[Tim's Lawn Care LLC.]

Does anyone on here have any suggestions for fertilizing maple trees here in the great lakes area? Had a lawn care client call this morning asking about it. She's having her two maples trimmed out by a tree service, they offered the fert at an enormous price so she called to see if I would do it with spikes. These maples are 50 plus years old. I lost a beautiful maple in my own yard years ago from girdling root and there's no sign of that on hers. I think it may be best to put a call into the local arborist and have them look them over b/4 we go ahead w/ any plan. Comments? Thanx.

 

[RigglePLC]

Just spread fert on the ground covering out to the the dripline. Use a slow release product. Done in 60 seconds and you can expect 20 percent additional tree growth this year. If major branches grew 12 inches last year--expect 14 inches this year. Iron, sulfer and manganese would be a nice addition. Its really a job for a licensed tree professional, after a soil test.

 

[SeedPro]

You use a slow release lawn fertilizer on the feeder roots? Comon man. You have a spray rig, why don't you do it right and inject the soil?

20 percent additional growth on a fifty year old maple with lawn fertilizer applied above ground?

I call shenanigans. Big time. Lawn fertilizer is NOT tree fertilizer.

Soil test schmoil test. Just deep root fert the thing. Christ sakes.

First you say feed it with lawn fert and boast 20% gain then you say test the soil? For what exactly?

 

[RigglePLC]

Seed,
I am thinking there could be a high pH making iron and manganese unavailable. But trees are a little different from turf. A top quality tree company would know what pH is OK for a maple tree--and maybe what kind of maple it was. Pardon me for suggesting two ways to approach it. Nothing against deep root feeding.

 

[grassman177]

i know my trees get plenty of left over fert from feeding my lawn as u should see how healthy the leaves are!!! and the neighbors are never as lustery as mine, and rich deep green. but, deep feeding is good or better, just as long as it is not too deep as maples have feeder roots within 12in of the soil level. if you go past that then you run good chance of wasting alot to leaching cause there is dramatically less root hairs to absrob nutrients lower than that. generally speaking

 

[phasthound]

Tree spikes are not the way to go for many reasons. The most obvious is that tree roots cover a large area & spikes will only add nutrients to a limited area. There are more reasons.

A surface feeding with organic based low N fertilizer can be helpful. Liquid soil injections (I hate the term deep root feeding) can be very beneficial. I like soil innoculants rather than synthetic fertilizers. Trees are N pumps & will suck up all the N they can get. This causes abnormal fast grow which increases insect problems and structurally weak trees. Trees are supposed to grow slowly, don't mess with that!!

The absolute best thing you can do for trees is to forget about growing turf under them and cover the root zone with compost 1-2" per year and never let it touch the trunk.

I will never understand why people pay so much for lawn care while neglecting trees. No matter what happens to turf, you can always reseed, can't do that with trees and nothing changes a landscape as drastically as losing a mature tree.

 

[Think Green]

I hope you are not referring to those Jobe's tree spikes. At first glance, i thought the customer wanted to spike climb the tree to trim it......................big mistake.!!!
Trees don't need high salinic ferts anyway. The feeder roots are just within the first 12" of the topsoil. The critical root zone within the drip line and outside the dripline is where to fertilize.
I am curious how many spikes was estimated for the tree(s) in question.

Grassman, I totally agree with you.................however, a lot of arborist's will fert their trees just the same as you and me. The only trees that seem to suffer from extra N applied is our White pines. They seem to split at the base and the needles fall off temporarily. But who is to tell the customer what is going on after they spent 10's of thousands of dollars paying an accredited landscaper to design their property?????????

We use a lb. of grower's special fert per K spaced in predrilled holes 2-3 feet from the base around the canopy. 3 feet apart just past the drip line , 4 inches across and 10 inches deep. We leave the holes open for air and water to get in there. Hasn't failed us yet on our trees we treat. This has caused us less damage to maples than using the mauget tree injections of Stemix hi-vol.

 

[SeedPro]

Not to mention tree stakes aren't as easy to get into the ground as you might think if the soil is compact or hard at all.

A lot of times you have to open a hole with a soil probe or whatever or you'll bust the fert stake to pieces trying to hammer it home.

:hammerhead:

 

[SeedPro]

Trees don't need high salinic ferts anyway.

Which is one of the reasons Lawn fert generally isn't a good choice. Good tree ferts like Arbor Green Pro has a low salt index and are like wettable powders in that they stay in a suspension.

 

[ICT Bill]

Trees prefer a fungally dominant soil you should not get water soluble nitrogen near them

who fertilizes the forest with NPK? anyone here?

an inch of compost and an inch or 2 of mulch to drip line is the best tree fertilization plan you could have

you should use extracted compost tea if you would like to do a drench or root injection

If you would like to know more go here, called the father of modern arborculture, he is the bomb
http://shigoandtrees.com/index.php?_a=viewDoc&docId=5

 

[grassman177]

i have done the many holes in a pattern around the drip line fillied with milorganite. that is a good choice imo

 

[phasthound]

i have done the many holes in a pattern around the drip line fillied with milorganite. that is a good choice imo

That's not a bad option. I have used an airspade to re-mediate trees where soils have been compacted, back filled the trenches with vermicompost & native soil. It's also a great tool to uncover root flares that have been buried by improper planting and over mulching. If it's not too late, trees respond very well to these procedures.

 

[grassman177]

wow, what happened to the lower trunk of that tree?? was it mounded with mulch and soil?

 

[phasthound]

wow, what happened to the lower trunk of that tree?? was it mounded with mulch and soil?

Where the trunk abruptly changes sizes is a normal graft. Below that you can see the different colors of the bark where soil & mulch were removed. The tree was planted too deep, followed by too much mulch. Just your typical landscaper job. I get called out for "sick" trees all the time; the homeowner points up, I get on my hands and knees & pull back mulch & soil to show them the root crown is 6" too deep. Great way to slowly kill trees. But hey, it takes years so the warranty is expired & the landscaper gets the job to plant another one. payup

 

[grassman177]

yup, i see that sometimes, or better yet girdles roots from wire cages left in place. i have a local comany here we are friends with that strictly does lanscaping and he insists he is right in leaving not only the cages but also the burlap. well, alot of his trees die many years down the road. it is sad he is the guy everyone will trust to know the plants etc and i know way more than he does being a cert arborist and hort degree

 

[phasthound]

yup, i see that sometimes, or better yet girdles roots from wire cages left in place. i have a local comany here we are friends with that strictly does lanscaping and he insists he is right in leaving not only the cages but also the burlap. well, alot of his trees die many years down the road. it is sad he is the guy everyone will trust to know the plants etc and i know way more than he does being a cert arborist and hort degree

Yeah, it's far too common. have him look at this site from the ISA http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/tree_planting.aspx
I don't agree with everything on the page. I think it's helpful to disrupt the soil in the root ball to stimulate new root growth. Some studies are showing great results when all soil is washed from the root ball and planted without staking.

 

[hort101]

I am against leaving the cage on . Burlap also restricts root growth ! Some good points already by @phasthound . I also don't believe in deep root feeding it's an upsell trick to charge for a "special" process that's almost always unnecessary