Our team at Five Star Tree Services want to discuss the final step for how you can prepare your trees for spring with fertilizer.
Fertilizing
Essential nutrients are given to your trees when you fertilize them in the spring. It helps kick start their awakening and growing season. After a long winter, the soil is not in optimal condition, adding fertilizer will help to replenish vital nutrients to your plants and trees. When you follow proper fertilization techniques, you will be ensuring your trees will thrive.
Fertilization Benefits
Growth Promotion
Essential nutrients are provided to your trees when you fertilize them. This includes things like potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus. These are vital for healthy growth and development of your trees. When your tree is well fertilized, it will be able to better produce an abundance of blooms, vibrant foliage, and robust branches.
Root Development Enhancement
When you use fertilizer, this stimulates root growth. With this, it enables trees to have a well established, strong, and extensive root system. When your tree has healthy roots, it improves their nutrient and water intake, which will help make the trees more resilient to stressors like disease and drought.
Overall Health Boost
A trees immune system is strengthened when fertilizer is properly used. This aids them in being more resilient to things like diseases, pests, and environmental impacts like storms or drought. When a tree is well equipped they will thrive.
Techniques for Fertilizing
Picking the Right Fertilizer
When picking a fertilizer, you need to get one that is balanced and formulated for trees. You should also keep an eye out for ones that are labeled specifically for spring and that have a balanced ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK). It should also be slow-releasing or organic fertilizer as their effects are going to last longer. Making it so you do not have to reapply as frequently.
Application Calculation
Take into account the size and age of your tree to properly calculate how much fertilizer to use. If you have a larger tree, you can apply roughly ¼ to ½ pound of nitrogen per inch of trunk diameter. If you have smaller trees, they will require less fertilizer, usually roughly ¼ pound per tree.
Correctly Apply Fertilizer
You should be evenly spreading the fertilizer around the drip line of our trees. Make sure to avoid touching the trunk directly. Doing this is going to make sure that the roots get maximum exposure to the vital nutrients. If you want the absorption to be faster, use a fertilizer probe or punch to get down into the soil, closer to the roots, instead of on the surface.
Frequency & Timing of Fertilizer
Apply in Spring
Early spring is the best time to apply fertilizer. You should do this just before the active growth phase. When you time it for this, your tree is going to be able to absorb and fully utilize all the nutrients efficiently as they prepare for the growing phase.
Nutrient Level Monitoring
Check your soil nutrients regularly to know when you need to adjust your fertilization. You will get valuable insights when you test the soil, as it will tell you the nutrient composition. This can help you specifically tailor a schedule to fertilize your trees in order to meet their needs better.
How Five Star Tree Services Can Help
When you fertilize your tree in the spring, this is a proactive step in making sure they are healthy. Our certified arborists at Five Star Tree Services can help you prepare your trees for spring and more! If you are interested in our Tree
Care Services in Toronto, contact us at (416) 990-3355!