Plant Health Care
Join us as we take a deep dive into real care for urban trees. Real solutions aimed at promoting tree health & longevity.
Vision Care Packages
We’ve created a thoughtfully planned system in order to provide your young and newly planted trees with the best chance at thriving in the urban environment.
Our care packages include a combination of pruning, fertilizing, inventory management and reporting. Yearly service is automatically scheduled for your convenience and peace of mind. Young trees require structural pruning of branches and roots as well as yearly observation in order to excel. We feel it our responsibility as arborists to offer continued care to developing trees.
Our Gold, Silver and Bronze packages include combinations of:
Pruning
Liquid Soil Treatment
Air-Spade excavation and root pruning
Soil Amendment
Winter trunk protection
T-post removal
Inventory management
Routine inspection
These packages can be applied to any young tree that meets size and maturity requirements, whether we have planted it or not.
LIQUID SOIL TREATMENT
Our prescriptive soil treatment programs give trees their best chance to thrive in urban soils.
A tree can only be as healthy as the soil it is growing in. Urban soils lack the biological life found in forests where trees thrive. Various scheduled treatments allow our experts to cycle through an array of organic products that work together as a system. Benefits to trees include increased water uptake, improved defence against disease and pathogens, enhancement of the soil food web, decompaction of soil, lawn and root aeration and more. Our team uses the following products in yearly applications:
Nutriroot- A blend of essential minerals, seaweed extract, humates, surfactants and humectants. Designed to reduce water stress in trees, plants and lawns. Especially helpful for construction stress.
Natural Resource- A mixture of humate, seaweed, iron, manganese, zinc and beneficial bacteria. An excellent mixture for general soil maintenance.
Biochar- A type of charcoal, saturated in nutrients, that is highly porous and increases water and nutrient holding capability of soil.
Myco-Bio Pack- Symbiotic fungi that colonize fine roots and help with water and nutrient uptake.
Ferro-Late XL- A chelated form of iron that helps control yellow (chlorotic) leaves on trees.
Kelp- Provides essential nutrients and growth hormones. It promotes strong root systems, improves nutrient uptake and has a positive influence on tree stress.
Chitosan- A natural product derived from crustaceans that induces a defence response in plants.
Salicylic Acid- Naturally occurring plant hormone that plays a major role in plant defence.
Various NPK Fertilizers- Standard or custom fertilizers used when laboratory analyses confirm a specific deficiency.
Root collar excavation / root pruning
Poor tree health can often be traced back to roots that circle or eventually girdle it at its base, usually just under the soil. This is the result of planting trees that already have poor root structure from the nursery, or from trees growing in excessively compact soil. As the tree gets older, girdling roots and trunk tissues become crushed together and this can severely inhibit water and element conduction in the wood tissues. A supersonic air spade can be used to excavate the root collar (area around the trunk) to safely expose the problem roots. Girdling roots can then be pruned off to avoid the problem getting worse in the future. We can often be seen examining the root flares of newly planted or young trees on our client’s properties in order to catch these problems early.
Soil Amendment
Poor quality and compacted soils are a leading cause in urban tree decline. Often our activities of developing, building, renovating and landscaping severely damage soil structure and by default, tree root systems. Identifying and amending poor soil can be the difference between life and death of a tree. Our technicians have the experience and knowledge needed to identify poor soil conditions and propose the appropriate amendment plans. Soil amendment plans can include:
- Air tilling (Air-Spade) to incorporate organic matter or other amendments
- Radial trenching (Air-Spade) to relieve compaction and provide pathways for fine tree roots
The use of an Air-Spade allows our specialists to excavate around roots and break up compacted soil layers without damaging them. A well carried out soil amendment increases soil pore space allowing roots access to much needed oxygen and water.
Laboratory and soil analysys
A well informed and ethical decision on any tree care treatment begins with an accurate diagnosis and hard data. When a misdiagnosis can lead to making a tree health problem worse, it is essential to gather as much information as possible. We work with reputable laboratories to have foliar and soil samples analyzed and form our recommendations after studying the data.