Nature can either be overestimated or underestimated. Some people might think certain plants need excessive care or an influx of chemicals, while other people think nature doesn’t require much care and should be able to fend for themselves. Plants, trees, and all flora are living things and all living things require some level of care.
Setting these beliefs in nature care and maintenance aside, everyone may agree that some trees, in particular, need to be a cared for. Efficient tree care and maintenance allow for better tree health, helps reduce tree damage, and helps protect trees against various tree diseases or pests. It may sound peculiar but not all trees are the same. There are different size trunks, different growing length, different types of emerging fruits and flowers, different leaf structures, and many other factors. These are some dos and don’ts in tree care and maintenance.
Do’s
1. Check For Tree Diseases And Pests
Diseases and pests could cause great damage to your tree. Sometimes diseases and pests could be highly extensive to a point where even nature or infrastructure surrounding that a particular tree could get affected. Regularly checking and treating tree diseases and pests is an essential part of tree care. All trees have different diseases and need to be taken care of differently, for example shady tree care is different from caring for trees with less shade.
Some examples of tree diseases are anthracnose caused by fungi, cedar rusts, diplodia tip blight, lethal yellow, oak wilt, and many others. Most of these can be easily seen on the surface of a tree but others can only be seen internally or require a closer look. Tree pests such as aphids, scale insects, emerald ash borers, and many others can make large contributions to tree damage. One can get rid of pests such as these through spraying horticulture oil onto the plant or making use of insecticides and pesticides.
2. Carry Out Regular Pruning
Pruning describes the removal of specific parts of a tree in order to improve tree health. Pruning is also done to get rid of parts of a tree that are dying from diseases and pests, an absence in sunlight, and to enable better plant growth and development. Sometimes, pruning is done for aesthetic purposes as well.
Regular pruning could be a simple way of ensuring that your tree is not infested with insects and isn’t deprived of certain growth necessities. Through this, pruning contributes to the healthy growth of tree and allows people to avoid any trouble attached to keeping infected parts of the plant present.
3. Engage In Tree Mulching
Tree mulching describes the act of placing leaves or some form of natural covering over the surface around a tree. The purpose of mulching is to improve the tree’s soil, to conserve moisture, to protect the tree from things like foot traffic, to suppress weeds, and many other things.
The roots of a tree are at their best health when they’re in moist and cool soil, and this can be ensured through mulching. Rich and strong roots are good for better growth of the tree. Mulch helps protect the soil around the tree from being eroded by passing people or animals. It’s much harder for a tree to grow in soil that’s relatively eroded.
Tree / Unsplash
Don’ts
1. Carry Out Deforestation/Removal Of Trees On Your Own
Whether you’re feeling like the strongest and wisest person on earth on a particular day, don’t take down a tree on your own. Trees are very complex structures. They require a good level of experience, specific knowledge, precise skills, and correct equipment in order to be taken down in a safe and proper manner.
There are many licensed arborists out there that will assist with taking down any trees, so engage with tree removal Calgary if you’re in Canada or any tree removers in your area. Taking down a tree on your own could cause you serious injury and further costs, especially if you’ve never successfully done it before. Don’t underestimate the size of a tree and the damage it can cause.
2. Prune All The Time
Pruning is healthy but only when done at appropriate times. For example, you may want to avoid pruning in autumn/fall. Pruning does promote the growth of trees and it may not be worthwhile to prune right before colder months because then your tree will be trying to grow during the colder seasons.
Furthermore, pruning describes the act of cutting parts of tree away, therefore you should expect a tree to have wounds to heal from pruning. It may take time for trees to recover and heal wounds from pruning, so continuous pruning may cause more harm than good.
3. Water Trees A Lot
Trees, like all other plants in nature, require water to survive, however unlike smaller plants, trees don’t need to be watered as frequently. If it hasn’t rained in a long while, you can then consider watering the trees that you’re tending to.
When trees are overwatered, it may cause various problems, including a range of outbreaks of diseases and pests, an increase in the number of weeds surrounding a tree, problems surrounding root decay, and numerous other issues. Excess water can also take over air pockets that a tree had previously had, which causes the tree to get overwhelmed and thus struggle to breathe.
Take Care Of Your Trees
Maintaining and taking care of trees is such an important thing to engage in. However, aspects of tree care should be handling delicately. For example, there’s different types of tree removal and specific ways to approach them. There are ways to prevent trees from damage and so it may be internally fulfilling and aesthetically pleasing to get involved with tree maintenance and care.