Completing a comprehensive analysis of your soil is a critical step in our plant health care program. Our arborists take carefully-measured samples from multiple locations that are analyzed in a laboratory and translated into a prescription for each individual tree. Soil composition provides a window into the home in which your roots are growing and determines whether water moves freely or just runs off the top as well as how easy it is for delicate new roots to spread. Presence of critical nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, and manganese tells us where we need to supplement. And pH analysis helps us understand nutrient availability and whether they may be blocked from uptake. We then take this information, and translate it into a prescription treatment that helps set up each individual tree for success.

Trees often find themselves in hostile environments where the soil around them is an impenetrable block that prevents the growth of the fine, fibrous roots that supply it with nutrients and water. This is often a result of being planted in soil that is heavily clay-based or rocky, or in poor soil left over from new construction. Our team uses high-volume, compressed air to completely expose the roots at the base of the tree, blowing out even the hardest soil without harming delicate roots. We then amend and replace the poor soil with compost that is rich in organic matter and nutrients as well as biochar, which improves plant health by neutralizing acidity, providing improved water and nutrient retention, and and creating improved drainage and aeration

Trees need to be planted at the correct depth and mulched correctly, otherwise they may face significant challenges later in life, suddenly presenting unexplained mortality after otherwise thriving. Whether planted too deep, settling into softer soil, or having multiple years of mulch added without removing the old, burying the collar of the tree can promote small girdling roots to encircle the trunk of the tree. As they grow bigger and more solid, they can act like a noose, strangling the trunk and preventing the flow of vital nutrients. Using high-volume, compressed air, we remove soil and mulch to expose the root collar of the tree, cut any girdling roots, and then replace soil and mulch to the proper and ideal level.

Using lab-based soil analysis to determine the current nutrient and pH balance, we deliver custom-formulated, prescription fertilization to ensure that ideal levels of more than a dozen macro and micro nutrients are available to your trees in the soil that surrounds them.

The past twenty years have represented a prolonged drought that has resulted in significant stress to trees in both the natural environment and man-made landscapes. As a result, they are more susceptible to disease and infestation by pests. In landscaped environments, trees that have experienced drought because of inadequate irrigation or prolonged periods of water deprivation during spring or fall when irrigation is off often experience the same exposure. Our specially-formulated drought stress treatment helps your trees get back on track by providing a boost to help overcome the effects of drought that is often described as “Gatorade for your trees!”