Boost Your Landscape with Spring Tree & Shrub Treatments

Mimicking Nature for Healthier, Stronger Growth

As spring approaches, it’s time to think about giving your trees and shrubs the nutrients they need to thrive in the coming growing season. Whether you’re a homeowner with a private backyard oasis or an HOA with common gardens, fertilizing your shade, flowering and fruit trees is essential for their health and vitality. In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of properly fertilizing your trees with the Teacher’s Tree Service blend of nutrients, humic acid and biochar to mimic natural forest soil ecology.

Why Your Trees Need More Than Just Basic Fertilizer

In their native forest habitat, trees don’t just receive simple fertilizer from a bag. They benefit from the complex, organic interactions that occur in healthy forest soils. These soils are rich in macronutrients, micronutrients, mycorrhizae, microbes, and humic acid. Neighboring plants – trees, shrubs and herbaceous species – all interact in the soil community and have an impact on each other’s vigor and even survival.  By mimicking natural soil conditions with the right amendments, Teacher’s Tree Service can give your landscape trees the support they need for healthy roots, vibrant growth, resistance to pests and diseases, and resilience in the face of abiotic stressors including drought and strong winds.

1. Macronutrients: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium (NPK)
   Three primary macronutrients – nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) – are the building blocks of healthy plant growth. Nitrogen promotes lush foliage and strong stems, phosphorus encourages root development and flower/fruit production, while potassium helps plants resist stress and diseases. Balanced levels of these nutrients ensure your trees have a strong foundation for growth, but there’s more to the story.
2. Micronutrients: Iron, Manganese, Zinc, and More
   While required in smaller amounts, micronutrients like iron, manganese, and zinc are essential for the overall health of your trees. These nutrients are critical to processes such as chlorophyll production, photosynthesis, and enzyme functions that control plant growth and changes through the seasons.  Adequate micronutrients also support your trees’ defenses against biotic and abiotic stressors.
3. Mycorrhizae and Microbes: Boosting Root Function
   Healthy soils contain a thriving community of microbes and fungi that work symbiotically with plant roots. Mycorrhizae, beneficial fungi that form a network with plant roots, help trees access nutrients, particularly phosphorus, and water in the soil. This natural relationship increases the overall health and strength of your trees, making them better equipped to handle stress.
4. Humic Acid: Enhancing Nutrient Uptake and Soil Structure
   Humic acid plays a vital role in healthy soil structure, improving the ability of your soil to retain water and nutrients. This helps trees to thrive, and to even survive during dry spells. In forests, humic acid is a natural product of decomposing plant and animal matter, and a critical part of the forest nutrient cycle that most trees have adapted to over evolutionary time. Human-designed habitats like lawns, greenbelts and gardens – where we humans routinely ‘clean up’ dead and decaying material- may have less humic acid in their soils than trees need.

The Power of Biochar: A Secret Ingredient for Healthy Soil

Incorporating biochar into our blend of fertilizer means that Teacher’s Tree Service can provide an additional boost for your trees. Biochar is a carbon-rich material created by heating organic matter in the absence of oxygen, a process called pyrolysis. When added to soil, biochar improves soil structure by increasing aeration and water retention. It also increases surface area suitable as habitat for beneficial microbes and mycorrhizae, ensuring your trees’ roots are surrounded by a thriving ecosystem.  For trees growing in turf grass lawns, which often struggle with nutrient competition, biochar provides much-needed structure and stability for root systems, allowing your trees to access more nutrients and water.

Fertilizing Trees Growing in Turf Grass Lawns

When trees grow in human-designed landscapes, and especially turf grass lawns, they face increased competition for water and nutrients, and abiotic and biotic stressors.. Turf grass, especially if it’s well-maintained, can use up much of the biologically available nutrients and moisture that your trees need to thrive. This makes it even more important to apply a specialized fertilizer treatment that nourishes the trees without harming the lawn.

Teacher’s Tree Service Plant Health Care technicians apply our balanced blend of macronutrients, micronutrients, humic acid and biochar by using special probes to discreetly pierce through the turf layer, bypassing grass roots to reach your trees’ root zone directly.  This method ensures that your trees receive the right dose of fertilizer. 

Conclusion: Mimic Nature for Stronger, Healthier Trees

Fertilizing your landscape trees with the right combination of nutrients, mycorrhizae, biochar, and humic acid is the key to unlocking their full potential. By mimicking natural forest soil ecology, you provide your trees with the vital nutrients and soil community they need for optimal growth. And for trees growing in turf grass lawns, a tailored fertilizer treatment can help mitigate competition for resources, ensuring your trees get the nutrients they need to thrive.  With the right care and attention, your trees will not only enhance your landscape but will also contribute to a healthier, more resilient ecosystem!

Contact Teacher’s Tree Service today for a free consultation to discuss how our fertilizer blend can support your trees and shrubs: