention is easier and less costly than treatment. Consider the following:

• Properly prune your tree (only in dry weather)
• Sanitize all pruning equipment with 10% bleach or 70% alcohol before and after each tree
• Remove and destroy any dead or infected material
• Prevent tree wounds (mechanical and environmental)
• Soil should be well-drained
• Improve tree health (water, fertilize, prune, and mulch)
• Apply a preventative chemical treatment to un-infected trees

Tip: Have your trees inspected annually by a professional tree service. Besides early detection of disease, you may identify other stressors that increase your tree’s susceptibility to developing cankers.

Mushrooms on Tree Bark

When you see mushrooms growing on a tree, be concerned. Mushrooms are the fruiting structures of fungi. For them to appear, the fungi must be well-developed and have caused extensive decay within the tree. Consider the following:

Mushrooms on a Tree Branch – Carefully prune the branch from the tree and destroy (burn) it. Avoid spreading pathogens from one tree to the next by sanitizing your equipment with 10% bleach or 70% alcohol before and after working on infected trees.

After removing all visibly affected limbs or branches, monitor your tree over the next growing season and have it thoroughly inspected for any other potential issues (decay-causing fungi can quickly spread throughout a tree).

Mushrooms on a Tree Trunk – Call a professional tree service as quickly as possible. Your tree’s trunk is likely suffering from extensive internal decay and needs removal.

Mushrooms on a Tree’s Root Flare – Again, this is an urgent scenario. When mushrooms grow from the root flare, there is likely significant decay within the tree’s roots, potentially destabilizing the tree when winds and storms come through. The tree will likely require emergency removal.

Treatment: When dealing with mushrooms on your tree, you will be limited to removing affected limbs and branches. For this, prevention is easier and less costly than treatment. Consider the following:

• Properly prune your tree (3 cut method)
• Sanitize all pruning equipment with 10% bleach or 70% alcohol before and after each tree
• Remove and destroy (burn) any dead or infected material
• Prevent mechanical tree wounds
• Prepare your trees for severe weather events
• Soil should be well-drained to avoid root rot
• Improve tree health (water, fertilize, prune, and mulch)
• Apply a preventative chemical treatment to un-infected trees

Tip: Avoid disturbing these mushrooms. Trying to remove them can release billions of microscopic spores into the air, potentially spreading the disease to other trees, shrubs, and plants.

Tree Diseases

In this article, you discovered information about the diseases that affect and appear on tree bark, the damage they cause, and how to prevent them.

By taking swift action to treat or remove a diseased tree, you are protecting your property and surrounding trees.

When you ignore diseases appearing on tree bark, you risk the sudden death or destabilization of the tree and the expensive damages it can cause when it falls.

Sources:
uaex.edu/environment-nature/forestry/health/treecankers.pdf
extension.usu.edu/pests/ipm/notes_ag/fruit-cytospora
extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/cytospora-canker-2-937/

This article was first published on: http://www.72tree.com/tree-diseases-on-bark/