Summer Tree Checklist

Emily Mumford from Davey's South St Paul office shares tips on how to best care for trees in the summer.

In this episode we cover:  

• What's the first thing an arborist looks for during a summer property check? (0:36)
• Tree pruning assessment  (0:54)
• How often should you have an arborist visit your property? (1:30)
• Summer mulching (2:03)
  • Specific types of mulch (3:09)
• St Paul's winter last year (6:43)
• St Paul's spring (7:47)
• Why Emily enjoys being an arborist (8:55) (16:05)
• Watering in the summer (13:21)
• Protecting your trees from deer (15:25)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code. 

To learn more about summer tree care, read our blog, Most Common Questions about Summer Tree Care

To learn more about summer watering, watch our interview with WKYC Channel 3

To learn more about caring for trees during a drought, watch  Common Symptoms For Drought Stressed Trees & Recovery

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!    

Transcript

Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer.

I'm joined this week by Emily Mumford. She's an Assistant District Manager for the Davey Tree Expert Company in the South St. Paul, Minnesota office. Today, we're talking all about a summer checklist. Emily, what's the first thing that comes to mind for you when you go to a property in the summer? What's the first thing you're looking at?

Emily Mumford: When I'm at the beginning of the summer, I'm thinking about mulching and a tree pruning assessment. Those are the first two things that come to mind.

Doug Oster: Tree pruning assessment, what does that mean? You're looking up into the tree, looking for branches that need to come out, I guess?

Emily Mumford: Yes. In Minnesota, we definitely get most of our storms in the summertime with those higher winds, those straight-line winds, and then occasionally a tornado. Just looking at the balance of the canopy and looking for weaknesses, structural weaknesses, cracks that might be forming between main unions, also branches, lateral branches that might be a bit tip heavy, and that kind of thing.

Doug Oster: How often should somebody have an arborist come to their property for this type of assessment, you think?

Emily Mumford: It depends on your situation. I do most of my consulting in the actual city of St. Paul, which has a lot of mature trees that are right next to everybody's houses and garages, and so a lot more targets. A lot of my clients will have me out every two years for that type of an assessment.

Doug Oster: Summer mulching. I hate to even bring it up again, Emily, but volcano mulch.

Emily Mumford: It is good to get some mulch down, refresh the mulch at the beginning of the season. One to two inches as a refresh is usually pretty good. We talk about volcano mulching, I'm sure you talk about that a lot. Just keep that mulch back from the base of the trees so we're not baring the trunks.

Doug Oster: A couple of inches thick. Then how far out?

Emily Mumford: Well, if you were following the best recommendations, you could go all the way out to the drip line. I tell people if they can do it, do at least a third of the inner canopy because that's where the majority of those fine roots are that are going to be collecting water.

Doug Oster: I know from doing this podcast, the other benefit is that some idiot with a lawnmower can't get too close to the tree [laughs].

Emily Mumford: Yes, definitely. We call that mower blight. Anything you can do to stop yourself from hurting your trees is great.

Doug Oster: Is there a specific type of mulch we should be looking for or do we just go get shredded bark mulch?

Emily Mumford: Yes, that's a good question. We typically recommend doing a natural shredded bark mulch.

Doug Oster: Then what about fertilizing? Is this the time of year to be fertilizing trees?

Emily Mumford: Yes. If you're using a standard tree fertilizer, we say spring or fall. Davey Tree has Arbor Green PRO, which slowly releases over an entire year. The nice thing about that is that you can apply it any time of the growing season as long as the ground isn't frozen solid [laughs]. It's got a super low salt index too, so we don't have to worry about that fertilizer burn like you might have to worry about with other products.

Doug Oster: Tell me a little bit about how that's applied and what shape does the soil have to be in when that's applied? Does it need to be relatively moist or it doesn't matter?

Emily Mumford: Usually, it doesn't matter too much. I'll start with how it's applied. We suspend our fertilizer and water and then we inject it into the soil in a grid-like pattern underneath the entire drip line of the tree. It's injected into the soil about three to six inches below grade. If you have really dry compacted soil, that's when it could matter because it's hard to get that probe tip into the ground. Usually, we can get through your soil.

Doug Oster: Does every size tree need this?

