As an arborist I have frequently been asked to “top” people’s trees. People want their trees topped for several reasons: safety concerns, vista pruning, aesthetics or height reduction. This request prompts a conversation about the practice of tree topping and the hazards associated with it.
The Late Season Blues (or Yellows or Browns)
Leaf Senescence: The Magic of Fall Color
During the growing season trees are making food through a process called photosynthesis. Isn’t that incredible - trees make their own food! (Magic.) The magic is due in part to the chlorophyll stored in each leaf, which absorbs energy from the sun to transform carbon dioxide and water into plant food (glucose) and oxygen.
The Value of Trees in the Urban Landscape
Magnolia Scale: Take a Look!
Fall Webworm In Full Effect
Preventing Tree & Property Storm Damage
Verticillium Wilt
It’s hard to miss this disease once we enter the hot dry months of summer. Without fail, each July/August I start to see trees turning brown and wilting suddenly, usually in patches within the canopy that can be traced back to entire individual limbs that have died. More dramatically, an entire tree…
Our Safe & Drug-Free Workplace
The Importance of Green Leaves
I have been noticing what I consider to be an unacceptable amount of chlorosis in urban trees around Columbus. In general, chlorosis is the yellowing of plant foliage caused by a lack of chlorophyll. This is a problem because plants depend on chlorophyll to absorb energy from sunlight and to survive. Several…
Black Knot Disease In Plum & Cherry Trees
Witch-Hazel Cone Gall
I find insects that cause galls to be really interesting. There are many different types, usually host-specific, with various shapes and sizes of galls formed. In most instances, the feeding of the insect causes an abnormal growth reaction in the plant that forms this gall where either the adult or the immature insect lives inside.
Fire Blight is No Delight
This year has been a particularly bad one for fire blight on Pear and Apple trees. Fire blight is a bacterial disease that affects plants in the Rosaceae family, causing a characteristic blackened wilting of leaves and twigs. This family of plants is also popular for its landscape value, both for flowers and fruit production. Pear, Cherry, Rose, Apple, Serviceberry, Cotoneaster, Hawthorn are just a few trees and shrubs that are very familiar to us. Have you noticed a profusion of dead, blackened leaves in your neighborhood? In your trees?
Watch out Crabapples! Apple Scab is a Major Threat!
Plant diseases love Spring! As temperatures warm and tender new growth emerges, conditions are ideal for pathogens to settle in and take up residence in our favorite trees. It is now when many plants are susceptible and treatable for diseases, such as Dothistroma needle cast of Austrian Pine, Rhizosphaera needle cast of Blue Spruce, rust diseases on hawthorn and pear, and for the purpose of this article: the aesthetically devastating apple scab on flowering crabapple.
Are Your Trees Being Suffocated By Their Own Roots?
More and more trees are growing up in confined urban environments that force their root systems to wrap around the base of the tree causing girdling roots. Girdling roots will block vital nutrients to flow to the tree's canopy which can eventually cause the tree to die. The good news: girdling roots can be fixed if caught early!
Neonicotinoid Use in Ornamental Landscape and Effects on Honeybees
Neonicotinoids are chemical products that are effective in systemic control of insect pests in plants. Systemic application of insecticide has multiple advantages over other methods, such as topical applications. When applied systemically, neonicotinoids are absorbed by the plant, and persist for a longer period of time, so that insect pests subsequently feeding on plant parts ingest the chemical and die.
Because of this mode of action, there has been concern about neonicotinoids persisting long enough to be found in plant products such as nectar or pollen, where they could be ingested by foraging bees.
20 NEED-TO-KNOW TREES BY TJ NAGEL
✅Wafer Ash
General Info
Latin Name - Ptelea trifoliata
Native Range - Ontario and New York to Florida, west to Minnesota and parts of Colorado and Arizona
Growth Rate - Medium
Mature Height - 15 – 20’
Mature Spread - 15 – 20’
Arborist Thoughts
A great native plant that can perform well in full sun to full shade, Wafer Ash is easy to grow, adaptable, and should be considered for the small landscape or as a street tree in areas with low hanging utilities.
No significant pest or disease problems
Host to Giant Swallowtail butterfly
Fruit of wafer ash has been used as a substitute for Hops and is sometimes referred to as Hoptree.
🚫Tree of Heaven
>>>DO NOT PLANT OR ALLOW TO GROW ON YOUR PROPERTY<<<
General Info
Latin Name: Ailanthus altissima
Native Range: China
Growth Rate: Fast
Mature Height: 40 – 60’
Mature Spread: 25 – 40’
Arborist Thoughts
Introduced from China in the late 1700s as a shade tree and horticultural specimen, this tree now threatens to overwhelm our native areas and landscapes.
Its ease of establishment, prolific seed production, rapid growth, absence of significant disease/pests and ability to out compete other plants with allelopathy (producing toxic compounds to poison its competition) has made it possible for Tree-of-Heaven to invade natural areas and suppress the growth of native trees.
Tree of Heaven is considered an invasive species and should be ruthlessly eliminated.
DO NOT PLANT OR ALLOW TO GROW ON YOUR PROPERTY
✅Serbian Spruce
General Info
- Latin Name - Picea omorika
- Native Range - Southeastern Europe
- Growth Rate - Slow to Medium
- Mature Height - 50–60’
- Mature Spread - 20–25’
Arborist Thoughts
- One of the most adaptable spruces and one of the most graceful and beautiful evergreen trees in general.
- An excellent evergreen tree for urban areas because of its narrower growth habit, unlike Norway spruce and White pine that can become quite wide and unruly at maturity.
- Less susceptible to insect infestation and needle cast diseases than other spruce.
- Should be considered as an alternative to using White spruce or Blue spruce in the landscape.