Treedweller wrote:
" wrote:
Trees add so much to your landscape. Apart from the aesthetic appeal
of their beauty, they provide cooling shade for your home and garden.
A mature leafy tree can produce as much oxygen in a season as ten
people can inhale in a year.

But when trees have problems, they can be BIG problems, as these
readers discovered.

QUESTION: "We have a maple, not a silver one, that has been in the
ground maybe twenty years but still looks spindly. This spring was
hard on it and it looks half-dead. Is there anything I should do to
help it? It is in open lawn and there is no reason that I can see as
to why it is doing so poorly." - Karen Meyer

ANSWER: There are many things you can try to do as a homeowner. One
of the simplest is to fertilize the tree using a product called Jobe
tree stakes.
Directions come with it but it is as simple as pounding in the
fertilizer stakes at the drip line of the trees.

For mature trees such as the one you describe you will use three
stakes for every two inches of trunk diameter, measured at chest
height. For example, five stakes will feed a tree with a three inch
trunk diameter, and so on.
Using the plastic driving cap, tap stakes into the ground, spaced
evenly at tree's drip line. The drip line is directly below the ends
of the longest branches.

Another suggestion would be to contact an arborist in your area who
deals in larger trees. Here is a link to find one.
http://asca-consultants.org/directory/index.cfmYou can also click on
a direct link to that directory when you find this column at my Web
site,www.landsteward.org

This arborist will likely tell you to ignore the previous advice. If
he does not, find another. Fertilizing a stressed tree can cause it
to die as it spends its last remaining stored energy on a flush of new
growth in response to the nitrogen.



Where do all the forests come from I wonder... it's extremely rare
that a tree requires fertilizing, it became a tree didn't it. duh

Trees have been growing very successfully for millions and millions of
years, with no human intervention whatsoever... the only trees that
need to be fertilized (perhaps) are those being grown in a pot. Two
hundred year old trees grow very well out of little holes in urban
concrete... people carve into them, hack off their limbs, spew
endless torrents of horrid fumes at them, and no one ever waters or
fertilizes them andthey're very healthy, yet for hundreds of years
they've never seen an arborist even once... must be those dogs and
winos doing their business at their feet.

Self proclaimed arborists are forever attempting to scam products,
services, and asinine advice. A real arborist would not be posting
such fertilizer. And no one needs an expert to tell them to break out
the hose because it's not rained in a while.

Anytime you see someone holding themself up as an "arborist" that's
selling/promoting anything whatsoever that's not an arborist, that's a
charlatan.