Emily Mumford: Every question has nuances to it, doesn't it? If you have a tree that's in a wooded area where it's got a lot of natural composting nutrients happening, I would say you probably could skip it. There's good soil health there typically, but if you've got a tree small or mature in a lawn setting, you're probably going to want to do that fertilization, because grass is greedy basically. Most people are bagging their clippings even so there's not a lot of available nutrients for the trees that they would have in a natural setting.

Doug Oster: Tell me what you see after you apply a fertilizer like that. You come back a year later or two years later. Tell me about the health of the tree after it's got something good to eat.

Emily Mumford: We do typically on average see better leaf color. We see a little bit more tip elongation. Then our Arbor Green PRO is also designed to help promote root development as well, so it's a bit more balanced. What you'd want to see is a healthy tree. A lot of times there may be other things going on with the tree too, so it's not 100% of the time this does amazing things, but it's good health recommendations for a person too. You want to eat healthy foods and take care of yourself.

Doug Oster: We talk a lot about this on the podcast, but if you can, just touch on, it's important to keep that tree growing healthy so that it fights off a lot of the problems that can occur.

Emily Mumford: That's exactly right. A healthy tree is better able to resist natural pests and native diseases.

Doug Oster: Emily, tell me a little bit about your winter that you had there this year and how it's affected the trees locally?

Emily Mumford: In Minnesota, especially in the metro area, it was a long winter I would say. Usually, November you don't see a whole lot of snow. We got snow in early November and it just stayed. We got a lot more snow than normal too, and we got some really heavy snow late winter. In April we had a massive storm that caused a lot of tree damage. We were pretty busy for a while with that.

One of the biggest species that was damaged was arborvitaes. It's just frustrating because most people can grow arborvitaes on their foundations. That heavy snow just ripped them apart. We've got a lot of bent arborvitaes we've been doing some strapping with. We use a special strap called ArborTie, which doesn't girdle out the stems to help support those. We've had to remove some and replant.

Doug Oster: What's spring been like for you? Has it been a good spring for the trees?

Emily Mumford: Yes. It really has. Some springs, we get late frosts and we see a lot of frost damage. I don't feel like that was the case so much this year. Had a slow warmup in the beginning and now it's accelerated into what feels like early summer weather, lots of 70s. A cool thing with that is magnolia blooms. A lot of people like magnolias around here. Most winters, we have a late frost and the magnolias bloom for a day. I think they bloomed for about two weeks here. That was cool.

Doug Oster: Well, that's the same thing here. Even though we're far east from you, Magnolia will break your heart. I was so happy this year that the stars aligned. I hadn't seen this magnolia bloom for two years, and the same thing to see those flowers on there for a couple of weeks. There's nothing like it. It's just spectacular. Tell me a little bit about how you got into this. Why is this job right for you?

Emily Mumford: I went to school for biology. I was pre-med focused. Then my senior year, I did an independent study credit and volunteered with the St. Paul Forestry Department. Emerald ash borer had come to our metro area fairly recently then. I was just doing ash tree health surveys. I talk about it like you get bit by the tree bug. I got bit by the tree bug and it just all made sense [laughs]. I've always loved to be outside. I've always loved climbing trees just for fun. I never realized there was actually a career doing this. Once I realized that, I was stuck in it.

Doug Oster: Tell me a little bit about the positives of being out in the field and working with your clients.

Emily Mumford: I get to be outside every day. Most days that's good. Sometimes it's really, really cold or really, really rainy, but it's worth the other days, I guess. I said that I was pre-med. I get to be a doctor a little bit now, just a different way. Most people don't know much about trees. It's just not something that we're taught a whole lot about in school. Unless you had experience with having a certified arborist when you were when you were growing up on your property, there's not a reason why you would know a whole lot about trees. When I show up to a site, I'm teaching people what species they have, talking to them about health.

We get into all sorts of little nuances. Some people are really excited to learn about bugs and diseases. Some people are just happy to learn that they should be pulling soil back from around the base of their tree, or looking at leaf color, or understanding about growth patterns and structural integrity. It can go a lot of different avenues, but trees are just really cool and it's so fun to be able to teach people about them.

Doug Oster: The doctor that you speak of is the number one guest at a party. The number two guest is the tree doctor. Do you get a lot of questions when people find out what you do? "Oh, you know about trees. I've got this tree and it's green."

