Higuera Tree Care is the practice of maintaining or improving the appearance and vitality of urban, backyard and park woody vegetation. It includes pruning and weed removal in addition to disease, pest and structural management.
Healthy trees are more resistant to pests and environmental stresses. Regular maintenance and monitoring for problems is key to preventing issues before they occur.
Trees are a significant contributor to the clean air that we breathe, but they cannot do their job if they aren’t healthy. Proper trimming, pruning and fertilizing help maintain a strong tree structure that resists disease and pests. Regular inspections can spot problems before they become too serious, so that you don’t lose a healthy tree that provides privacy and property value to your home.
Many people don’t realize that trees need quite a bit of upkeep to remain healthy and long-lasting. This is why it is important to find and work with a professional tree care company. This will ensure that your trees are getting the care that they need, when they need it most.
Regular maintenance services include pruning, fertilization and pest control. Pruning is done to remove dead branches, correct structural defects and promote healthy growth. It also helps prevent damage to your property from storms and maintains safe access for pedestrians.
When performing tree pruning, it is important to avoid removing large amounts of foliage or reducing the canopy too much. This can lead to a loss of energy that will be manifested as a reduction in leaf growth or a decrease in fruit production. It is best to prune during the dormant season for most species.
The use of chemical pesticides should be limited if at all possible. Instead, it is preferable to employ other methods of pest control, such as horticultural oil or the application of insecticidal soaps.
Some other common issues that can cause your tree to suffer include:
When a limb or entire trunk of a tree falls, it can be damaging to your property or even deadly to a person standing beneath it. This is why it is important to take caution when driving near your trees, especially if they are growing close to a driveway or road. It is also important to keep your grass and other plants trimmed away from the base of your trees. Bumping into the trunk of a tree or crushing roots with lawn equipment can weaken it, causing it to lean and possibly falling over.
Routine Inspections
Just like humans, trees need regular health checkups in order to identify issues and address them before they become serious problems. During routine inspections, ISA certified arborists examine the overall condition of your property’s trees to identify signs of deterioration or disease. This allows them to take action before a problem gets out of hand and potentially saves you money in the long run by preventing the need for costly treatments or even tree removal.
In addition to identifying issues with the structure of your trees, these exams help spot early warning signs of tree disease and pest infestation. Some of the most common visual indicators include thinning or sagging canopy, discoloration of leaves, and stunted growth. By detecting and treating these issues before they worsen, your arboreal investment will last longer, improve the quality of your landscape, and contribute to overall community health.
Safety Concerns
Unhealthy trees pose a number of safety concerns, especially during severe weather conditions. Falling branches or weakened trunks can cause damage to property and injury to people. Regular inspections allow for prompt intervention, reducing the risk of these hazards and minimizing potential damage caused by storms and severe weather events.
Keeping Your Landscape Healthy
Trees are part of the landscape ecosystem and their health affects the health of other plants, animals, and microorganisms in the surrounding area. Unhealthy or dead trees can spread diseases and pest infestations to other plants, leading to a domino effect of declining landscape health and beauty. During routine inspections, ISA Certified Arborists can identify and treat diseased or infested trees before they spread their problems to the rest of your property.
Maintaining a healthy landscape is essential for both the aesthetics of your property and its value. Not only do healthy trees add a substantial amount of value to your home, they also beautify the neighborhood and save energy by providing shade. In the event that a sick or dying tree is left unattended, it can cause expensive property damage and even injury to people. By establishing a proactive care plan through routine inspections, you can preserve the value of your property and enjoy all the benefits that come with it.
Monitoring Invasive Plants and Pests
A number of pests can damage trees, including invasive species like vines and non-native flora. Monitoring for these threats and taking action quickly is essential to the health of the tree and the surrounding ecosystem. Using sound practices like regular mulching and pruning are also key to keeping insects and diseases away from the trees.
Early detection of a new invasive pest incursion enables faster response and more successful management efforts. Formal surveillance programs, such as agency-led pest detection surveys, are thus important components of domestic biosecurity programs. However, independent sources of pest detection, such as members of the public and agricultural operators, may also play a significant role.
In a study of reported detections of new invasive plants between 2010 and 2018, we analyzed the contributions of different sources to invasive plant detections, with the goal of understanding how the presence or absence of particular pests is identified and responded to. We found that 56% of the 157 total detections in the dataset were from agency-led sources, including general agency monitoring and industry inspections. In contrast, 27% of the detections were from independent sources, including residential landowners and farm and nursery operators.
Independent sources of pests were more likely to detect invasive plant species with limited distribution, whereas the majority of detected pests by agency sources were in established populations or widespread across the country. This suggests that independent sources, particularly residential landowners and agricultural operators, are more effective at detecting low-probability pests in their local environments than official surveillance programs.
In addition to monitoring for signs of infestations and diseases, it is important to monitor for abiotic stress factors that may affect your trees. For example, road side trees are prone to abiotic stress from exhaust fumes and toxic runoff, soil compaction and drought. To protect your trees, a professional can help with a variety of tasks such as soil amendments and water conservation strategies, mulching and trimming to improve airflow, and pruning to minimize structural defects. Using a tree care service is also the best way to address storm damage or to remove hazardous trees safely.
Keeping Your Tree’s Root System Healthy
Tree roots perform critical functions for the health and stability of a tree. They help absorb water, minerals and oxygen that all the other plant parts of a tree need to grow. They anchor trees in the soil and keep them upright in heavy winds.
Roots also defend trees against insects and diseases. They produce chemical compounds to prevent harmful fungi, herbivores and other plants from attacking them. However, a depleted root system is more susceptible to disease, pests and other stressors that can cause a tree to decline.
To ensure that a tree’s root system is healthy, it needs to be well-watered and have good soil conditions. Ideally, tree roots should be in a soil that is deep and wide enough to provide them with the essential resources they need to thrive. Mulching can help retain soil moisture and regulate temperature, but be careful not to pile mulch up against the trunk of a tree, as this can lead to rot. Careful planting is important as well – avoid digging large holes in the ground that might disrupt the roots of your tree, and choose plants that are easy to grow in areas with plenty of space for a healthy root zone.
Keeping your roots healthy requires long-term commitment and regular maintenance. Trees can’t survive without healthy roots, and they don’t thrive when roots are damaged. Injured roots lose their ability to collect and transport water and nutrients, which can lead to reduced growth and a weakening of the overall structure of the tree.
Root problems include root girdling, infiltration, water-logging, root rot and soil compaction. Trees can also develop structural issues like stem girdling, leaning and crown thinning due to poor root systems.
To help your trees stay strong and healthy, take some simple steps to protect and support their roots. Watch out for signs of damage, like discolored leaves or early leaf drop, and contact an ISA Certified Arborist as soon as possible. Our experts can identify the root of the problem and recommend a treatment plan to restore the health of your tree.