5 STEPS TO HEALTHY TREE LIFE

What if your tree is dead and you need to plant a replacement tree? Anita Schill, a consultant for industry and commercial developers only, suggests the following fivestep approach: 1

Plant trees in good soil. “If you have a poor root environment, you’re going to have a poor tree. You need loose, well-drained, rich soil. The best thing to do is loosen up as much soil area — surface area — as you can so when you plant your tree, you have airy, open, well-drained soil where the roots can extend laterally. Better soil structure means better air circulation and moisture-holding capacity. When the water and air move freely — something they can’t do in compacted soil — the tree grows better and is less stressed.” 2

Plant small trees. “When you plant a big tree, there’s so much root loss that all of the energy stored in the tree will have to be used to try to reestablish that root system. So if the new tree gets hit by an insect, or a drought, or another storm, it has less energy and it is more stressed.” 3

Plant trees at the right depth. “The tree should have a flare at the base as it goes into the ground. If it looks like a broomstick, it’s planted too deep.” 4

Avoid soil compaction around trees at all costs. “Trees hate compaction. I planted my trees with perennial ground cover (Vinca minor), so they never get anybody walking in and around them. A wood-chip mulch tends to break the force of rain droplets. If you just have bare soil, the force of rain pulverizes the surface — busts up those little soil particles and then you just have dust. If you have a ground cover, wood-chip mulch or leaf litter, it’s just amazing how much that will intercept rainfall and reduce the impact.” 5

Water trees well. “Our dry spring added additional stress to trees already damaged by weather and insects. Even the recent rains were so hard they mostly ran off the dry soil surface. The solution? Water, water, water. But use a slow soaker system rather than a high pressure hose.”