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Suggested Tree Care

Quality Time with Your Trees

Set up a regular schedule of simple maintenance if your tree is established and older than 3 to 5 years. It is not difficult or demanding. Regular care will ensure your trees will continue to thrive and survive for generations. It will also help you avoid expensive and dangerous situations caused by unhealthy trees.

An effective program includes regular inspection, watering, pruning, mulching, and possible fertilization. You can do much of the on-going tree care yourself, but at times a tree care professional will be needed to diagnose problems and assist you in solving them.

Tree Inspection

Mature trees should be inspected on a regular basis, preferably yearly. Do this safely from the ground, using binoculars if necessary. Loss of vigor is the surest early warning sign there may be a problem with your tree. Advice from an arborist may be invaluable and a great yearly deposit on your long term investment.

• Leaning Trees
  Leaners result from sudden loss of root anchorage and are in the process of falling over. Check your tree's vertical position and if roots are exposed on the opposite side of a lean. Leaners are imminent hazards because they can fall at any time.
• Weak Branches
  Inspect large branches for splits where they attach to your trees and areas where many branches arise from the same point on a trunk. Both indicate potentially hazardous and weak branches and have a high chance for failure. Often these types of branches will need to be removed.
• Tree Decay
  Decay in pockets on branches, or in old wound cavities, and mushrooms or conks on trunks or on roots at the base of your tree may indicate hazardous conditions and potential structural failure. An arborist should be called to evaluate your tree.
• Cracks
  Cracks can be vertical or horizontal. Cracks in the bark are typically not a problem; cracks into the wood are cause for concern. An arborist should inspect your cracks to determine depth and severity of damage. In some cases corrective pruning can reduce potential hazards by lightening the load on the base branch or trunk.
• Broken Branches
  Broken branches or "hangers" are likely to fall without warning and could cause serious damage. They should be removed immediately.
• Deadwood
  Branches that have died will eventually fall off. Small branches usually should not cause concern, but dead branches larger than 2" in diameter should be removed.

Proper Tree Care

Watering Your Tree

Deep water your trees to let the roots drink:

• The best way to deep water trees is by a soaker hose that slowly applies water to the soil over several hours or overnight.
• You can use a garden hose set to a trickle and moved to at least four different locations under the drip line.
• Sprinklers may be used to water deeply by watering until water begins to run off, then waiting at least an hour or two to resume watering.
• This should be repeated until water has penetrated at least one foot in depth.
• Special care will need to be taken when watering on a slope. Water around and beyond the drip line of mature trees where the roots are, not near the base of the trunk.
• Irrigation frequency during our rainless months may vary greatly depending on the tree species, daily temperatures, and location in the yard, along with soil texture, structure and depth.
• Established drought tolerant trees may need occasional watering at one or two month intervals.
• California native oaks, California laurel, cork oak, Chinese pistache and goldenrain tree can be damaged and short lived with frequent summer watering.
• Moisture adapted trees such as birches, redwoods, magnolias and red maples may need regular deep watering throughout their lives to look their best and perform well.
• These and other species greatly benefit from an occasional deep watering to the depth of at least a foot once or twice a month.
• Trees in or near lawn areas with frequent shallow watering may develop surface roots.
• Poorly adapted Monterey pine, Leyland cypress and giant sequoia are prone to insect damage and diseases in hot dry interior areas of the state regardless of how much water they are given.
• Use a shovel or soil sampling tube to check the depth of moisture to at least a foot.

Give Your Tree Some Mulch

• Mulching is critical for young trees and helps develop a friendly soil structure for tree roots.
• Cover the soil around your trees four feet in diameter to a depth of four to six inches with organic mulch or allow leaves or needles from the tree to remain on the ground.
• Keep mulch 4"to 6" from the trunk of the tree to prevent crown rot. As your tree canopy expands, continue to expand the mulched area to cover the entire dripline of your tree.
• Don't mulch with stone cobbles, plastic, or weed cloth – they create a hostile environment for root growth.

Providing Fertilizer

• Mature trees generally do not need fertilizer.
• Fertilizers are not tree food, you do not "feed" a tree when you fertilize.
  
• Tree food (sugar) is made by living leaves through the process of photosynthesis.
• Healthy leaves manufacture sugars (the tree food) which are stored in healthy roots grown in healthy soil.
• If nutrient deficiencies are detected in a soil test, it may be necessary to fertilize that soil to improve conditions and ultimately, tree vigor.
• Fertilizer is best applied in late summer or after the trees has completely leafed out in spring.
• Warning - Many lawn fertilizers contain weed and feed formulations and broadleaf herbicides that may be picked up by tree roots and harm your trees if applied incorrectly.
• Mulch creates a friendly environment for tree roots.

Tree Pruning

• Done well, pruning can produce strong, healthy, attractive trees. Prune only to your level of expertise – leave the larger jobs to the pros!
• Correct pruning will help a tree maintain safety, develop a strong structure, and enhance the vigor and health of your tree.
• Since each pruning cut changes the growth of your tree and can damage it, no branch should be removed without a reason.
• Light pruning and removal of dead wood can be done at any time.
• Heavier pruning should wait until your tree is dormant in the late fall and winter.

Here are some tips to guide you in safe, correct pruning:

• Do not stub tree branches.
  This is called heading or topping. Instead use a thinning cut; remove the entire branch or cut back to another branch that can assume the new lead. Heading a tree causes several vigorous upright shoots to grow. They are weakly attached and crowded, and the natural shape of the tree is destroyed. Thinning retains a tree's shape.
• Do not make cuts flush to the trunk or branch.
  The small ridge or collar at the base of every branch protects the tree from disease and insects. Cut just beyond this collar, leaving it intact, but don't leave a stub. Do not use a wound dressing on the pruning cuts. Pruning cuts do not need wound paint or sealer. Trees seal themselves by setting up a protective boundary between injured and healthy tissue in a process known as compartmentalization of decay.
• Prune for ideal structure...
  with adequate branch spacing to allow for sunlight and air movement and prevent insect damage and disease. Remove any dead, diseased or crossing branches. Remove competing limbs and avoid one branch growing directly over another. Space branches evenly around the tree in an ascending spiral. Branches should be at least 8-12" apart on smaller and younger trees and at least 18" apart for large growing trees.
• For small branches...
  less than 1 inch in diameter, cut using by-pass hand hears or loppers. When directing growth, snip to an outward growing bud, leaving no stub.
• Larger branches...
  greater than 1inch in diameter can be cut using the 3-step cutting method using loppers or on larger sized branches an appropriate pruning saw. The 3-step cut allows removal of the weight of the limb before the final cut and eliminates the possibility of ripping the bark down the trunk.
• Undercut with a shallow notch well outside the branch collar.
• Cut outside the first cut all the way through the branch, leaving a short stub.
• Remove branch stub outside the branch collar. A proper cut will not damage the branch collar.
• Always keep pruning tools sharp and clean, in good working condition. This will prolong their life and help you make clean, accurate cuts without tearing your tree.