Trees lay at the heart of many fall memories. Cooler temperatures and shorter days during the fall season cause deciduous trees to become colorful displays of fall foliage before shedding their leaves in preparation for winter dormancy.
The mature trees in your yard offer a lot of aesthetic value during the fall season, but you need to give these trees proper maintenance during the fall months if you want them to remain healthy and vibrant the following spring.
Invest time in fall maintenance so that your trees will remain an asset to your property well into the future.
Feed Your Trees
Homeowners rarely view mature trees as plants that need to be fed on a regular basis. Leaves are central to a tree's nutrition, and the leaves create a broad surface area where sunlight can be gathered and transformed into usable nutrients.
As your tree sheds its leaves in fall, the root system of the tree must compensate for the nutrient production that is lost along with the leaves. Stockpiling of nutrients during the fall and winter helps your tree be better prepared for new growth in the spring.
The quality of the soil surrounding your trees is important during the fall season. You should work closely with an arborist to ensure your soil has adequate nutrient levels to support all of the mature trees in your landscape.
Any nutrients that are missing or depleted in the soil can be replenished using quality fertilizers and soil enhancers.
Mulch Your Trees
A fresh blanket of mulch should be applied around the base of each mature tree in your landscape once fall arrives. Mulch is an affordable product that can help ensure the health of your trees throughout the cold season.
Mulch acts as a blanket to insulate a tree's roots against extreme temperatures. Properly applied mulch can also help the soil retain more moisture and nutrients during the fall, which gives your trees access to the resources needed for proper growth the following spring.
You should create a mulch ring around the base of your tree that extends out to the drip line of the canopy. Be sure that you leave some space between the mulch and the trunk of your tree to avoid causing damage to the tree itself.
Trim Your Trees
Tree trimming isn't a service that the average homeowner thinks about during the fall months. Hiring a professional arborist to trim back your mature trees during fall can actually improve the health of your trees over time.
The arborist is better able to evaluate the structure of the tree once the leaves have started to shed. This allows for more targeted and efficient pruning to take place.
Fall trimming encourages your trees to grow properly so that you can avoid potential injury. Thinning the canopy through proper trimming during the fall months can also increase the amount of foliage you see on your mature trees during the spring by allowing more sunlight to filter through all the branches in a tree's canopy.
You also have the added benefit of reducing the risk of disease when you trim your trees during the fall. Many or the organisms that cause tree death and decay die off or go dormant as soon as temperatures cool.
Reduced numbers of harmful organisms gives your trees time to heal from the trimming process without the threat of damage or disease.
Investing the time and effort needed to maintain your trees during the fall can help improve tree health significantly over time.
Contact
Baumann Tree L.L.C. for help handling all your fall tree maintenance needs.