Southwest Montana At Home 2021
Tree Care
The expert info you need to treat your trees this season
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pring is here and that means it’s time to get outside and check the health of your trees and garden. If you don’t already have trees in your yard, don’t worry. Bozeman Tree, Lawn & Pest Certified Arborist John Noreika says tis’ the season to get growing. “Early Spring is the best time to plant trees,” Noreika says. “The nurseries will be receiving fresh orders of trees so there will be a great selection of high quality nursery stock to choose from. ‘Bare root’ trees are available in the early spring and are the easiest and least expensive to plant because there are no heavy containers or root balls containing soil to wrestle with.” Not sure where to plant your new trees? Noreika has a few rules of thumb to help you get started. The most important consideration, the expert arborist says, is matching the right tree to the location. Always remember, “Right tree, right place.”
As an example, Noreika says you should never plant a large, maturing tree beneath an overhead power line. “A smaller maturing variety such as a Japanese Tree Lilac will stay tidy beneath the power lines without need for regular clearance pruning that can destroy the aesthetics of a large maturing variety,” he says. In low-lying areas with moist soil, plant trees that will perform best like a maple or birch tree. In upland areas with drier soils, plant drought tolerant trees like pine and juniper. Once you’ve picked out the perfect tree for your yard (or you’re excited to get out there and care for what you’ve already got), it’s time to think about pruning. Now you may be wondering how exactly do you know what and how much to prune. “Pruning is the most widely performed but also misunderstood practices in tree care,” Noreika
explains. “The old rule of thumb is to remove no more than 25% of the trees’ live foliage or branches per pruning cycle (every two to five years). But for an older or unhealthy tree, this may be too much, and for a young vigorous tree, not enough. Pruning can be one of the best things you can do for a tree or the worst depending on how and when it is done.” Because a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work for pruning, Noreika advises conducting some research on your tree. But don’t trust everything you see on the internet. Noreika and other tree experts recommend turning to reliable resources like university extension services or the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA). Arborists at the ISA offer these tree pruning tips to help you carefully cut this Spring. 1.
Always have a purpose in mind before making a cut. Each cut has the potential to change the growth of the tree.
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