Hello gardener!

Keep your trees healthy with practices like inspection, pruning, fertilizing, and watering. They’ll thank you by producing fragrant flowers and delicious fruit. An apple picked fresh off the tree tastes sweeter, doesn’t it? Let’s get you there.

What is a Tree

Trees live long lives and are key to life on Earth. They provide food, shelter, beauty, oxygen, and so much more.

• Parts of a Tree
  • Roots – Take up nutrients from the soil. Lateral, Hairs, Tap.
  • Trunk – Supports the tree and ensuring safe passage of nutrients.
  • Crown – Branches, foliage, flowers, fruit
• Types of Trees
  • Deciduous (Leaf-bearing) & Coniferous (cone-bearing)
  • Edible Fruit & Flowering
  • Columnar (Tall) & Spreading (low)
  • Form (Aesthetic) & Function (Wind breaking, privacy, etc)

Care & Maintenance

Pruning

• • The 5 D’s
    • Dead: prune visibility dead branches that aren’t undergoing active growth.
    • Diseased: prune diseased branches and ensure the effected branches are disposed of and tools are cleaned to avoid spread.
    • Damaged: prune bent branches and those that may have sustained damage over the winter.
    • Dangerous: prune any branches that are blocking pathways, damaging property, etc.
    • Desirable: prune to a desirable shape.
  • How to Prune? There is a helpful diagram on Colin’s PowerPoint presentation found at the bottom of this blog.
  • Tools: Ensure you have the correct tool for the job. No injuries here! Remember, gardening should be fun. We have a large selection of Pruning Tools. Big or small, whatever you need.

Inspection

Catch harmful activity before it’s irreversible. Look for…

• Disease – Are there unusual spots on your leaves or any other visible signs of disease?
• Insects – Good bugs, like spiders and lady bugs, may be reacting to an increase in harmful pests like aphids or flys. Bad bugs like wasps, may be reacting to an open wound on your tree.
• Branch strength – Apply light pressure on your branches to ensure they bounce back and don’t snap off.
• Abnormal growth
• Signs of stress – Is your tree blooming later than others? Are your leaves drooping and changing colour too early?
• Other dangers – Look for powerlines that may be impacted by branches, or roots that are sticking out of ground that may pose a tripping hazard.

Fertilizing

A fertilizer program should be started immediately in the spring and go until August. Anything after that will promote growth when the tree is trying to wind down for the winter. Do not over fertilize. Less is more. Follow the directions on each individual fertilizer.

While there are lots of selection in our fertilizer department for trees and shrubs, here are some helpful brands to narrow it down.

• Evolve Organic Tree & Shrub Food (Canadian)
• Evolve Organic Fruit & Berry (Canadian)
• Miracle Gro Shake n Feed

Fertilizer mediums

• Water Soluble – Colin’s pick. Apply when watering plants. This methods ensures the plant is receiving an even amount of fertilizer.
  • During the webinar, it was asked if fish emulsion fertilizer could be used, and the answer is yes!
• Granular – Apply fertilizer by hand to the soil lightly mix in. Slow release fertilizer that breaks when watering. If using fertilizer stakes

Watering

A soaker hose/drip hose is the best way to water trees as it targets the root system near the drip line. There is a helpful diagram on the PowerPoint that illustrates what the drip line is. High production trees that fruit & flower will require more water. Continue to water until the ground freezes in the fall.

Mulching

Not required, but good to have on your trees. Make sure to not pile up the mulch like a volcano. You want to create a crater so the trunk is exposed at the bottom. Not doing this will weaken the trunk as water will consistently sit around it and invite pathogens.

 

The more detailed encore presentation hosted by Colin Hayles is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

If you’d like a copy of Colin’s PowerPoint, click here: Golden Acre Webinars – Tree II 2022

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