How to Improve Your Tree’s Soil
A vital and often overlooked factor affecting the health of your trees and shrubs is soil. In fact, improving your tree’s soil is very often the best possible thing you can do to help it thrive.

What Can I Do to Improve My Soil?
Luckily, there are steps you can take to ensure your trees and shrubs have the soil they need. The first step is timely fertilization. The second step is the addition of mycorrhizal fungi.

Mycorrhizae is a mutually beneficial relationship between fungi and plants. In exchange for sugars and simple carbohydrates, the fungi absorbs and passes on minerals and water required for the plant’s growth.

Many have developed this relationship to enable them to survive conditions of drought, extreme temperatures, and periods of low soil fertility. Because mycorrhizal fungi live in and around a plant’s living root system, they effectively extend the root system deeper into the soil, allowing a plant to take in more nutrients. These organisms are a vital link in a plant’s nutrient cycle.

In nature, mycorrhizal fungi are found on about 99% of plant species, but in urban environments, the poor, compacted soils often lack this essential fungi.

Almost all trees in urban settings will benefit from the addition of mycorrhizal fungi to the soil, but different types of trees require different fungi.

Give Your Tree The Soil It Needs
As a homeowner, the best contribution you can make to your tree’s health is the addition of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi to the soil.

When You Need Help
We want to be your “go to” resource for taking care of your trees. Whether it’s giving the best tree maintenance advice possible to take care of them or if you need the best company in Pasco for tree removal, we are here for you. We look forward to speaking with you soon.

How to Fertilize a Tree
The main reason to fertilize trees and shrubs is to bolster their health so they are better prepared to fight off pests, disease, and environmental stresses. While fertilizer can’t solve all of a tree’s problems, it will go a long way to give it a fighting chance.

Does My Tree Need Fertilizer?
Trees growing in their natural habitat should have access to all of the minerals they need to survive and grow. Anything you can do to mimic that habitat can reduce the need for fertilizer. This may include letting leaves remain on the ground in the fall instead of raking them up. Chances are, though, that despite your best efforts, the need for fertilizer will not be entirely eliminated.

If you have questions about various types of fertilizers to use, please contact us. We would enjoy the chance to talk shop and discuss any trees you have on your property. Let our trained arborists give you all the guidance we can to ensure your trees grow to be healthy and tall.

When You Need Help
We want to be your “go to” resource for taking care of your trees. Whether it’s giving the best tree maintenance advice possible to take care of them or if you need the best company in Richland for tree removal, we are here for you. We look forward to speaking with you soon.

What Type of Fertilizer Do I Need?
Fertilizer is made up of macronutrients (Potassium, Phosphorus, and Nitrogen) and micronutrients (such as Manganese, Magnesium, and Iron). These minerals all have different effects on the maturation of a tree and different trees need different amounts. It is important to ensure that you use the right fertilizer for your tree. To find out how to obtain the correct fertilizer for your trees or shrubs, click here.

Where Do I Put The Fertilizer?
The purpose of using fertilizer is to put the macronutrients and micronutrients where they will best be taken up by the tree’s roots. Thus, it is necessary to fertilize throughout the entire root structure. In general, the roots extend well beyond the outer reach of a tree’s branches.

The fertilizer must also be placed underneath the roots of any competing plants such as grass or other ground cover. Spreading granular fertilizer on the lawn might make your grass greener, but it will likely not help your tree.

When Should I Fertilize My Tree?
A good time to fertilize in most northern temperate climates is from fall to mid-spring. At these times the tree’s roots take the nutrients from the soil and apply them to important health-promoting functions such as root development and disease resistance, rather than simply putting out new growth.

During the growing season, fertilizing can help a tree overcome mineral deficiencies and fight off infections. If you are fertilizing in mid- to late summer, avoid formulations high in nitrogen as this will just promote weak, new growth that may be easily damaged in the winter.

When You Need Help
We want to be your “go to” resource for taking care of your trees. Whether it’s giving the best tree maintenance advice possible to take care of them or if you need the best company in Kennewick for tree removal, we are here for you. We look forward to speaking with you soon.