One of our international readers, Johannes, sent along this web site of photographs demonstrating what happens when trees meet immobile objects. The text is in German, but the photos are self-explanatory.
Unspeakeable Acts of Pruning
(Hey, I think it’s Tree Week on the GP!)
Our land has a nice buffer of big, old oaks, hickories, and maples between us and the two-lane highway. Power and phone lines thread through the middle of them. Thus, I have nightmares about orange Asplundh trucks.
So with much concern, I noted that utility crews and
subcontractors have been out in full force in our rural area,
inexplicably leaving one tree and then “pruning” another.
I pulled over and snapped this latest atrocity last night.… Continue reading this article “Unspeakeable Acts of Pruning”
Tree teaser untwisted
Once again you had some great diagnoses! The popular view was neglected staking material, and you were right:
Peter’s answer was my favorite (I love puns – the worse the better!). Tom, I hestitate to ask about your previous experience here….
As usual, thanks to all of you for playing our quiz. I’ll try to be better about doing this every Friday. Our survey results indicated you like this feature a lot.
Trees can be good plumbers
A short follow up to last weeks post on girdling roots. Just to reiterate, the point of the post was that we need to be careful not to jump to conclusions when assessing tree problems. It’s important to look beyond the first defect we see and consider additional causes. And to also reiterate, girdling roots can be a serious problem and can lead to tree failures. The photo below shows an example of tree that was both planted too deep and had stem girdling roots. … Continue reading this article “Trees can be good plumbers”
Tree teaser
Why is this western red cedar (Thuja plicata) so angry? (Hopefully you can see the two “eyes,” nose and mouth.)
Answer on Monday!
Guano
One of the best organic fertilizers out there – at least in terms of how plants respond to it — is bat guano. As most of you probably already know, bat guano is made of bat droppings. What you probably don’t realize is that bat droppings need to be aged for a while in an arid environment before they become guano. Caves provide the perfect environment for this to occur, and so that is where most bat guano comes from.… Continue reading this article “Guano”
Blog Survey Results, Part 1
I was gently reminded last week that I never published the results of our survey, asking our readers for feedback on the first full year of posting on The Garden Professors. All four of us are extremely grateful to those of you that participated, as we could use this information in our annual reporting and reviews. Thank you all for taking the time.
To keep this from being too long for our blog, I’m going to just cover the first two questions today. … Continue reading this article “Blog Survey Results, Part 1”
The Hottest Thing in…Veg!
Vegetable transplants and herbs were a bright spot last year (and the one previous) for most retail growers and independent garden centers. Seed and transplant companies have taken note – saw lots of veg and herbs at the normally-ornamental trade shows. As always, some good ideas, some a bit far-fetched…
Pelleted lettuce seed (much easier to handle) mixes for the grower to create patio-size planters. Not bad! Snipping a few leaves will be fine, but if you eat salad more than once a month, you’re gonna need a bigger pot.… Continue reading this article “The Hottest Thing in…Veg!”
Girdling roots: The source of all evil in the world?
One of the most widely discussed topics in arboriculture and tree care these days is the problem of girdling roots. Virtually every conference or workshop on tree care has a speaker or speakers on how poor planting technique or poor nursery practices lead to girdling roots and their subsequent correlation with poor tree performance, tree failures, global warming, the soaring Federal budget deficit, and the batting average of the Seattle Mariners. Before we go any further let me state categorically that I do not think girdling roots are a good thing; nor do I think any of the consequences mentioned are a laughing matter – especially the Mariners’ batting average. … Continue reading this article “Girdling roots: The source of all evil in the world?”
Sudden Death Syndrome in Soy — Biggest Threat to the Entire Food Chain?
This past week we received an interesting e-mail about something called “sudden death syndrome” which we were asked to blog about. Here’s the article we were sent. We don’t always take requests, but we thought that this was an interesting one, so we decided to write a little post about it. Sudden death syndrome is basically a fungal disease which affects the roots of soybeans. Recently there has been some press out there about how Round-up ready soybeans are particularly susceptible to this disease and that the spraying of roundup itself can lead to favorable environments for it.… Continue reading this article “Sudden Death Syndrome in Soy — Biggest Threat to the Entire Food Chain?”