Emily Mumford: I do. People will get out their cell phones and show me lots of pictures of things because they know that something's maybe not right or something's interesting or different. They'll take a picture but then they don't know what to do with it. They get really excited when they're, "Oh, you're an arborist. That's sweet." I feel like I also get to climb trees a little bit too. Not as much as I used to, but people think that's pretty cool. "Wait, you're actually climbing the tree? Is that safe?" Yes it's safe. We're tied in. It's fine. That's cool.

Sometimes I talk a little too much about trees, but that's okay [laughs].

Doug Oster: I want to hear about that. I'm sure when the subject comes up you want to keep talking and talking about it. I know that from talking to arborists, the one thing that drives them nuts is when you're driving around the neighborhood and stuff that's planted wrong. Planted too close to the to the house. Planted too close to the building. That sort of thing. When you're driving in a car with an arborist, I'm thinking that might be one of the times when you're talking too much about trees.

Emily Mumford: Yes, especially like my partner. He's with me all the time. Obviously, like walks and car rides and everything. I'm usually like, "Oh my gosh, look at Dutch elm's disease is spreading down the highway." Yes, stuff like that. "Why do they do that? Why do they keep doing this? Why are they planting the same three species?" Yes, you get on those tangents. I like to joke. He and I like to joke. He's like a second-hand arborist is what I call him. He knows enough to be dangerous just listening to me talk all the time.

Doug Oster: That's so funny that you say that because it's the same relationship I have with my wife because she's not really a gardener. A building got renovated across the street and she came up and said, "Did how close they planted those trees to that house?" I was like, "Ah." I think with your partner it's osmosis when it comes to trees and shrubs and that sort of thing. Back to summer, I wanted to ask you about watering. I always wonder about watering trees and how often they should be watered and which ones should be watered. Take us through that a little bit, would you?

Emily Mumford: Yes, if you have a new tree that you recently planted, you're going to want to water it probably about 10 gallons three times a week. One of the first questions I get when I say that is, "How do I know how much is 10 gallons, right?" I tell people to take their five gallon bucket that they have for home improvements, time how long it takes them to fill it up, and then they'll know, okay that's how long I have to put the hose on a tree." For mature trees, it depends. In the metro area, we're supposed to get an average of one inch of rain a week. If we're getting that you really don't have to do a whole lot of supplemental watering.

The problem is usually we get to July and August and early September and we start having these droughts and even when it rains it's not enough, or it's too heavy and it's just running off into the street. That's when you want to water those guys, too. I would say once a week. Doing it at night is best because the stomata are open on the leaves so you're going to have better water uptake. Slow watering and just remember you're trying to supplement for that one inch, so it's quite a bit of water that once a week.

Doug Oster: Certainly, if you're planting in the spring, you've got to keep watering tree all the way through the heat of the summer, right?

Emily Mumford: Yes, definitely, and even maybe at the second year, too. Just a couple other quick highlights. I would say, if you haven't done it already, make sure you're getting the cones off of your tree trunks, burlap off of your trees, air flow is really important once we're in the growing season.

Doug Oster: I live in a Disney movie with rabbits and deer and everything else you could possibly imagine, and I'm protecting some of my trees certainly from the deer rubbing. When is all that stuff supposed to come off?

Emily Mumford: Usually I would recommend end of March. We also use a product called DeerPro quite a bit and that's sprayed onto your tree trunks or your evergreens, so that's going to keep them safer, too.

Doug Oster: I know all about DeerPro. They sent me some and I actually in the box, left it in my car for about a week. That was about six months ago. My car still smells like DeerPro, so I know it works.

Emily Mumford: [laughs] I'm sorry.

Doug Oster: Before I let you go, Emily, tell me a little bit about what the best part of your job is.

Emily Mumford: I recently moved into the Assistant District Manager position, which is which is really fun, because I was just doing consulting and sales for about eight years and that's a really awesome job too, but now I get to focus inwards, on getting my employees as excited about trees as I am, and helping them with their own development, whether it's their skills in taking care of trees or just certifications, that sort of thing.

Doug Oster: That sounds pretty good because we can hear your passion for the trees, so thanks so much for all the information about the summer checklist, and I'm sure we will talk again. Thank you so much.

Emily Mumford: Yes, thanks so much for having me on here.

Doug Oster: Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davie Tree Expert Company. I'm your host Doug Oster and do me a favor, subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss one of these great shows. Have an idea for a show or a comment? Send me an email to podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S @ D-A-V-E-Y.com, and as always, we'd like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

[00:17:44] [END OF AUDIO]