Posts

Showing posts with the label arborist

Growth Regulator Impact in Year 1 - Mature Trees in Decline - Northern Illinois

Image
Late last Summer, we had Davey Arborists apply a three-year growth regulator to some of our large, mature trees that appeared to be in decline due to stress .  That stress was due to construction of our house (I believe) and the disturbance of the roots from cutting and such.  After doing some research on growth regulators, I thought it was worth a shot to apply this stuff to some of the large trees in prime locations of our yard.   And, what's happened?  We've seen some pretty incredible improvement in the trees.  They're growing thicker, more-full and darker green leaves all over the main limbs of the trees.  We had this growth regulator applied to both an Oak and a Maple.  The difference in the Oak tree is clear.  Below, you can see what that tree looks like now in 2021 on the left.  And what it looked like a year ago on the right.  More full, more dense growth all over the existing limbs. On the Norway Maple in the front, the growth regulator's impact isn't as

Fertilizing Oak Trees in Backyard - October 2020

Image
The second step in our process with the arborist from Davey is feeding the trees.  We started with applying growth regulator to the two most vulnerable trees (Norway Maple in Front and Red Oak in back) in late September .   Recently the guys came back out for step two:  applying fertilizer. In Davey's case, it is called Arbor Green Pro - a one year application that they fed to both large Oaks in back and the Maple up front.  Here's the Davey team applying the fert - around the area of the tree canopy.  It was raining, but he still went ahead with injecting it right into the ground.  What is Arbor Green Pro?  From their site :   The description says that it can last 'up to 2 years'.  But, what the guy told me was: every year. We have one more application to just the Oaks before Winter that I'll post about when it occurs. 

Growth Regulator Applied to Trees - Large Maple and Large Oak - September 2020

Image
Earlier this year, I posted a photo showing some of the canopy deterioration of the Norway Maple in our front yard - right outside of our front porch.  The tree seems to be suffering from some damage due to construction and digging around the roots.  We specifically moved the house back to save this tree, so seeing the parts of the tree going dead has me concerned.  Then in August, I posted a photo of a large limb that went down during the Derecho storm .  So, it was time to call in the experts.   I had an arborist from Davey come out and give us a plan to help this tree.  And one in the back.  It includes a pruning in late Fall/early Winter once the tree has shed all of it's leaves.  But, it also includes a three year growth regulator treatment.   In the photo below, you can see the technician boring holes in and around the base of the tree where he was set to apply the growth regulator called Cambistat .   He mixed up a container for our front yard Norway Maple (21") and o

Kentucky Coffee Tree (West) - August 2020

Image
Yesterday, I mentioned that we had an arborist come over to our house to assess and help us build a plan for a couple of our trees.  While he was there, I asked him about a couple of trees that we have growing in our yard that I was uncertain of the cultivar.  I have had a few trees that I was trying to figure out before, but I've mostly sorted the Walnut/Tree of Heaven/Sumac situation .  But, I had two *other* trees that I didn't seem to fall into any of those categories, but were growing in weird ways. I've left them up for the past few years, but not because I liked the trees, but because I just couldn't figure out what they were. I asked the arborist if he could identify them and it took a second for him to tell me:  they are Kentucky Coffeetrees (or Kentucky Coffee Trees, if you'd like).  Turns out, I have (at least) three of them in our yard.  They're all small, but in spots that they can live and grow without much thought. In the photo at the t