Deep Root Feeding for your Trees

Early spring is a great time to think about your trees’ needs for the upcoming season. Addition of a balanced, high quality fertilizer especially formulated for trees is one thing to consider.

Like other treatments for your lawn and landscape, proper timing is important. Spring and fall provide two good opportunities for fertilizing trees and other woody landscape plants. Here are a few good reasons to deep root feed:

Trees that are planted in the nutrient-poor soil typical of areas with new home construction are often good candidates for deep root feeding. During construction, nutrient-rich topsoil is often removed from the site, leaving poor subsoil. The addition of fertilizer can help assure trees’ nutrient needs are being met.

Severe defoliation the previous season due to insect or disease attack can rob trees of their food-making machinery: the leaves. Without the stored nutrients that these lost leaves would have produced, trees can show signs of stress, such as branch dieback, fewer buds or flowers, and reduced growth. Deep root feeding can help restore lost nutrients.

Trees that were planted too close together in their youth and are now struggling to compete with each other at maturity can pose a problem. When it’s not feasible in the landscape to thin the plants to allow for growth, the addition of fertilizer to keep them looking as good as possible may help.

Deep root feeding can help new plantings establish, old plants produce new buds, and can give your plants a boost when Mother Nature can’t!

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